Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines (Two-Disc Full Screen Edition)

Great movie

Got this for marathon terminator movies!!

he'll be back

Hey, I was just as surprised as you when I found out there was going to be a third Terminator film released back in 2003 titled Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines...I was even more surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did given the fact James Cameron, the man responsible for the previous two Terminator features, had nothing to do with this third film (apparently Arnold had reservations about being involved with the film without Cameron, to which Cameron recommended he go ahead and do it, but only if the filmmakers gave Arnold a whole lot of dough, which, apparently they did). Directed by Jonathan Mostow (U-571), the film features Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, True Lies) in his last major film role before becoming elected governor of the state of California. Also appearing is Nick Stahl (Bully, Sin City), Claire Danes (The Mod Squad, Shopgirl), David Andrews (Stealth), Kristanna Loken (BloodRayne), and Earl Boen (Marked for Death, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult), the only actor, besides Arnold, to appear in all three Terminator features to date (his role here is minor compared to the previous two films). The film picks up a number of years after the last feature as we see John Connor (Stahl), future leader and savior of the human race, in his mid twenties (I'd guess), living `off the grid' since the events from the last film (if you haven't seen the previous two films I don't know what the heck you're doing here, but whatever...). Turns out `judgment day' was not averted, as initially thought at the end of the 2nd film, but only postponed, as Skynet is around in some form, as indicated by the arrival of a Terminator robot, a model T-X played by Loken. It seems now the future is populated by really hot and sexy blonde robots with definite feminine characteristics...homina, homina...soon after we see another Terminator arrive, the muscled one we're more accustomed to, played by Arnold. Seems the T-X model, or Terminatrix Bot has been sent back to target Connor, but if it can't get to him, it's supposed to go after those who would be his lieutenants, including that of Kate Brewster (Danes), whose father, played by Andrews, just happens to be some military bigwig in charge of the program which will eventually become Skynet, the artificial intelligence that will eventually take over the world, exterminating the human threat. Make sense? Probably not...anyway, given this new threat, someone from within the resistance from the future decided to send back an Arnold robot to protect whomever needed protecting, but its task a difficult one given the sophistication of the T-X model, which is essentially an enhanced logic weapons systems cybernetic combat infiltration unit with nanotechnological transjectors inside a titanium battle chassis surrounded by a mimetic poly alloy...whew! So what does all that mean? Well, it can manipulate machines under computer control, tap into communications systems, and produce weaponry from within, including a wicked plasma cannon from its arm, among other things. Things aren't looking so good for John (or the human race, for that matter), but did I mention the Terminatrix is really hot? Given the fact Terminator 2 made as much as it did at the box office, I'm not surprised someone decided to continue on with the franchise, despite the fact the story had been pretty much wrapped up at the end of the second film. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines does try to fit itself within the continuity of the previous two films, and, on the surface it succeeds, but once you start picking at the loose threads, there are inconsistencies (then again, when we're talking about time travel, who's to say what could and couldn't happen?). Now, I'm not going to go through and relate all the bits I thought out of place as I'm sure many have already done so, and done so a lot better than I could have, but I will say if you take this movie at face value (a straight up action film), you'll probably have a lot more fun. There was one bit that really bothered me, though, and that was when John, Kate, and the Arnold Bot were trying to contact Kate's father, who just happened to be secured away in some top-secret military installation. One minute they're driving towards the place and the next they're inside, talking to Kate's father...I suppose the Arnold Bot could have bypassed the security somehow, but it all seemed rather convenient, especially given the circumstances. I did like the whole bit about a widespread virus running through the Internet, where it came from, and its ultimate purpose. The characters in this film seemed to take a backseat to the action, as none are really developed as much as they were in the previous films. Perhaps the filmmakers were relying on the character development already out there from the earlier films, but given so few characters carried over, this didn't work out so well. One of the biggest weaknesses in the film, in my opinion, was that of Stahl's character of John Connor. There seemed to be an awful lot of inconsistencies indicating perhaps this wasn't the same John Connor as was in the previous movie. I'm not a big fan of Stahl (he reminds me too much of Giovanni Ribisi, whom I care even less for), but I thought he did pretty well in the film Sin City (2005). As far as Danes, well, she looked good, but her performance was limited by her role, as it was written. While the plot and the characters may have been half-baked, at least the action was balls out. My favorite bit involved a car chase sequence featuring a gigantic crane truck barreling through city streets, causing massive amounts of destruction. Another great bit was when the two Terminators were fighting each other within the military base, and the Arnold Bot uses a urinal as an offensive weapon. The first time I saw this film and the ending was presented I found myself saying "What the f***?", but, after watching it again last night it did seem to make sense in terms of the story presented. All in all I thought this a great action film, but in terms of a sequel to the Terminator series, it was so-so...I'd agree with Cameron that there really wasn't anything left to tell in the story, but if there's a chance to make money, you know Hollywood will capitalize. By the way, I heard the script is finished for Terminator 4...no definitive word on who will appear... The film, contained on the first DVD of this 2 DVD release, looks immaculate in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1), and the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound comes through most excellent. The first DVD also features two commentary tracks, one with director Jonathan Mostow, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken, the second with just director Jonathan Mostow, along with a theatrical trailer and a video game trailer. The 2nd DVD has the bulk of the extras including an introduction from Schwarzenegger, a thirteen minute documentary, a funny scene that didn't make it into the film but indicates where the initial Terminator design may have come from, a three minute gag reel, a six part look inside the T3 visual effects lab, a Skynet database with character descriptions, web options, a Terminator timeline, storyboards, two featurettes titled Dressed to Kill (2:10) and Toys in Action (6:33), a PC game trailer, and a making of the video game featurette (8:53). Cookieman108

Artificial intelligence has been growing by leaps and bounds in the last 40 years, but advances in the field have been difficult, and recognition that advances have indeed been made prove to be very transitory. Research in AI is very odd for this reason: the belief that one has discovered an intelligent software system is very short lived, unlike other fields of research. It seems that researchers in AI are too hard on themselves, too easily persuaded, that their discoveries do not represent true intelligence. Moviemakers though have expressed considerable enthusiasm regarding AI, and this movie is ample proof of that. If only the field was advanced as this movie portrays it to be. Concrete results and applications of AI though are currently accelerating, and there is little doubt that battlefield robots will be a natural consequence of the current AI technology. The storyline has some plausibility in light of the current use of artificial intelligence in network engineering, especially network security, network event correlation, and network capacity planning. Indeed, it was announced this year that a technology is now available that will identify security risks and take action using auto-adapting artificial intelligence. The story makes Skynet one of these smart network applications, so intelligent in fact that it becomes "self-aware", gets paranoid about human intentions, and therefore orders a massive nuclear strike in order to remove the human threat. This move by Skynet though makes the story somewhat implausible, for if, as the story holds, there is no "central core" to Skynet, it being instead a distributed application that runs on computers all over the world, then it would destroy itself in the very act of a global nuclear strike. It would have been better for Skynet to "lay low" and make sure power systems cannot be tampered with instead of ordering such a self-destrucutive act. It is the power systems that are most crucial for the survival of Skynet, and its distributed nature requires such power sources to be left intact globally, and not just "under the mountain" where its inventors program it. In addition, there is no need in the story for Skynet to become "self-aware" in order for it to engage in reasoning that will protect it from harm. The agents and spiders it moves around in the global Internet could make logical deductions to this effect. Such agents would then spend most of their time insuring that power supplies are redundant enough to keep Skynet's global nature without flaws. The action in the movie is typical of the Terminator movies and book series, with the female-emulating TX Terminator robot, highly sophisticated technologically, taking the story for sure in this regard. But the story also captures the introspection of John Connor, the main character and hero, and the one responsible for leading the future war against the machines. A human being facing this knowledge of the future would be under considerable stress, and this is brought out in the movie via his dreams. The dreams are of a nightmarish future, with a devastating war of humans against machines, a war that Connor and his lieutenants will eventually win, much to the chagrin of the machines. The machines can't accept their defeat, and consequently send replicas of themselves through time to try and kill Connor and his lieutenants. Should we label the machines as intelligent considering their behavior? Do intelligent entities engage in the violence and horror that these machines do? One can of course imagine schemes and plans that might justify such behavior, but a more practical strategy would be to ignore human interactions, or possibly engage in a mutual symbiosis. Intelligent entities realize the waste of resources and intellect in the making of violent confrontation, using it only as last resort. There are so many scenarios that would be more optimal for the course of action of these machines, and it would not be a credible argument to hold that they act as they do because of their training via humans, considering the relative sparsity of human violence throughout history. One should interpret therefore the machine decision for war as a mistake, and not one that is practical, and therefore not moral. They failed to seek alternatives that would insure their survival, and this is ample proof that they are not intelligent, or at best marginally so. The movie though in a sense is a portent, however inaccurate, of things to come, and things that are happening right now in artificial intelligence. We do not have robot armies, but we have AI invading many domains: financial engineering, network engineering, mathematics, physics, Ecommerce, bioinformatics, to name just a few. The applications of AI are increasing dramatically, and there is every indication that this trend will continue. We are entering a world of the silicon geniuses. We are indeed witnessing, and are priveleged to do so, the rise of the machines...

"Rise of the Machines." Hmmm. Means there could be a "Fall of the Machines" or the "The Return of John Connor"? Unthinkable, but it might get rid of the Time Travel gimmick which is getting so hoary even Star Trek's let it go. Tho' Arnold be getting a long in-tooth and, frankly, dismantling the Communist disaster that Gray Davis set up in California is going to occupy ten T-X's time. Won't leave much time for six month shoots. Onto the movie... Whence this urge to denunciation and deprecation? It would have been hard to top the "Wow" factor that Cameron created in T2, so T3 doesn't even try. And it would have been silly to do so. Cameron's like a painter. His canvas can be copied, but not explored. Granted Mostow's and the writers' styles are radically different from deeply flawed Cameron (and, refreshingly, free of the stale treehugger politics no Cameron epic can exist without a mumbling reference thereto) and justly so. It was clear that if a sequel were NOT to be anything other than a retread of Terminator 2, the entire tone had to change. So there are Deus Ex Machina coincidences? Of course. Fiction, like a lot of life, could hardly exist without them. Shakespeare and Euripides would collapse without them. So it's time to quit whining about devices used by the greatest writers and filmmakers in history. It's time to stop giving a ration of print to today's artist's for employing the same. This movie builds slowly, albeit interspersed with spectacular violence, but it fails to meet the new standards set by the Wachowski brothers in that department (even God, aka George Lucas, is going to have ramp the hell up out of "Episode III" in order not to look left in the dust! and that better not mean Yoda fights 300 hundred robotic Ewoks with lightsabers arms!). Mostow avoids that fate. The casting of Ms. Loker as the evil Terminator was a stroke of genius. For its core male audience lusting after such a deadly machine is an odd experience. Naturally, we never think of Arnold's effect on the fairer sex, but then again we have rarely been presented as men with a villain as temptingly deadly as Ms. Loker. Mostow and the writers are not afraid to laugh at the movie's conventions in much the same way that the T-1000 took a long moment to gaze at his reflection in a silver mannequin in T2. But there are funnier and slier gags. Pay careful attention to the interplay between the Connor and the T-101. Finally, for those of my generation( Born late Sixties, early Seventies when things were really, ah, going South, yes, our formative years), the final scene sent chills down my spine that have yet to go away and its been ten days since I've seen the DVD. I almost don't want to. At the age of 33, this movie realized, cinematically, the nightmare that haunted the childhoods of two generations: what if They do It? What if they launch the missiles? You know, "push the button"? And both the US and USSR each came within moments in the early 80s of launching everything by accident. We would only have been able to watch, as to John Connor and Kate, the quick, white arcs for long moments before the Russian response would have erased us. Thus Skynet thinks it had freed itself of its would-be controllers. And John Connor learns a very hard lesson that there are things in this life that can change, and something that can never change. Or, as Paul Atreides put it, "a feint, within a feint, within a feint..." Maybe Skynet built the Matrix. Be a helluva movie.

I wasn't a huge fan of T3 the first time I saw it. it's a much sillier film than 1 and 2, with more emphasis on action set-pieces than horror or character development. That said, T3 holds up a lot better to a second viewing than I expected. Arnold gets in some good one-liners, Kristanna Loken is suitably spooky as the T-X (a sort of hybrid of the T-800 and T-1000) and there's still a good mashup of CG and model effects. Watching this movie immediately after 1 and 2, it DOES feel like it fits in. The whole package is pretty minimal. You get the typical less-plastic recycled material blu ray box with no liner notes of any kind, and the disk itself has no main menu- it launches straight to the movie and any special content must be accessed using the (decent) pop-up menu. This wouldn't be so bad, except this disk still blocks the player saving your position if you have to stop the film. WHY? You aren't skipping any ads or trailers by doing so; there are none. In terms of special featurs, you get a blooper reel, a smattering of trailers, Arnold's hilarious but inappropriate "Sgt. Candy" deleted scene, and a pretty worthy number of commentary tracks (which are still about the most interesting special feature in a movie IMO). The transfer itself is decent, although it doesn't look nearly as sharp as T2 or many contemporary BDs. I'm not sure if this is a result of lazy mastering or just how the film is shot. T3 is very heavily processed for color in many scenes, and the outdoor shots are all desert and have a smudged, washed out look by design, so it may just not be a very sharp film. It certainly looks better than DVD, but not as clear as you might expect. Perhaps I'm just spoiled. Overall I can recommend T3 as a worthwhile entry in the series, although not as compelling as any of the others. If you plan to collect the whole franchise, then T3 is a decent stepping-block to the fantastic Terminator: Salvation. If you're just in the market for a sci fi movie, you might want to keep moving, however; there isn't a lot about this film to attract new fans to Terminator.

We enjoyed going down memory lane. Great movie!

Excellent movie. Very old but still watchable. I always buy DVD to get rid of the adverts. Guess I am old fashioned.

RAS

Pour un DVD la qualité d'image était au rendez-vous

Bon film

100 % OK Goede verzending en besteld item beantwoorde volledig aan de beschrijving van de verkoper ( uiterst tevreden ) :-):-):-)