The saga of “Terminator” has always been surrounded by a kind of unhealthy flirtation in Hollywood. “Hey, Arnie, how about ‘Terminator 3’?” was a constant refrain. The aging Austrian would immediately pick up the tone: “Call Jim, he promised to deal with his ships and icebergs and get down to business.” “Mr. Cameron, what are your plans for the future? Are you planning to shoot ‘Terminator 3’?” – “I don’t know, I don’t know. I have a lot of interesting ideas now that I would like to work on first.” And then, finally, rumors began to spread through the studios: the explosive duo of Kassar and Vajna were plotting something.
It is worth clarifying the role of these two in the epic. Having founded “Carolco Pictures” in 1982, they gave life not only to the killer robot, but also to such odious characters as John Rambo and the universal soldier Jean-Claude Van Damme. Under their powerful wing, in addition to Cameron, such iconic figures as Oliver Stone, Franco Zeffirelli, Roland Emmerich, Renny Harlin, Walter Hill and Roger Spottiswoode worked. Strictly speaking, they introduced the fashion for muscular guys with bare torsos and automatic weapons on the crook of their elbows, and it was the decline of this fashion, along with global warming of the international climate, that led them to bankruptcy. Weak attempts to find new topics led to the fact that two consecutive failed projects of the studio – “Showgirls” and “Cutthroat Island” – buried “Carolco”, and with it – albeit a small one, but an era in American cinema.
And now Kassar and Vajna are back in business. The name of the new company “C2”, a similar logo clearly hints: they are back! Five years after their seemingly irreversible transformation into political corpses and ten years after the triumph of “Terminator 2”. Having become famous in the past for their insatiable ambitions, easy attitude to money and intransigence bordering on stubbornness, they began to selflessly play the old play according to the then still dusty and moth-eaten notes.
Jim Cameron is breaking down, wants creative freedom, the right of final cut, a percentage of the box office and the transfer of rights to all sequels to him? And who is he, actually? How did you say – the director of the highest-grossing film in history? That’s great, he doesn’t really need money, so let him look for a quieter job. And we will take a more compliant guy in his place, even if he is not such a star, so much the better – he will work not out of fear, but out of conscience. Edward Furlong has grown up and wants a sum with seven zeros as a fee, plus a percentage of the box office? What does he think of himself – decided that he is Tom Cruise?! We will take any other more or less pretty snotty kid in his place, from those who knock on the doors of casting agencies by the hundreds, you can even completely unknown. And tell the journalists that Furlong is an alcoholic and drug addict, and we cannot put the fate of the project at the mercy of his doctors. Let everyone see what those who want too much and immediately get. Hint to Mr. Cigarette Smoker that, if anything, there is a candidate for his role no worse: with the same muscles, but twice as young. Endless auditions did not stop even at night.
Just as intense behind-the-scenes fuss was going on on the opposite flank: screenwriters and artists were hired and fired, additional funds were raised, already finished sets and props were being cut, pavilions were rented and idle, the script itself was rewritten several times every day. The improvised competition in numbers between the teams of producers and screenwriters was going on with varying success, reminiscent of seven nannies. Expenses exceeded 50 million, and not a single shot had yet been taken, and Schwarzenegger was the only one left from the original cast, even Linda Hamilton was not taken on board. Putting all these body movements together and looking at the resulting picture, moviegoers and film critics gave the project a unanimous verdict: the patient is more dead than alive. The worst was expected from the premiere.
The more pleasant it was to be wrong. The film is easy to watch, but at the same time it does not allow you to relax, keeps you in suspense, sometimes requiring a certain amount of attention. Despite the seeming frivolous treatment of the original source, sometimes turning into outright sarcasm, fidelity to traditions is paramount. Like the first two films, structurally “Terminator 3” is a classic “road” movie, a road movie, heartily diluted with shootings, fights, chases and explosions. I will say more: the plot is so close to the second part that it can safely claim the title of both sequel and remake at the same time, although the final surprise makes you regretfully abandon this tempting thought.
Humor and Tone
Someone will say that the screenwriters went too far with humor. Indeed, starting from the first shots of the appearance of both robots in our present, the level of irony (and self-irony) reaches almost comedic heights. This irony is sometimes straightforward, sometimes it will be clear only to true fans of the now trilogy, or to the most responsible viewers who bothered to rewatch the second part before going to the third. By the finale, however, the atmosphere clearly darkens, breaking down in the last shots into complete hopelessness, illuminated only by an obvious application for another sequel. The film as a whole makes a very monolithic and voluminous impression, which is surprising against the background of its creation story.
Action and Visuals
There are no complaints about the action scenes, everything is done to the highest standard, as in the good old days. Relying largely on Cameron’s characteristic style, Jonathan Mostow, who is far from a novice in his field, relied on sets, pyrotechnics and virtuoso editing, turning to pure “digital” only in those places where it was inevitable, and he did not miscalculate: the most incredible shots, where a heavy crane rushes at breakneck speed through the city, smashing everything around it to smithereens, were filmed with minimal use of computer graphics, and therefore look very realistic. The only weak spot, in which, again, Cameron is traditionally strong, is the coherence and clarity for the viewer of some particularly chaotic scenes, for the detailed storyboarding of which, it seems, in this case, time and money were spared. There is also no special point in finding fault with the acting, especially since everything is quite good in this direction: the lines of relationships between John Connor and Kate Brewster, as well as between T-101 and T-X, develop harmoniously, in full accordance with the director’s intention. And although the picture does not reach the preceding canvases of Cameron (and who expected otherwise?), its independence and intrinsic value does not cause any doubts.
Final Thoughts
In any case, the time spent watching the new adventures of the terminators should in no case be considered wasted.
The desire to pick up scissors and cut out this or that episode arises extremely rarely, viewers watch the development of events with interest and do not want to sleep at all. This summer it’s a rare success.