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Review of T3: Rise of the Machines

The Terminator movie series offers explosions and cyborgs galore, but you knew that already. Guns too, and cool special effects involving R-rated nude people in electrified spheres, but you probably guessed that too. So you've seen the trailer and are wondering whether "T3: Rise of the Machines" is worth seeing. Short answer: eh, whatever, it's big and dumb. For the long answer, keep reading. (No real spoilers.)

Let me first draw your attention to CNN's review. The CNN reviewer tells you this "darker and slicker" sequel is "worth the wait," gives you the long-form plot setup, shows you the sexy look of the "babe-a-licious" babe, and promises you "emotional weight" with "wit" and a "stunning and thought-provoking" climax. What he doesn't mention is that CNN and the movie's producer/distributor are both owned by AOL Time Warner.

It's been ten years since I watched the first Terminator and maybe I'm remembering it better than it was. But it had an emotional depth, a heart that neither of its sequels matched. T3 is slicker, yes, but darker!? It's light fluff. The nightmare of nuclear destruction in the original was rendered without CG effects, but I'll remember the skeleton clutching the chain-link fence long after I've forgotten this week's pixel-perfect explosions. And the "storm is coming" ending of the original was genuinely thought-provoking, with a chilling resolve that just embarrasses this week's Hollywood ending. Claire Danes is no Linda Hamilton.

The effects are what you'd expect from a modern zillion-dollar action movie, but not groundbreaking the way that T2's were at the time.

I found nothing about it witty. I chuckled through the chase scenes -- it's mostly chase scenes -- because they were so over-the-top and the plot holes were so glaring. Apart from that, there was only one funny line. (I assume everyone else is as bored as I am with the "dry cool wit like that" dialogue.)

Best unintentionally funny line: "I've got enough C-4 to blow up ten supercomputers!"

Best unintentionally funny visual: tie between fumble for the car keys, and offscreen killing sprays blood across photo.

Dumbest joke: gratuitous mocking of effeminate guy.

Best absurd effect: missile blows apart the wall in a small office ten feet from our heroes, they avoid injury by diving to floor. Duck and cover!

Best plot hole: Terminatrix's chronic failure to remember that she can run fast.

Heavy on the exposition, light on brains and heart, forgettable. See it if you really jones for big trucks smashing stuff. If you just have to see a movie, see "28 Days Later" instead. Rated R, not recommended for anyone whose mental age matches their valid ID.

731 comments

  1. Hopes it worth it.. by dark3r · · Score: 0

    I'm going to go see it today. I hope it's worth the money I spend. I don't think it'll be as good as the other two simply due to the lack of personnel on this film when compared to the other two. Where the hell is Edward Furlong anyway? I bet he needs the work.

    1. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by phillymjs · · Score: 4, Informative

      Where the hell is Edward Furlong anyway? I bet he needs the work.

      According to IMDB's T3 trivia page, they wanted Furlong to reprise the John Connor role, but he was too drug-addled to do it.

      I haven't seen him in anything good in years, so he probably wanted to do it (especially since it's the role that made him famous) but they probably didn't want to gamble on him going off on a bender in the middle of production.

      ~Philly

    2. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by ThatDamnMurphyGuy · · Score: 1

      No Eddie Furlong huh....well, I'll take T3 over this.

      The Crow was the best of them....2 was bearable, 3 was cruel and unusual punishment. The thought of a 4th makes me plead for mercy.

    3. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by praxim · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, five years at least- he was in American History X.

    4. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by rowdent · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Anybody else think that Nick Stahl looks like Alexander Siddig (Bashir from Deep Space Nine)?

      --
      "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." --George Orwell
    5. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by HungWeiLo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Even though it didn't take too much to do it, I doubt Edward Furlong would have the right mix of pathos and maturity in his delivery to pull off what is needed here - John Connor is now washed up, having given up his supposed "destiny," sort of like a spiraling downwards alcoholic.

      Although he did show much promise in American History X alongisde Edward Norton. But I heard he was too much of a cokehead to do anything worthwhile anymore.

      --
      There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
    6. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by Bowdie · · Score: 1

      Yes! Thank you! I was starting to think I was the only one who thought that!

      --
      yes, www.dotcomforwardslash.com is my real URL.
    7. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by ralphus · · Score: 1

      That's a shame to hear he has a drug problem. I didn't know that. He was absolutely brilliant in John Watters' Pecker though.

      --
      Revolutions are never about freedom or justice. They're about who's going to be top dog. -- Kilgore Trout
    8. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shit, I thought he was the woman in the Matrix, until I discovered Trinity was actually a woman. I don't know what this means....

    9. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      'Nuff Said.

      Stahl looks "straight out of Bajor"
      with that Siddig look.

    10. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The latest netcraft study reports that jamie is a girl, so we praise her [in hopes that she'll date some or all of us].

    11. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by PovRayMan · · Score: 1, Funny

      According to that IMDB trivia page ...

      "Former WWF wrestler Chyna was originally slated to play the Terminatrix"

      Thank you cast directors! I would NOT want to see her naked rear when she first arrives in the past (the movie's present).

    12. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't know punishment until you see Hellraiser 3 or The Fly 2.

    13. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by neema · · Score: 4, Funny

      Furlong has a drug problem? Oh, come on, that's such bullshit! I mean, what kind of proof is there for that? Nothing, that's what!

    14. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

      Why would you go to see it if the reviews suck? Is this uncritical sfx movie going the reason why Hollywood keeps cranking out such abominable sequential shite?

      If we don't even boycott these craptastic celluloid insults, why would they ever change?

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    15. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you see Moulin Rouge or Punch Drunk Love?

      It's like going to the dentist and not having novicaine.

    16. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by welthqa · · Score: 1

      i didnt' even know there was a part 2, let alone part 3. that movie sucked. only people who liked wore long sleeve fishnet shirts and listened to the cure.
      you got your change and receipt, now get out of hot topic so i can buy my sealab shirt, you monkey.

      --


      100% Pure Evil With The Look And Feel Of Wholesome Goodness
    17. Re:Hopes it worth it.. by digtl88 · · Score: 1

      Well it would have been cool if Edward Furlong could have been in the film. As for China though, yikes, i don't want to see that either.

  2. Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Any more, it seems they ruin perfectly good movies with excessive bad content. I mean, does nudity enhance the movie at all? It could be just as good of a movie and be rated PG.

    1. Re:Ruined by sexmachine1066 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Anon Coward must be a female. :)

    2. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes Mr. Scrunchy McPrude, it does.

    3. Re:Ruined by sexmachine1066 · · Score: 0, Redundant

      What does? And what the hell does Scrunchy McPrude mean? It seems to suggest that I am a "prude." I am baffled, as your original statement stank of "prude." Good comeback though. Really.

    4. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoa! Hang on a sec. What's more plausible in todays society? An R-rating for violence and killing, or an R-rating for coming back from the future in the nude?

      In any case they gave a reasonably rational explanation of it in the second film; only beings with human tissue on the outside could travel back in time (yeah, I'm intentionally ignoring the T1000).

      Personally I reckon it's cos there were no cows in the future to make into leather jackets, but there you go...

    5. Re:Ruined by hhnerkopfabbeisser · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Some poeple in the US tend to be a little to uptight about this.
      I mean, there is nudity in reality, so why shun it from a movie? A bit of realism in movies doesn't hurt, it's not like you'd want to remove the blood and noise from Saving Private Ryan and show it to your children.
      I always find it hilarious when movies obviously avoid nudity at all cost, which is no problem for a movie that was meant to be hilarious in the first place, but would really destroy the experience of most movies for me.

      As far as I know, most nude-scenes are cut out anyway for the US-versions.

      Actually, in europe, we regard violence in movies as more harmful to young people than nudity, so even without a single nude scene, it wouldn't ever be rated what we call equivalent to PG.
      Remove the violence, leave the nudes, and it would be a perfect PG over here. (this may not apply to all of Europe, but at least significant parts)

      You have your opinion about nudes, however many (or most?) people don't mind, and movies are not produced for you alone. Live with it.

    6. Re:Ruined by EvilAlien · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Why does everyone get so uptight about nudity? Its not a big deal. In case you've been living in a bubble, people get naked every day. Golly, some of them even have sex... I bet there are people who are naked and/or having sex right now! Its 2003, isn't it time we grew up as a society and stopped being such prudes?

      As far as plot justification goes (I haven't seen the movie yet) there is an existing explanation for why the time travellers need to go sans-clothing. As far as I'm concerned, a movie that gets rated PG means the director/script-writer pulled punches and sacrificed content so the uptight censorship idiots won't get their chastity belts in a knot. The real world features violence, nudity, sex, offensive language and concepts. Deal with it... there is no reason to sanitize and dumb down a story so that the over-sensitive can handle it.

      --
      perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
    7. Re:Ruined by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't think the nudity per se is the issue for a lot of people, it's the pandering aspect. What T&A says to the audience is "this is meant for horny straight males - anyone else is just tolerated here." AKA, the E3 effect.

      The straight male desire assumption (when it shouldn't be necessary in works with more universal appeal - erotica/porn is another question) is more offensive to me than depictions of sex or incidental nudity.

    8. Re:Ruined by Leahar · · Score: 1

      it enchances porn.

      --
      Roses are Red Violates are Blue im not very good a poetry but i have many other redeming qualitys
    9. Re:Ruined by CakerX · · Score: 0

      that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

      so you assume all nudity in movies is to appease the strait male audiance????

      There is such thing as artistic nudity, and even if it isn't, your purposly head hunting because someone with the "horny strait male" identification, pissed you off somewere along the line, so everything is his fault.

      grow the fuck up

    10. Re:Ruined by hhnerkopfabbeisser · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I haven't seen T3 yet, but Arnie had nudes in both T1 and T2, I don't see why a female Terminator should arrive with chastity belt, spiky bra and veil.

      Actually, in my expierience, movies that rely on their babe-factor (like, hm, Tomb Raider?) don't have nudes, because they are aimed at twelve year olds.

      I don't remember having seen a movie that used nudes to attract horny male viewers in the mainstream. Near-nudes, yes, but nudes? If I just forgot about them, because seing someone nude in a movie isn't something I remember for the rest of my life, please enlighten me.

    11. Re:Ruined by usotsuki · · Score: 1

      Any more, it seems they ruin perfectly good movies with excessive bad content. I mean, does needless gore and/or crude humor enhance the movie at all? It could be just as good of a movie and be rated PG.

      (I altered the text. See above.)

      On the other hand, T3 was pretty good. But the tongue-DNA-sampling bit was certainly gratuitous.

      -uso.

      --
      Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
    12. Re:Ruined by usotsuki · · Score: 1

      There was a lot of use of artistic nudes in Sailor Moon that was axed from the dub.

      -uso.

      --
      Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
    13. Re:Ruined by Larsing · · Score: 1

      You want a liberal market economy?

      Horny straight men have more money!

      You can't both have the cake and eat it...

      --
      Ethics is what you say you do. Morals is what you actually do.
    14. Re:Ruined by claude_juan · · Score: 1

      please. have you even seen the movie? you and everyone like you jump to these conclusions. he gets beamed back from time and yes, she arrived nude. but she is crouched down and her hair covers her breasts. the only "nudity" you see is her naked butt.

      on the other hand, arny arrives in much the same way (as he did in the first 2) and gets much more ogling from characters in the film. thats all for nudity.

      grow up.

    15. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you seen the original Terminator? Obviously not. The scenes following Arnold's appearance in the nude are some of the best. Particularly when he punches his fist into a guys chest and rips his heart out. Would have been hard to have that scene in there if he showed up fully clothed in that he was after the victims' clothing.

    16. Re:Ruined by radoni · · Score: 1

      you haven't seen "unfaithful" then. awful, just ... awful. i'm the type who usually watches a movie instead of making out with the DS (yes, i watched "the first $20 million" last night, wonderful!). for "unfaithful" it was like watching an oozing growing yeast infection on the 20' screen. naked people, kissing, sex, one dimensional plot! i see bits of motorcyclists here and there on the interstate, which isn't nearly as much of a turn-off as watching gratuitous mushy np/k/s/odp. i hope there's a remake of T3 using chicken wire and a dildo, maybe even special effects rendered on a c128. the only way i'd go see it is if there's no nipples showing anywhere (exception being arnold's nipples; they have always been on screen 'cause they are hard to hide). bad... need therepy now...

      --
      SIGERR: laziness exceeds quota
    17. Re:Ruined by krusadr · · Score: 1

      " I bet there are people who are naked and/or having sex right now!" Nah, pretty unlikely, theres only about 4 billion people in the world - hardly likely any of them are at it.

      --
      while sco {
      wget -O /dev/null http://www.sco.com?sco=litigious%20bastards
      }
    18. Re:Ruined by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm distinguishing between the nudity and the pandering; you obviously can have either without the other. It's the promise of nudity, rather than the delivery of it, that secures the eyeballs of the teen male demographic (obviously, they need to stay within ratings limits to get that demographic.) My issue is with the selective representation of desire, and the way it creates a "canonical" audience when there isn't any call for it. Some films do have a reason for a canonical audience (Porky's, for example, or even American Pie); for others, it's unnecessary. This translates to games, as well.

      Oddly enough, I'm more patient with Tomb Raider per se because I think the cheesecake factor is part of its raison d'etre, rather than being a gratuitous add-on.

      I haven't seen T3, so I'm making a bit of a prediction: that the nudity of the Terminatrix was filmed in a far, far different way than the nudity of male terminators was. If you take a lot of these movies and invert the genders - not just for the story line, but for the way they're filmed, the way that the figure of the woman as an object of desire is portrayed in a way that most males would never accept a man being portrayed - you'd see what I mean.

      The odd thing about a lot of Japanese anime and game culture is that they sometimes play with this sort of asymmetry of desire with gender-flipping plots and ambiguous characters, as if the artists are chafing at the market constraints and subtly undermining them. Think of "Bridget" from Guilty Gear XX, or Ranma...

    19. Re:Ruined by Rude-Boy · · Score: 2, Funny

      "English motherfucker, do you speak it?"

    20. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, in europe, we regard violence in movies as more harmful to young people than nudity...

      Perhaps this is the reason why Europe has a more refined prostitution industry with slaves from eastern Europe working their asses (should it be pussies?) off for nothing?

    21. Re:Ruined by The+Only+Druid · · Score: 4, Funny

      For the record, you can clearly see the T1000's penis on arrival in the 20th century, at the beginning of T-2. If you've got the DVD, check it out.

      This was the source of quite a bit of humor last time I watched the movie; a bunch of us were just back in from the bars, and we popped the movie in. Normally, everyone would pass out within the first half hour of the movie at 3am, but we were all laughing so much when one of the girls pointed out the T-1000's penis that we watched the whole thing.

      Great movie though, of course.

      --
      "Stumble before you crawl"
    22. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Movies != Real world

      This is debated to be a reson why sex, violence, and drug use exist in our society. Impressionable people seem to beleive that if it makes a movie star glamourous then how could it not do the same for them. I'm not saying that I would want nudity, violence, sex, etc. to go away. I just want movies to stop being compared to real life.

    23. Re:Ruined by hhnerkopfabbeisser · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm white with you on the pandering. Although I am way less offended by it, it tends to be used mainly in movies that have no substance or anything else that I could enjoy, thereby making watching these movies a waste of time (unless you do it with friends so you can make jokes about it, which works for most bad flicks).

      I don't think the nude scene of the Terminatrix differs that much from Arnie's nudes. Sure, I guess we get to see her breasts, but neither her vagina nor his penis. Breasts are just too difficult to hide without making the scene look really awkward.

      And if the Terminatrix walks into a pub naked, I doubt people will laugh at her and use her as an ashtray like they did with Arnie. She will of course be an object of desire for all men who see her. But what would you expect if a woman like this enters a room naked? It is just realistic, so I have no problem with it.

    24. Re:Ruined by ATMAvatar · · Score: 1

      I haven't seen T3, so I'm making a bit of a prediction: that the nudity of the Terminatrix was filmed in a far, far different way than the nudity of male terminators was.

      Nope, not really. As per the rules of time travel given by the first Terminator, both machines were sent naked. From there, the first mission for both was to find clothes - the female found them on a woman across the street, and Arnold found his on a male stripper in a nude bar near where he appeared.

      Both were nude for only as long as it took to find a matching set of clothes and take them from whoever was wearing them.

      --
      "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
    25. Re:Ruined by hhnerkopfabbeisser · · Score: 1

      Maybe it is also the reason why our murder rate is so incredibly much lower than yours.

      There's a dark side to everything.

    26. Re:Ruined by hhnerkopfabbeisser · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      > If Europe is so damn great

      You said that, not me. I was mere pointing out differences.

      > why is it then you all want to goto school here

      Your school system does have some advantages over ours, at least when it comes to making the best out of talented people. Over here, we tend to care more about giving everyone a decent education.
      And of course improving your skill in foreign languages and broadening your horizon by seeing other countries is considered "good" over here.

      > you all want to move here

      Do we? Why didn't I notice that Europe is deserting?

      > etc etc..

      The virtues of capitalism do have it's appeal. That doesn't mean that capitalism doesn't have it's drawbacks.

      > stop being so petty. We are better than you..

      Ah yes, the sign of someone who will never learn, neither from your own mistakes, nor from anybody elses mistakes. Terrific.

    27. Re:Ruined by sebmol · · Score: 1

      Nah, they don't necessarily have more money per capita. There are just significantly more in number that makes up for it. It's the same reason why almost all mainstream movies tend to center around white people: they are just a bigger audience to market to.

      --
      "Light is faster than sound." - "Is that why people tend to look bright until you hear them speak?"
    28. Re:Ruined by M3wThr33 · · Score: 1

      The USA culture is a very different society. They want a lot more things than Europeans or the Japanese. Nintendo's ex-president recently gave an interview detailing how violence is something that is more accepted in the USA(GTA, Mortal Kombat) and that in Japan games take on a much lighter note.

      Now, I'm a Mario fan, through and through, and I enjoy GTA3 as well, but it disheartens me when Americans dismiss a video game completely on the merits of if you get to beat someone up or not. I'm in college to become a game developer, and I want people to like my games. I just hope I can make something that the USA will like without having gratuitous amounts of blood.

      HomestarRunner.com is a good example of how a non-violent medium can attract people, I just hope it goes that way more in the future.
      (And yes, I know that GTA was made overseas in Europe)

    29. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      This is debated to be a reson why sex, violence, and drug use exist in our society.

      I'm pretty sure I know why sex exists in our society... dumbass.

    30. Re:Ruined by ax_42 · · Score: 1



      Pretty ironic comment from somebody who'se slashdot name translates to "I bite heads off chickens" :)

    31. Re:Ruined by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 1

      "it's not like you'd want to remove the blood and noise from Saving Private Ryan and show it to your children"

      But that's exactly what those Salt Lake City dudes wanted to do.

      graspee

    32. Re:Ruined by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 1

      " There was a lot of use of artistic nudes in Sailor Moon that was axed from the dub."

      The English dub maybe, but not the incredibly faithful German dub.

      graspee

    33. Re:Ruined by Rai · · Score: 4, Funny

      I've noticed that most of the anti-nudity holier-than-thou crowd in America are people you wouldn't want to see naked anyway.

    34. Re:Ruined by mshiltonj · · Score: 1

      I mean, does nudity enhance the movie at all?

      Yes.

    35. Re:Ruined by stephanruby · · Score: 1
      Please see the movie, *then* complain about the nudity. There is only about 2 seconds of nudity and about 1 hour and 48 minutes of violence.

      Get your priorities straight.

    36. Re:Ruined by Datoyminaytah · · Score: 1

      You forgot to say "Apologies to George Carlin". ;)

      --
      assert(birth_date<time-86400)
    37. Re:Ruined by usotsuki · · Score: 1

      Which German dub? :p Weren't there two of them?

      I'd kill to see it, I have the original (all 200 eps and the movies but not the mini-movie or SS special) in Japanese.

      BTW if you have the Pioneer DVD, I think it's intact on DVD :o

      -uso.

      --
      Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
    38. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      woman enters a room naked? It is just realistic

      You mean, the whole scene explodes into one happy Miller Lite commercial? I haven't seen the movie yet...

    39. Re:Ruined by ErikZ · · Score: 1

      Well, She arrived in a CLOTHING STORE with the ability to morph into any set of clothes she wished.

      Face it, terminators just like walking around butt naked.

      --
      Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
    40. Re:Ruined by Rai · · Score: 1

      Sorry for modifying your abortion joke, George.

    41. Re:Ruined by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 1

      The Japanese sound on the Pioneer DVD really sucks. The English one is high quality and the Japanese one is very low quality, unfortunately.

      There was only one German dub as far as I know.

      You'd kill to see what? The German dub??

      graspee

    42. Re:Ruined by Zathras11 · · Score: 1

      Like Donna Rice (Monkey Business) and Bo Derek (10)?

    43. Re:Ruined by mitheral · · Score: 1

      If only because I don't want to see most people naked regardless of what broad group they may belong to.

    44. Re:Ruined by usotsuki · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the German dub. (The one, anyway, that made it past Queen Beryl.)

      BTW I didn't have any problems with the sound in the Japanese version on the DVDs. Then again I feed the sound into a 1984-vintage CVS monitor (!) with a stereo-to-mono adaptor.

      Nowhere near theater sound.

      -uso.

      --
      Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
    45. Re:Ruined by rworne · · Score: 1

      You may find it interesting to know that in T1 there was an Arnold "weenie shot". Evidently he's better endowed than most, or the night wasn't all that cold, 'cause he was flappin out of the shadow just before the "wash day, nothing to wear" scene.

      Frightening to think of what a Terminator would do with it. The female counterpart in Kei Mizutani's Terminatrix had a clever use for her naughty bits.

      --
      I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
    46. Re:Ruined by Aneurin · · Score: 1

      Seems to me that the director needs to get his straight!

    47. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Poof!

    48. Re:Ruined by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      Good. At least I am not the only one who doesn't know what a "DS", an "np", a "k", an "s", an "odp", and a "c128" means?

    49. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your assumption that the movie has such a selective audience is annoying. And the fact that it only points to straight males it idiotic. On any board in theater and film the members are mainly homosexual. And there is no doubt that this move had many homosexual members making huge decisions about the movie. The idea that they would stand up and say, "This movie should target straight males" is moronic.

    50. Re:Ruined by Finuvir · · Score: 1
      For the record, you can clearly see the T1000's penis on arrival in the 20th century, at the beginning of T-2. If you've got the DVD, check it out.

      Also the T-800's penis is visible at the beginning of The Terminator. It verifies Arnohld's story about why he started in body-building. He was, according to him, standing naked in the bathroom when he was fifteen and looked in the mirror. He looked down and realised that he wasn't in proportion, so he started body-building to bring the rest of him up to scale!

      --
      Why is anything anything?
    51. Re:Ruined by numark · · Score: 1

      c128 = Commodore 128, one of the great computers that came out of the 80s. However, as you can imagine, it didn't make all that great of graphics (at least compared to today's images) so the point is that special effects rendered on a c128 wouldn't look very good.

      --
      Want Slashdot headlines on your site? Try SlashHead
    52. Re:Ruined by mfchater · · Score: 1

      Now that is a real movie, if I only had a big kahunna burger.

    53. Re:Ruined by dr_tube · · Score: 1

      But how do you feel about movies/shows that pander to women? Such movies certainly exist, whether or not you are aware of it. Do you object to them too? A typical Hugh Grant movie is primarily succesful in the women-demographic, because they are styled for that purpose. Terminator 3 or any other male-oriented movie is no different.

    54. Re:Ruined by danbeck · · Score: 1

      I take offense to your remarks. Mostly because it's the same regurgitated crap about Americans being weird because we think nudity is *EVIL* and violence is something to share around the kitchen table. What a load of horse shite.

      You have it 100% wrong, and honestly, I'm sick if hearing the same damn thing from you people over and over again.

      Nudity is fine and dandy, it's great, I love it, you love it, everyone loves it. That's how we help to procreate. Getting undressed...

      The problem here, is that you have nudity for the express purpose of getting a hard-on out of a bunch of just turned 17 year old pimply faced virgins who can finally see R movies, and nothing more. Please don't make the stupid mistake of comparing naked chicks in a film like T3 to actual nudity or art. Eroticism is not nudity. It's eroticism. Plain and simple.

      What's wrong with eroticism you say? Nothing, if I want it, I can simply go home to my loving wife. You know... the real stuff. I don't buy tickets for some cheap, made-up, *unrealistic*, gimmick eroticism with cheap 2-bit actors playing the part.

      If you are so keen on seeing nudity, turn on Discover channel or a National Geographic production. Hell, they show that in the daytime here.

    55. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You forgot Ann Coulter...

    56. Re:Ruined by GnuVince · · Score: 1
      I can never seem to understand people who are obsessed with nudity in movies. Nudity is harmless, violence is not. Yet, there are more parents who will forbid their children to watch movies with nudity (even if it's a 3 second ass-crack shot) than there are parents who will forbid their children to watch violent movies.

      I have a 11 years old brother. Our mother wouldn't let him watch movies like "American Pie" or "Not Another Teen Movie" because of some nudity. But so what if there's nudity?! I also remember than they once showed a movie (can't recall what it was) in his 4th grade class, and it had this love scene where you did not see a breast, nothing, but parents were outraged that this was shown to the children. But the parents never raved when children watched Die Hard. I mean, do these people figure that in real life clothes are a indissociable part of one's body? Yet, our mother didn't oppose when my brother watched movies like "Saving Private Ryan", "The Pianist", and other movies with some really bad violence scenes. She does not oppose to his playing Counter Strike, but she thought The Sims were not appropriate because people went to the bathroom sometimes!

      What is the harm done by nudity exactly? I know that because of his intensive Counter Striking, my brother has some violent behaviors, but I don't think that nudity seen in movies would encourage him to walk around naked. Parents want a better world for their children? Stop obsessing on nudity and start bitching real hard about violence.

    57. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      mod this down, he admits he hasn't seen the movie, and is totally wrong

    58. Re:Ruined by ZepHead · · Score: 1

      Seems to me that just about every movie/series coming out of England has male nudity but negligible female nudity. Why is this?

      Do you Europeaans prefer looking at naked men or do the actresses refuse to disrobe?

    59. Re:Ruined by cfuse · · Score: 1

      Also the T-800's penis is visible at the beginning of The Terminator ...

      If you are looking at a DVD copy then I'm sorry to disappoint you but, digital image modification has been around longer than DVDs.

      I personally would be happy to see more dick in hollywood movies.

    60. Re:Ruined by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 1

      You'll note that I don't object to movies that pander to men when that's their niche - I'm specifically objecting to films with nominally universal appeal that universalize (or simply presume) male sexual desire just by assumption. There are "chick flicks," too.

      There's also a difference between targetting a demographic, and pandering.

      A good analogy is that I have nothing against Maxim. I have a smidgen more of a problem with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, but not much. If there were a T&A shot on the cover of The Economist or Scientific American, I'd be irked.

    61. Re:Ruined by nanoakron · · Score: 1

      You spent hours laughing because you saw a man's penis?

      Were you abused as a child, or are you just extremely sexually repressed?

      -Nano.

    62. Re:Ruined by Uncle+Eazy · · Score: 1

      Some people would disagree with you. Saving Private Ryan

      Uncle Eazy

      I mean, there is nudity in reality, so why shun it from a movie? A bit of realism in movies doesn't hurt, it's not like you'd want to remove the blood and noise from Saving Private Ryan and show it to your children.

    63. Re:Ruined by slaida1 · · Score: 1
      Check this line out: ...a bunch of us were just back in from the bars...

      When one gets back from bars they're likely very tired and drunk and laugh at everything before passing out. They were laughing because they saw T-1000's penis, not man's. There's a difference there, why is penis attached on a battlebot? So it could load various ammunition, maybe it's some hidden integrated weapon?

      Now to your comment, "Were you abused as a child, or are you just extremely sexually repressed?". What is wrong with you? Can't you read that they were drunk and possibly tired? People laugh at stupid things, that's why many laugh at Benny Hill jokes.

      You'd be unpleasant company IRL as is so fix your attitude and upgrade your social skills/intelligence before stepping out.

      --
      Preserve old classics: copy your collection onto all hard drives.
    64. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I take offense to your remarks. Mostly because it's the same regurgitated crap about Americans being weird because we think nudity is *EVIL* and violence is something to share around the kitchen table. What a load of horse shite.

      Well, you do kill more people per capita than the IRA did when they were active in northern Ireland. So there's no denying there's a lot of violence going around American kitchen tables.

      Don't believe me, do the math. Death from terrorism in NI amounted to about 7.8 dead per 100k inhabitants (per year) on average. You're at what, 8.9 now? NewYork (and cities over 1 million) still at 16?

      You're a violent bunch, deal with it and stop whining.

    65. Re:Ruined by Cromac · · Score: 1
      Any more, it seems they ruin perfectly good movies with excessive bad content. I mean, does nudity enhance the movie at all? It could be just as good of a movie and be rated PG.

      Nudity? There was no more nudity than you can see on prime time broadcast TV. In fact NYPD Blue has shown more skin than T3.

    66. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      EvilAlien wrote:

      As far as I'm concerned, a movie that gets rated PG means the director/script-writer pulled punches and sacrificed content so the uptight censorship idiots won't get their chastity belts in a knot. The real world features violence, nudity, sex, offensive language and concepts. Deal with it... there is no reason to sanitize and dumb down a story so that the over-sensitive can handle it.


      Horse-hockey! There are plenty of great movies that have been rated PG. Why add violence, nudity, etc., if the story doesn't need it? Besides, since when have movies always had to represent the "real world", especially one with cyborgs trying to destroy/save the future? :-)
    67. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      What the fuck has England to do with the rest of Europe? They're a bunch of fags on an isle and everyone knows it.

      Doesn't mean the mainland shares in their silly habits, goddamnit!

    68. Re:Ruined by fataugie · · Score: 1
      What's wrong with eroticism you say? Nothing, if I want it, I can simply go home to my loving wife. You know... the real stuff. I don't buy tickets for some cheap, made-up, *unrealistic*, gimmick eroticism with cheap 2-bit actors playing the part.

      Spoken like a true newlywed. Give it about 10 years, you'll be in the strip joint on the stool next to me.....

      --

      WTF? Over?

    69. Re:Ruined by mrseigen · · Score: 1

      Also in T1, you can see Arnie's as he walks toward the gang members. Big deal.

    70. Re:Ruined by bigmattana · · Score: 1
      The real world features violence, nudity, sex, offensive language and concepts. Deal with it...

      The real world also features rape, incest, torture, and all sorts of evil things. That doesn't mean they are healthy to be watching or worth putting in movies. Maybe I'm just a big loser, but I see a lot more violence, nudity, and sex in movies than I do in real life. Why does everyone get so uptight about nudity?

      For most people, nudity leads to lust. For married people especially, lust towards another person is not good. (Maybe you can find a wife that feels good about being cheated on.) Therefore, you might want to avoid the things that lead to lust.

      there is no reason to sanitize and dumb down a story so that the over-sensitive can handle it.

      Controlling the amount of violence and nudity in a movie has nothing to do with "dumbing down". Making movies for people who doen't want to think, but just want to see killing and nudity, that what I would call dumbing down. I can't even remember the last intellegent movie that was made that actually made me think.

    71. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i'm curious. why did a robot come with a penis? was he "full service"?

    72. Re:Ruined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, usenet.
      Alt.binaries.multimedia.erotica.*

    73. Re:Ruined by majestyk2000 · · Score: 1

      Actually, I'll point out that the leather 'clothes' on the Terminatrix weren't clothes at all. Think to the fact that they kept reappearing as she morphed back to her female hottie form. She just had to touch the person wearing them, apparently, to be able to model them correctly. As someone else pointed out, she could have really done the same thing with any of the clothes in the store window. Of course, then we wouldn't have gotten the requisite butt shot.

  3. Skeletons by Zog+The+Undeniable · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wasn't the skeleton hugging the chainlink fence in T2?

    --
    When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
    1. Re:Skeletons by jamie · · Score: 1
      "Wasn't the skeleton hugging the chainlink fence in T2?"

      Shit, you're probably right. Like I said, ten years since I last watched the first movie so I may be fuzzy on the details.

    2. Re:Skeletons by Zog+The+Undeniable · · Score: 1

      I agree it was memorable anyway - if rather nasty. IIRC it made it into the G'N'R video for "You Could Be Mine", albeit only the bit before the bomb goes off.

      --
      When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
    3. Re:Skeletons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed it was, anyone else think its a bit rich for someone to be claiming the new film is not faithful to the old films when they can't even tell the old films apart?

  4. Mental age by BetterThanCaesar · · Score: 1

    Well, my mental age exceeds my Slashdot ID. I think this movie might be to flashy for me.

    --
    "Stop failing the Turing test!" -- Dilbert
    1. Re:Mental age by floydigus · · Score: 1

      You must, therefore, have a mental age of at least 625637.

      How old are you in RL? I bet you could tell the rest of us a thing or two!

      --

      All things in moderation; including moderation

    2. Re:Mental age by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      You must, therefore, have a mental age of at least 625637.
      How old are you in RL? I bet you could tell the rest of us a thing or two!

      My guess is: 14.

  5. Seen it by Boo+Robin · · Score: 4, Informative

    I saw it the first day it came out. It was pretty good, but the ending was a bit lacking. It leaves it real open. :D

    I must say, some parts with the robots looked a tad too unrealistic. It just looked to fake. But then again, that was only one scene.

    It is a good movie to see if you want a little action in your life or love Arnold.

    -Boo

    --
    'Give me one more medicated peaceful moment'
    1. Re:Seen it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      I must say, some parts with the robots looked a tad too unrealistic.
      Well, it would have been rather a dull film if the Terminators were restricted to working in a car factory, hoovering or drawing angular diagrams on the floor.

      Arnold: LEFT 30, FORWARD 10
      Clare: Picasso! Picasso! Picasso! Picasso! Picasso! Picasso! Picasso! Picasso! Picasso! Picasso!
    2. Re:Seen it by Boo+Robin · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Ohhh... that was crafty. I'll give kudos to you on the good burn. But was posting that last message really worth your time? I'm not really bothered by your comment. ;)

      -Boo

      --
      'Give me one more medicated peaceful moment'
    3. Re:Seen it by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 1
      I saw it the first day it came out. It was pretty good, but the ending was a bit lacking. It leaves it real open. :D

      Like T2 didn't! Please tell me this movie happens in some weird alternate timeline, because frankly, they destroyed both Terminators and the chip and arm from T1 at the end in the pit of molten metal. That's how it should've ended, voila, end of Terminator series. Guess Arnold needed some cash for his run for Governor so they had to milk this thing for some more bucks. Frankly I may catch it on DVD for laughs, but they'd need a pretty good explanation to avoid the continuity error of Skynet evolving despite what happened in T2.

    4. Re:Seen it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You obviously never worked in the computer business.

      tar xf /dev/st0
      restoring offsite backup from tape...

    5. Re:Seen it by Boo+Robin · · Score: 1

      Oh, by the way, it is surprised, not suprise.

      I just thought you would like to know.

      -Boo

      --
      'Give me one more medicated peaceful moment'
    6. Re:Seen it by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 1
      ....but they'd need a pretty good explanation to avoid the continuity error of Skynet evolving despite what happened in T2.

      Skynet evolved in the T1 before the chip was sent back. I'm guessing that having it available back in time might have simply sped up (or otherwise modified) the timeline.

      Also, by the time T2 occurs, a lot of work has already been done with the chip... Has anybody ever considered the possibility of off-site backups? Existing data might have been enough to speed/enable the process.

      --
      Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
    7. Re:Seen it by Gandhian_Rage · · Score: 1

      Tell me, what does a real, futuristic robot look like?

    8. Re:Seen it by phoenix_rizzen · · Score: 1

      Actually, they left behind Arnie's arm. :) It was ripped off in the fight with the T-1000 when Arnie got it stuck between a bunch of gears. That is the last we see of that arm.

      Arnie jumps into the molten metal carrying the arm from SkyNet. Whoops! Guess they wanted to make a sequel after all. :)

    9. Re:Seen it by Ella+the+Cat · · Score: 1

      Imagine a stick that splits into N little sticks at each end, each of which splits into N littler sticks, and so on down to micron size, whole thing about a metre in diameter. Can't recall the name or where I read it - maybe Robert L Forward?

    10. Re:Seen it by Boo+Robin · · Score: 1

      It wasn't the look of the robots that looked bad. I must say the robots looked amazing. But just the way they acted during this one scene. The movement seemed to played and based on robots moving like boxes. At least this is the way I saw it.

      I'm not saying this movie was bad, it was great on the action side. But like most thing, it has flaws.

      -Boo

      --
      'Give me one more medicated peaceful moment'
    11. Re:Seen it by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 1
      It just hit me: T2 might not only not forclose T3, it could even be viewed as a cause. Start with the premise that, as a result of T2, there are now a reasonable set of humans who understand that the building of SkyNet would cause the effective end of humanity. These people would probably fight the existence of SkyNet tooth and nail. Once skynet became self-aware, it would recognize them as enemy and try to eliminate them.

      Unfortunately, trying to 'eliminate the opposition' would simply supply the anti-SkyNet people with proof of their proposition, and strengthen their argument. The result would be more and more people being strongly opposed to the continued existence of SkyNet. Eventually, SkyNet would realize that the only effective way to eliminate human opposition to it's existence would be to eliminate all humans.

      Thus, we now have an all-out war

      (This infinite escalation is starting to sound like the Israeli/Palistinian thing, isn't it?).

      --
      Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
    12. Re:Seen it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please tell me this movie happens in some weird alternate timeline, because frankly, they destroyed both Terminators and the chip and arm from T1 at the end in the pit of molten metal. That's how it should've ended, voila, end of Terminator series.

      No, no, no.

      T3: We open in the future. The human resistance is just about to send back another Terminator. A Liquid Arnold. They do so, and we then see John Conner give the order to fall back. He pulls a small box out of his pocket and looks at it....

      Jump back to the 'present'. A special "terminator" (a cyborg? whose shape is a copy of the dead scientist from T2) has been sent back by Skynet of the future with a duplicate chip and arm to continue the scientist's work. The liquid Arnold sent back by the future humans arrives as well. Arnold at first tries to kill the fake scientist, but keeps failing due to what seems like bad luck. (His gun'll jam, or if it fires, something moves betweem him and his target, etc). Armnold keeps upping the level of violence until the special "teminator" (due to it's special scientific programming) realizes that Arnold can't kill him.

      You see, Skynet has to be built. It will be built- all the terminators (and Reese) sent back have 'memories' that show that Skynet _was_ built. So, nothing they do in the past can change that. So, the fake scientist stands up to Arnold and dares him to do his worst. Arnold tries, but weird coincidences keep happening. His guns jam, misfire, he can't hit the other terminator, etc. Finally, Arnold admits defeat- he can't kill the fake scientist.

      But (Humans to the rescue!), Sarah Conner has an idea. Instead of trying to change the 'past' (ie, the future's past), change the 'future' (ie, the 'future' of the future). She, with the help of Arnold and her hacker son, manage to sneak into the fake scientists lab and plant a 'shutdown' command into some critical Skynet module. They succeed (we think), but the fake scientist has called in the troops to get rid of Arnold and Sarah and John. He succeeds in getting all except John.

      We then jump back to the Future and see John Conner, just where we left him (having sent back the 'last' Arnold). He pulls a small (old, well-worn) box out of his pocket and looks at it... and pushes a button. Skynet shuts down. (or, at least is severely crippled). And John, knowing that the future is yet to be made, calls for his troops to charge....

    13. Re:Seen it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually think of it this way. How was the first terminator sent back in time? How did skynet get developed if that terminator wasn't sent back in time? All that happened of sending that terminator back in time was speed up the development of skynet. Destroying that chip in T2 simply restored it back to the original time line.

    14. Re:Seen it by Geeyzus · · Score: 1

      I must say, some parts with the robots looked a tad too unrealistic. It just looked to fake.

      What looked fake about it? I saw a "Making Of" T3 and they created all real robots to film for the scenes... as far as I know it was no CG on the robots or it was very limited.

      Mark

    15. Re:Seen it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, the end is left open, for T4: War against the machines, or some similar crap like this.

      I personally laughed my butt off at the movie. It made jokes about the previous two films, and while not as serious plotwise, it made up for it with humor and destruction. I do however find it a reasonable evolution to the terminatrix:

      1. Steel skeleton surrounded by living tissue.
      2. A liquid metal terminator that can form simple objects, but not complex machines.
      3. A steel skeleton surrounded by liquid metal, which can shield it through time travel and give it a chameleon-esque appearance, but also allow its internal volume to house machines, weapons, and additional equipment.

      As for the quality of the film??? I liked the Infiltrator books better myself, and I think those would have made a better plot line.

      But how did this discussion about T3 turn into a war between pro-nudes and anti-nudes???

      There is a far more important issue.

      It started with Jesse Ventura in Minnesota.
      It has continued with Arnold in California.
      Before long, Billy, Mac, and the Predator will also be running for governor in various states. YIKES!

    16. Re:Seen it by Boo+Robin · · Score: 1

      As I said in another post, the robots themselves looked great. It was their movement that really made it look fake. Besides that, it was a great film for any action buff.

      -Boo

      --
      'Give me one more medicated peaceful moment'
    17. Re:Seen it by Boo+Robin · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it was funny. It really added to the film. At least there was more funny parts of the film then the other 2 films. Arnold really has a funny side in T3 beyond, "I'll be back."

      -Boo

      --
      'Give me one more medicated peaceful moment'
    18. Re:Seen it by Wolfrider · · Score: 1

      --I went in expecting it to suck, and it didn't. Only parts I had issues with were:

      o HOW the f--k did they get into the base?

      o The Terminatrix and Ah-nold are both underneath the door, TX is frustrated because she can't go after her two prime targets, and the TX's face morphs into something that looks right out of Lawnmower Man. I *hate* it when they do that.

      --Otherwise, I enjoyed it - and I'll probably see it again. Unfortunately the sentiment isn't true for the Hulk and Charlie's Angels(FT), which both sucked Big Donkey Balls.

      OBTW - it was nice seeing the psych doctor in a cameo. They put in a lot of nice nods to the past movies.

      --
      .
      == WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
    19. Re:Seen it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know, I always referred to T3 as "one Matrix movie too late." Now I see why.

    20. Re:Seen it by JBird · · Score: 1

      I think you are talking about the novel 'The Turing Option' by Harry Harrison and Marvin Minsky.

      Was not a bad story, IMHO.

    21. Re:Seen it by Libertarian001 · · Score: 1

      The "Terminator" is irrelevant to the series. It's hardware is an enabling technology. Skynet was able to be created not because it has some super-whammadine chip, but because it's a super-whammadine AI. In other words, it's the software. So it took them 10 years longer to develop hardware that was capable of running the software at a speed quick enough to get worthwhile performance. That doesn't change the fact the story is based on the premise of a software program with a bug.

  6. 28 Days Later? by mikeophile · · Score: 1, Funny
    C'mon.

    That movie could have been named "One Dumb Move After the Next"

    The only reason for calling it 28 Days Later is because it had more blood and rage than a menstruating lesbian convention.

    /oh the karma's gonna burn for sure this time

    1. Re:28 Days Later? by Zog+The+Undeniable · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      And, no doubt, more smashed crockery than a Greek wedding with angel dust kebabs.

      --
      When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
    2. Re:28 Days Later? by mashx · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Agreed, I was really disappointed by the ending as well, and much preferred 12 monkeys.

      Having said that, if you watch the extras on the DVD, you'll understand that they chose the better ending....

      --

      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~
    3. Re:28 Days Later? by 3.5+stripes · · Score: 1

      I think a menstruating militant feminist comune would be a better metaphor...

      --


      He tried to kill me with a forklift!
    4. Re:28 Days Later? by nattt · · Score: 1

      Sucked big time!

      And shot on DV, then mucked around in the computer to make it look as bad as possible, then dumped onto film in a really bad way, then end result being unwatchable - looking remarkably like bad VHS....

      I saw it at a free preview and I that was a waste of money - I pity anyone who actually payed cash to see that rubbish.

      --
      -- oldthinkers unbellyfeel ingsoc
    5. Re:28 Days Later? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dunno, I thought the chicken was pretty good!

    6. Re:28 Days Later? by crow976 · · Score: 1

      free preview / waste of money?

      28 days later wasn't that bad man...the way they made the film look was voluntary... i thought it was a nice concept and it helped give some realism to the movie. I admit the climax of the story was disapointing tho... but don't bitch a movie just because it is low budget and not some mass-marketed-unoriginal-american-super-production -digitally-shot-waste-of-moey movie...

    7. Re:28 Days Later? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But it's ok when it's a mass-marketed-unoriginal-british-super-production?

    8. Re:28 Days Later? by nattt · · Score: 1

      It had a 15 million budget. That's not low budget. The choice of DV was a failed artistic choice.

      Did you not notice the excessive edge enhancement around objects? It looked abysmal - worse than VHS in places. However you look at it, artistice choice or not, that level of quality is just not acceptable for a paying audience.

      Anyway, it was a highly un-original british highly-derivative movie with little or no redeeming features.

      --
      -- oldthinkers unbellyfeel ingsoc
    9. Re:28 Days Later? by saden1 · · Score: 1

      28 Days Later shouldn't even be compared to 12 Monkeys. Rage? Give me a break! The only thing that was good about that movie was cinematography and that is about it.

      Once should never compare a Mclaren F1 to Ford Focus.

      --

      -----
      One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
    10. Re:28 Days Later? by duren686 · · Score: 1

      Glad I'm not the only one who severely dis-enjoyed it. I went into it expecting it to be good, because people I knew whose taste in movies I could usually trust told me that it was good.

      Worst $12.50 CDN ever spent.

      --
      Y2K Compliant since the late 1890s
    11. Re:28 Days Later? by ADRA · · Score: 1

      The word you are looking for is grit. Maybe if you actually watched movies outside your box, you would be familiar with the concept.

      --
      Bye!
    12. Re:28 Days Later? by nattt · · Score: 1

      Grit? No - you mean shit!

      Just because you're blind to digital artifacts (not grit, not grain, but technical shite) and over-enhanced edges, doesn't mean that it was a good artistic decision. Real people pay real money to see movies and deserve to be treat with respect by the film makers. To intentionally reduce the picture quality to sub-student film standard when you've got the money (15 million) to do it properly is to be disrespectful to your viewers. To call it "grit" is to see value in the emporer's new clothes.

      --
      -- oldthinkers unbellyfeel ingsoc
    13. Re:28 Days Later? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The cinematography was amateurish.

    14. Re:28 Days Later? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem is you are canadian.

    15. Re:28 Days Later? by Blind+Linux · · Score: 1

      Grit? Please. Even calling the decision to use DV half-baked is an insult to bread.

  7. t3 sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    T3 sucks. I think that T2 was better than T1, though, but T3 weakens the whole premise of T2, which was that Connor would not have to fight after all, thanks to the action of the Terminator. Now, with T3, we have this premise that if the machines don't like what they see, they keep going back in time, ad infinitum. And yeah, the movie sucks as well.

    1. Re:t3 sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      bwahaha.. T2 was better than T1?!

      What are you smoking?

      You must be a young'un that saw T2 first.

      Bah, go get your diaper changed.

    2. Re:t3 sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but the war had to start anyway so that T1 and T2 would happen.

      Problem with time travel is that it creates a paradox, thats just better not to logically think about

    3. Re:t3 sucks by Sklz711 · · Score: 1

      Apparently you haven't seen the movie because while I didn't think the reasoning was strong it was there. The whole reason they were able to come back in time was because thier actions didn't stop skynet, only slowed its creation. Think of it this way. Instead of the military annexing Cyberdine systems and all its tech, it had to continue working from basically scratch. As you can see while it would take longer, the outcome would still be the same.

  8. sounds crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I remember the piss-my-pants excitement of going to see T2 in the cinema. I remember thinking "The ONLY thing that could be better that this would be a new 'Star Wars' movie."

    Be very careful what you wish for kids, it may come true.

    1. Re:sounds crap by NoSuchGuy · · Score: 0
      The ONLY thing that could be better that this would be a new 'Star Wars' movie.
      No, it would be SEX - with a female!

      NoSuchGuy
      --
      Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
    2. Re:sounds crap by cfuse · · Score: 1

      I must admit to seeing T2 at the movies at least 19 times (I was studying just up the road from the theatre at the time, and I used to see it every tuesday.).

      I loved the beginning of that movie!

      Now, with the trailers for T3 coming out, I sooo don't give a crap. Why, I'll tell you why:

      1. Female terminator - gee, who couldn't see that one coming! T4 will probably have either Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein as the next baddie
      2. Hokey post apocalyptic scene with a tattered American flag - a) cliche!, b) not another "America saves everyone" movie!
      3. No Edward Furlong - so what if he has drug problems, doesn't everyone in hollywood?
      4. No Linda Hamilton - so what if James Cameron and she broke up, what ever happened to professionalism?
      5. Claire Danes - why god why?!!
      6. I've seen Matrix Reloaded - it's better
      7. I've seen X2 - even it is better

      James Cameron made one of the all time best movies: Terminator. Now what's the bitch doing? Fucking Titanic!!

      I would rather see the original Terminator movie remade than see more of the "Disney with killer robots" shite.

  9. Never happened! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    If you watched T2, you know this never happened. So why bother?

    1. Re:Never happened! by claude_juan · · Score: 1

      because!!! if you remember in t2, towards the end, arnys arm gets torn off by some machine and left behind. of course they dont go into this in t3, but fact is he left something behind and no one thought about it.

    2. Re:Never happened! by Nogami_Saeko · · Score: 1

      I look at it this way - Jim Cameron was not involved in this movie, I knew it was going to suck - no real surprise here. The spoiler I read about the open ending (on another site) dissapointed me even more. Looks like they left it open for an even worse B-grade sequel.

      They took characters and situations that Cameron carefully developed and screwed them up royally.

      "Who cares about good characters or past storylines - just throw lots of explosions and effects at them and they'll be happy".

      Reminds me a heck of a lot of Alien 3, which did nearly the same thing (without the good explosions and effects that is).

      I'm not surprised that it sucks, and I'm not going to see it in theatres or buy it on DVD or VHS. Arnie never should've made the movie without Cameron being involved - he sold out.

      N.

      --
      "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
    3. Re:Never happened! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is great. All these people complaining that it's not as good as T2 need to back and watch T2 again. Have you done that recently? That movie sucks dog crack. The acting, the cheesy chase scenes, all of it sucks and isn't nearly as coherent or entertaining as the first one was.

  10. My favorite lines from the movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Director: Up and at them.
    Arnold: Up and atom.

    Director: Up and at them.
    Arnold: Up and Adam.

    Director: Up and at them.
    Arnold: Up and atom.

    1. Re:My favorite lines from the movie by gmrc.2 · · Score: 4, Informative

      You got it backwards bro .... Up and Atom is the line the director *needs* from Radioactive Man ;)

    2. Re:My favorite lines from the movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Wasn't that same scene in a Simpsons epidose? (Episode 2F17)

      Movie Producer: Up and atom!
      Renier Wolfcastle: Up and at them!
      Movie Producer: Up and atom!
      Renier Wolfcastle: Up and at them!
      Movie Producer: Up and atom!
      Renier Wolfcastle: Up and at them!

  11. Whatever happened to Jon Katz? by TobyWong · · Score: 4, Funny

    Seems like an ideal thread for him to spin off into some tirade about T3, columbine, and americas wasted youth.

    --
    - Toby
    1. Re:Whatever happened to Jon Katz? by Gzip+Christ · · Score: 1
      Whatever happened to Jon Katz?
      He was last seen writing a Slashdot poll with CowboyNeal.

    2. Re:Whatever happened to Jon Katz? by evilquaker · · Score: 2, Funny
      Dude, shut up! Don't you realize that the reason for all of those "Dial it down the center with 1-800-CALL-ATT" commercials is that someone asked that very question about Carrot Top a few years ago?

      --
      To within half a percent, pi seconds is a nanocentury. -- Tom Duff
    3. Re:Whatever happened to Jon Katz? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think they finally realized we all had his stories filtered :)

    4. Re:Whatever happened to Jon Katz? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dial it down the center with 1-800-CALL-ATT

      I hate that commercial- "1" isn't in the center.

    5. Re:Whatever happened to Jon Katz? by Fear+the+Clam · · Score: 1

      And you don't "dial" a keypad.

    6. Re:Whatever happened to Jon Katz? by edunbar93 · · Score: 1

      Jon Katz doesn't still write for Slashdot does he? The last time I saw a story written by him was...

      Oh wait. That's my filter.

      Nevermind.

      --
      "No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
  12. But the question on everybody's mind is by Faust7 · · Score: 1

    "Does the female Terminator have a body better than perfection and move about sexily in tight-to-semi-tight outfits throwing around evil looks which in other circumstances could be interpreted as 'come-hither'?"

    Come on, CNN. You're not telling me anything...

    1. Re:But the question on everybody's mind is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a geek, I was incredibly upset to find out that the Terminatrix - far from being CGI or animatronics - is in fact, a real woman...

      hang on...

  13. Got to see it! by grub · · Score: 4, Funny

    It has Arnold.

    It has explosions.

    It has Arnold.

    It has violence.

    It has Arnold.

    It doesn't have Jar Jar.

    It has Arnold.

    George Lucas never touched it.

    It has Arnold.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Got to see it! by leomekenkamp · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ehhh, hhhmm, heh, heh, hmm, hihhhm.
      It's got naked people. hgmmghhh, heheh, hmm.

      --
      Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
    2. Re:Got to see it! by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "George Lucas never touched it."

      There's no doubt about who shot first here!

    3. Re:Got to see it! by nucrash · · Score: 1

      It has Arnold It doesn't have Cameron It has Arnold The original studio who created T2 is now defuncted It has Arnold It doesn't have Linda Hamilton It has Arnold It doesn't have the same writers or any other staff for that matter It has Arnold It doesn't have Furlong I think the only things that it does have is far outweighed by the amount that the movie lacks. Perhaps someone can get Cameron back to fix this up. James, if your out there, please fix this piece of hollywood shit called Terminator 3.

      --
      Place something witty here
    4. Re:Got to see it! by willtsmith · · Score: 1

      Unless you've never noticed, Arnold really isn't that good of an actor. His best parts are playing dim-witted violent brutes. Little acting is required for such roles.

      His best acting role yet may be a remake of "Ronald Reagan becomes governer of California". Fortunately, the sequel "Reagan, the simple dimwitted puppet becomes president" simply isn't a role that Arnold is qualified for.

      BTW, before knocking George Lucas, remember that he MADE the original three Star Wars. He didn't screw anything up, he simply took it in a different direction. The original Star Wars movies were not Sci-Fi, they were "Space Westerns". They had the plot depth of Dudley DooRight rescuing a damsel from a railroad track.

      Everybody bitched about "Return of the Jedi", but it was the only one of the three with plot broader that a couple of white hats, a girl, and a gang of black hats. Muppets aside (as if, YOU KNOW what furry 3 foot aliens look like).

      I too wasn't completely satisfied with the overall composition of both new Star Wars movies. I think we build things up in our heads that something would be great or earth shattering. Besides Jar-Jar and the atrocious acting of Jake Lloyd (Anakin) I thought Phantom Menace was a pretty good movie. "Attack of the Clones" was EXCELLENT save the C3-PO as Jar-Jar routine.

      I think a LOT of this has to do with Lucas' new concept of adding new elements AFTER principal photography. The editing phase really needs to be one where you cut out ANYTHING that isn't absoluetly necessary for the story to flow. I thought that the post-production Annakin and Amidala as Super Mario Bros. in a factory was was over the top.

      We all have expectations out of Hollywood that are realy too unrealistic. Those who think that they're great conceptual artists need to get a Camcorder and just start making movies. You may find that your great "cinematic visions" make people groan.

      --
      -------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
    5. Re:Got to see it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      shut up you fag

    6. Re:Got to see it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Ehhh, hhhmm, heh, heh, hmm, hihhhm. It's got naked people. hgmmghhh, heheh, hmm.

      Ah, yes. If only B&B were still on. I can just see them watching the trailer.

      BH: Uhh, like... what's your problem Beavis?

      B: This like... movie... it like, really kicks ass! Heheheh!

      BH: Uhhh, is that the movie, that's, uhhh, like, supposed to have like, this hot chick and stuff?

      B: Hrm heh heh.. yeah! Like, check it out! [Nuclear explosion on screen.] Whoa! FIRE! FIRE! Heh heh hrm heh heh!

      BH: Uhh, like... that was cool.

      B: Hrm heh. Hey... heh, Butt-head. Isn't that chick, like, a machine. Heh heh.. wouldn't you like to score with that? What would that, heh, be like?

      BH: Uhh, you'll never find out Beavis. Like uhh, what machine would want to score with you? Huh huh.

      B: Shut up, asswipe!

      BH: Don't make me smack you, butt-munch!

      B: I said shut up turdburglar, or I'll kick you in the- [another explosion] ... whoa! FIRE! FIRE!

      BH: Huh huh. Cool.

    7. Re:Got to see it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It doesn't have Jar Jar.

      T4: Attack of the Jar Jar androids.

    8. Re:Got to see it! by pi+radians · · Score: 3, Funny

      Arnold really isn't that good of an actor. His best parts are playing dim-witted violent brutes.

      Like a robot from the future? Your point being?

      "Attack of the Clones" was EXCELLENT

      Heh. There goes any credibilty. The only enjoyable part of that movie was Yoda fighting, but if you watch it a second time (Yoda only, the rest of the movie I couldn't bare) you'll realize that it sucked too. Just not as much.

      --

      sin(6cos(r)+5A)
    9. Re:Got to see it! by noewun · · Score: 1
      BTW, before knocking George Lucas, remember that he MADE the original three Star Wars.
      No, he didn't. He wrote and directed the first one. He is credited with "story" on the second, but the real writing was done by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, and it was directed by Irvin Kerchner. Being credited with "story" means one supplied and outline to the writers and let them do the work. He co-wrote the third along with Kasdan, and Richard Marquand directed.

      What's important here is that, IMO, Empire Strikes Back was the best of the bunch. With the death of Leigh Brackett the franchise lost the best writer it had, a woman who could write sci-fi movies with character development and pathos. The two most recent movies in the franchise (I and II) are, IMO, deep, howling pits of suck. Both were written and directed by George Lucas himself, and both are, IMO, completely devoid of any interesting characters and chock full of dialogue fully deserving of the worst fan fiction. When left to his own devices, Lucas is one of the worst out there.

      What's really strange about this is that Lucas also made THX-1138 and American Graffiti, two very good movies. Lucas has admitted publicly that he doesn't like directing. Personally, I trace the decline of the franchise to the release of the special edition versions of the original three movies, and, specifically, the scene in Star Wars in which Han Solo shoots Greedo. In the special edition version this scene was re-edited to make it appear that Greedo fired first. Lucas' public reasoning for this was to make the movie more palatable for children and not send them bad messages. To me it meant that Lucas was never a great director, but a guy who had a few good stories to tell, and a guy who will gladly abrogate any artistic vision he has for the sake of societal worries.

      What is, perhaps, even more disappointing is the waste of the potential of the franchise. Despite the trendy bashing of archetypal of the first film, it is clearly present - Read Campbell's Hero With 1000 Faces and see for yourself - and there was a rich vein of storytelling which could have been exploited. Beyond this, the first two movies gave us characters in the process of growth and change. Not so the third, fourth, and fifth, which have given us cardboard cut-outs as characters and heavy plodding instead of plotting.

      --
      I am a believer of momentum and curves.
    10. Re:Got to see it! by gamgee5273 · · Score: 1
      You really should wait until 2005 for Episode III. I personally think that Lucas has viewed these three movies as one unit, thus we really can't slam it until III is out (I keep telling my friends to wait until November with The Matrix Revolutions before they slam Reloaded).

      What we also have to keep in mind is:

      Primarily, 2005 is still two years away. LOTR will be finished this December, Matrix will be finished in November...Lucas will know what people want from how those two franchises finish up and will have close to 18 months to make Episode III kick-ass (I'm not saying he will, but I'm saying he has the chance).

      Secondly, 2007 - the 30th anniversary of the series - is only four years away. A lot of SW fans want to see an "Ultimate Edition" of each of the movies which, hopefully, will make many of us happy (adding the Biggs scenes back into SW, removing Greedo's first shot, excising bits of Jar Jar from TPM, add ewoks chewing on stormtrooper flesh in ROTJ, etc. ;). 2007 makes the most sense for him to go back and listen to all the problems and clean them up.

      Let's wait and see what happens. After all, nothing can be as bad as the Star Wars Holiday Special, can it?

      Oh, and to stay on topic: T3 was dull. The series should have never gone past the first movie.

    11. Re:Got to see it! by noewun · · Score: 1
      Although you have made good points, nothing can excuse the almost complete lack of good writing or directing in I and II. They plain suck.

      Oh, and to stay on topic: T3 was dull.

      You dare speak to the king of thread drift?

      I'm sure T3 sucks. T2 was a flaming pile of shit after T1.

      --
      I am a believer of momentum and curves.
    12. Re:Got to see it! by brettper · · Score: 1

      Fortunately, the sequel "Reagan, the simple dimwitted puppet becomes president" simply isn't a role that Arnold is qualified for.

      You're joking, right?

      You have way too much confidence in the American voter...

    13. Re:Got to see it! by mfrank · · Score: 1

      Or he's read the Consitution. Arnold's not a native born American. He can't be president.

      There was a joke to that effect in one of the Stallone movies (I think in "Demolition Man"), where the states and Congress amended the Constitution specifically so that Arnold could become President :).

  14. Re OT: Sig Question by veddermatic · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Who is Dixie? I know that quote from a TOOL song... did they nab it from someone, or....?

    --
    Department of Homeland Security: Removing the rights real patriots fought and died for since 2001
    1. Re:Re OT: Sig Question by praxim · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Actually, that's an A Perfect Circle song you remember it from.

    2. Re:Re OT: Sig Question by Boo+Robin · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Hot damn... didn't know that. Dixie is someone that I know that regularly uses it. Oh well, I'll change it. ;) Thanks for the heads up.

      -Boo

      --
      'Give me one more medicated peaceful moment'
    3. Re:Re OT: Sig Question by AndroidCat · · Score: 1

      Huh, I figured that it was Homer Simpson when he was hooked on painkillers. D'OH!

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    4. Re:Re OT: Sig Question by veddermatic · · Score: 1

      Ahh yes, you are correct! My bad.. I heard Maynard's voice singing it and TOOL popped up first.

      I love the fact that I put "OT" in the subject and we all still got modded down. People are suck fuckheads. Just for that, I will leave my Karma bonus on this post. =P

      --
      Department of Homeland Security: Removing the rights real patriots fought and died for since 2001
  15. Exposition by someme2 · · Score: 1, Funny

    Heavy on the exposition, light on brains [...]

    ITYM "heavy on the exposition of brains"

    --
    You can attach boosters to anything. It just costs more. -
    Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 07, @12:26PM
  16. Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does anyone have any good Arnold governor campaign slogans for Arnold's possible pending T4 in Sacramento?

    "T4: The Rise of the Political Machine"

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by mikeophile · · Score: 4, Funny

      "True Lies"

    2. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by tizzyD · · Score: 2, Funny
      I can see it now . . .

      Ducking paparazzi--"you think I'm the real governor, but I'm not. He's over there. Ha ha ha ha." The hologram disappears as he ducks into the limo (Total Recall)

      Budgetting--"Deficit?! It's not a deficit!" (Kindergarden Cop)

      Wildlife protections--"Hasta la vista, duckies!" (T2)

      Political fundraisers--"Feinstein, my name is Freeze! Remember it well because it is the chilling sound of your doom!" (Batman 3)

      And lastly, to the Legislature, when he declares himself King of California, "Consider this a divorce." (Total Recall)

      --
      ...tizzyd
    3. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The Running Man"

    4. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by HungWeiLo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Wait, but eventually the 61st Amendment will be past, allowing Schwarzenegger to become President of the US, and thereby leading to the construction of the Schwarzenegger Presidential Library and allowing Taco Bell to win the Restaurant Franchise Wars.

      --
      There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
    5. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by reiggin · · Score: 1

      And here all I could think of for the next Terminator movie was: "T4: The Rise of the Bacteriophage."

    6. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by arlen222 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Vote for me if you want to live. (T2) Iraq, remember when I said I would invade you last? I lied. (Commando)

      Who are your constituents, and what do they do? (K Cop)

      Remember the scene from T2 when John Connor tells him you just can't go around killing people, and he keeps saying "Why?" in that dead Terminator voice? If he did that in any political debate, there would be no stopping him.

    7. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 1

      Well, considering the best President this country has had in the last 150 years was an actor, maybe we need more actors running for the job. Granted, being a level-headed conservative Republican helps too. I had always wished Charlton Heston had run for President. Oh well. Maybe Bruce Willis in 2008!!!

    8. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      "T4: Rise of The Tax Collectors," at least in Canada. It has potential to be far more terrifying than nuclear armageddon, which no one believes will happen any more.

      (The T4 is the form you get once a year from your employer, if you're lucky enough to have one, which delineates how much of your negligible paycheque was confiscated by the federal government.)

    9. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by the+gnat · · Score: 1

      The NY Times review joked about a potential political run:

      Mr. Schwarzenegger, whose main contribution to American culture has been inspiring wicked parodies on "Saturday Night Live" and "The Simpsons," acts (if you can call it that) with his usual leaden whimsy, manifesting the gift for uttering hard-to-forget, meaningless catchphrases that is most likely the wellspring of his blossoming reported desire to seek elective office in California.

      Actually, I'm about to move to California, and from what I hear about Davis I may have to vote for Ahnuld (partly on the theory that he's nowhere near the worst candidate the GOP could throw at us).

    10. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by Pxtl · · Score: 1

      Heheh, there's a good flash comic on the subject of the Terminator in politics.

    11. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by nacturation · · Score: 1

      "Bush! I live to see you eat that legislation. But before you do, save room for my fist. 'Cuz I'm going to ram it into your stomach, and break your god damned spine!" (Running Man, slightly paraphrased)

      --
      Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
    12. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's just plain sick that I know the restaurant frnachise line came from Demolition Man.

      Stupid brain!!!

    13. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by AndroidCat · · Score: 1
      I wonder how he feels about the death penalty?

      "You were going to kill him!"
      "Yes. I'm the Governor."

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    14. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, I haven't heard even die hard republicans say that Reagan was a better president than say, Eisenhower, let alone Lincoln. Oh well, I suppose every dog has its day, and every idiot an opinion.

    15. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be funnier if he became a president :

      Hasta la vista Saddam ...

      There is no way anybody can stand against
      Terminator ...

    16. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by DiscoOnTheSide · · Score: 1

      I can see him as president now: American People: "Now don't kill anyone, ok?" President: "Ah-firmative." *France gets surly* *President shoots France in the kneecaps* American People: "I TOLD YOU NOT TO KILL ANYONE!!!" President: "He'll live."

      --
      Viva La Revolucion! Buy a Mac!
    17. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does anyone have any good Arnold governor campaign slogans for Arnold's possible pending T4 in Sacramento?

      Wählt Arnie für Minister-Präsident von Kalifornien!

    18. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by artemis67 · · Score: 1

      (to Gray Davis) "Your clothes and your governorship... give them to me."

      "What is best in life? To crush the liberals, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!"

    19. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by Wolfrider · · Score: 1

      --Good one! :)

      --
      .
      == WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
    20. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Republicans are wierd. That's all you need to know.

      They really do believe that Reagan, who arguably had the biggest presidential abuse-of-power scandal in the last century under his watch (even Watergate looks pretty minor compared to selling heroin to buy guns to overthrow an elected, albiet communist, government), was the greatest President since Washington.

      Bizarre people. They have a ridiculously sympathetic press at the moment, and people like Limbaugh and Coulter will tell them anything they want to hear, no matter how absurd and ridiculous.

    21. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by toltas · · Score: 1

      Demolition Man is da shit

      GO Stallone!

      -- Sandra Bullock is a Hottie =o

    22. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a-haha, fuck you nut rocker...

    23. Re:Terminate California: Vote Arnold! by DarkHelmet · · Score: 1

      Terminator 4: Election Day!

      --
      /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
  17. I know I will wait by jmccay · · Score: 1

    I will wait for the video to come out. I can't see paying money to see this movie. Before this review it was just a maybe I'll see it, and now I won't waste my money.

    --
    At the next eco-hypocrisy-meeting, count the private jets used to get to the meeting. Should be interesting to see that
    1. Re:I know I will wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't have to wait: BitTorrent of the Cam is here

    2. Re:I know I will wait by luugi · · Score: 1


      I will wait for the video to come out. I can't see paying money to see this movie. Before this review it was just a maybe I'll see it, and now I won't waste my money.


      You are going to base your decision on a slashdot review?

      --
      Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
    3. Re:I know I will wait by minion · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I will wait for the video to come out. I can't see paying money to see this movie. Before this review it was just a maybe I'll see it, and now I won't waste my money.

      Ah, the American Way - let someone else make up your mind for you.

      --

      -- If we don't stand up for our rights, now, there will be no right to stand up for them later.
    4. Re:I know I will wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wouldn't "waiting for the video to come out" constitute as paying money to rent it?

    5. Re:I know I will wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah! When is someone going to post a good copy on usenet!!!

    6. Re:I know I will wait by jmccay · · Score: 1

      Usually, I know one way or the other whether or not I will like something, but with the last Star Trek and this movie, I have been unsure--leanning towards not going. Then I hear abotu it from friends and don't go. The Star Trek movie sucked big time. Other than that, do the math yourself:

      $4 + my own popcorn, snacks, drinks $8 + $20 worth of snacks + drinks.

      --
      At the next eco-hypocrisy-meeting, count the private jets used to get to the meeting. Should be interesting to see that
    7. Re:I know I will wait by Wolfrider · · Score: 1

      --I *liked* the last Trek movie. Even if you hear bad reviews from friends, you should at least pay the matinee fee and see it yourself JIC it doesn't suck (for you.) For myself, I *KNEW* the Hulk would suck MONTHS before it came out. Now I know exactly how much I was right! :)

      --
      .
      == WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
    8. Re:I know I will wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I rented the last trek movie, and I regretted it. IT SUCKED BIG TIME. It lacked anything worth while. It was completely without a plot. The whole premise was shot, fire, and show close up shots.

  18. Is this a review? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It just seems like a bashing of action scenes to me?

  19. The Timing of T3 by mikeophile · · Score: 0, Troll

    Couldn't have anything to do with Arnold's soon-to-be bid for the California governorship.

    1. Re:The Timing of T3 by garcia · · Score: 1

      do you honestly believe that someone would use a movie (like this) as a ploy to get into politics?

      He's already well known. He's already liked (I suppose). I can't imagine that T3 (which sounds like it blows) could boost his campaign anymore than any other traditional method.

    2. Re:The Timing of T3 by mikeophile · · Score: 2, Funny
      Yeah, you're right.

      Bedtime for Bonzo was so much better than this Terminator stuff.

  20. Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by SpaceRook · · Score: 5, Informative

    Before I saw this movie, I really did NOT like the idea of a female Terminator. It always pisses me off when filmmakers try to mix sexiness with sci-fi or horror (probably because I'm so conditioned to having the sex appeal subtract from the main story).

    But the Terminatrix was actually cool. She often has this weird half-smile on her face, and her head is tilted down with determination. She reminded me of Haley Joel Osment from AI in some ways.

    There are, of course, some frustrating sequences in the movie. The Terminatrix has about 1,000,000 opportunities to flat out kill John Connor and Kate Brewster, but never seems to take them. Like the Robert Patrick character, she can impersonate other people. She impersonates Kate's fiancee in one sequence, and has a 100% clear chance of killing her before changing to her "regular" form at the last minute and blowing her cover.

    Overall, the movie was pretty good. The ending was much more bold than I was expecting, and it sets up T4 nicely (there are some big unanswered questions that the good Terminator poses that just beg to be answered in a sequel). Here's hoping that if there is a T4, it consists completely of the post-apocalyptic sequences.

    1. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by garcia · · Score: 1

      maybe the machines aren't as smart as everyone thinks that they are.

      They are TOO methodical?

    2. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by Dr+Tall · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There are, of course, some frustrating sequences in the movie. That's the problem with having such an overpowered villian: they show off all their powerful weapons to make you afraid, but then they can never use them against the heroes.

    3. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Here's hoping that if there is a T4, it consists completely of the post-apocalyptic sequences.

      The way T3 ends, if they ever make T4 they won't have much choice except doing exactly that...

    4. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It always pisses me off when filmmakers try to mix sexiness with sci-fi or horror
      Uh...the whole of Dracula is a metaphor for sex, dude. You must have sexiness in a proper Dracula or you haven't done it right.
    5. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by SpaceRook · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Uh...the whole of Dracula is a metaphor for sex, dude. You must have sexiness in a proper Dracula or you haven't done it right.

      I'm not a scholar on Dracula, but in that story's case, the plot is dependant on sex (i.e., the horror of being seduced by some monster). That doesn't bother me. What I don't like is when some hot babe is put into a potentially thoughtful sci-fi or horror movie just to reel in the 13-year-old boys. It's not that I'm a prude, it's just that sometimes I'm more interested in seeing actual ideas explored rather than some scantily-clad blonde who looks like every other billboard-queen out there.

    6. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by sammy+baby · · Score: 5, Funny
      She often has this weird half-smile on her face, and her head is tilted down with determination. She reminded me of Haley Joel Osment from AI in some ways.

      Mark it down: this is the first time I've ever heard anyone use "like AI in some ways" as a reason to go see a movie.
    7. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by DumbWhiteGuy777 · · Score: 1, Funny

      "It always pisses me off when filmmakers try to mix sexiness with sci-fi or horror (probably because I'm so conditioned to having the sex appeal subtract from the main story)."

      So this is the reason sci-fi porn doesn't work.

    8. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by SpaceRook · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      AI had some good things going for it. If it wasn't for the embarassingly literal interpretation of the Pinnochio story (like all that blue fairy BS), it would have been a pretty decent movie.

    9. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by pi42 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Right after watching the movie, my friends immediately began to speculate about what could happen in T4, if there is to be one.

      Now don't get me wrong, I'd like to find out what happens as much as the next guy, but I don't really think that T4 would fit with the other movies. Terminator movies, as much as they're about the plot, they're more about great invulnerable-robot-laying-waste-to-stuff action.

      Something post-apocalyptic, as T4 would have to be, couldn't have any of that. IMHO, it'd be just another post-apocalyptic movie without capturing any of the real charm that Terminator movies have.

      Agreed about the Terminatrix being cool, though. I liked how they didn't overplay the sexiness angle. I mean, sure, the T-X is a babe, but she's still a Terminator.

    10. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by Mulletproof · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah, I really don't see what the problem was with a female in the role. People to don't seem to realize the prime requisite for an evil terminator is a strait face. That's it. You can be asian, black, white, male or female... So long as you have a strait face, it's all good. You don't even have to act. In fact, I highly suspect that's an impediment. How many lines did arnold have as an evil ternimator? The guy in T2? Just have them walk around with a purpose and a serious face. Don't give em more than 10 lines and you're set. It's really a gimmie role, one the woman does admirably.

      --
      You need a FREE iPod Nano
    11. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by timeOday · · Score: 1

      I keep waiting for some "internet edit" of AI to come out with improvements such as a single ending instead of 3.

    12. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 1

      There are, of course, some frustrating sequences in the movie. The Terminatrix has about 1,000,000 opportunities to flat out kill John Connor and Kate Brewster, but never seems to take them. Like the Robert Patrick character, she can impersonate other people. She impersonates Kate's fiancee in one sequence, and has a 100% clear chance of killing her before changing to her "regular" form at the last minute and blowing her cover.

      What does it matter? It's not "blowing her cover" that prevents her from killing Kate Brewster in that scene anyway, so the point is moot.

      Next.

      --
      "Sufferin' succotash."
    13. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by Jace+of+Fuse! · · Score: 1

      Ever dated someone that looked like, as you say, a "billboard-queen"?

      Trust me, they're vicious killers, you just don't know it.

      --

      "Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"

      Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
    14. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by FeloniousPunk · · Score: 1

      I have to disagree. The Terminatrix was a pale shadow of Robert Patrick's truly terrifying T1000. He really seemed unstoppable and utterly implacable. He also seemed to be totally inhuman. T-X on the other hand... as you point out, she doesn't make use of half her powers, is easily distracted from her mission, and just lacked that evil je na sais quoi that Patrick had. I was never nervous or anxious during her attempts to kill the good guys.
      As far as the movie goes, I had the feeling from the performances that none of the actors really had the hearts in it like in T2 and T1. The performances were without conviction. The movie felt rushed, like it was (as others have pointed out) an extended car chase scene. It seemed like a series of elaborate chases and fights strung together with hardly any plot at all.
      I enjoyed the effects, but on the whole, the movie was a disappointment.
      I really think they should not have made a sequel. It just seemed so contrived after the way T2 ended (how about the corny Sarah Connor coffin chock full o' guns? please). As a result, I cared much less about what was happening in the movie. I wish the studio had decided to throw that money at an original sci fi production. There are a ton of excellent sci fi novels never put to screen, they could start there.

      --
      I know this because Tyler knows this.
    15. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by c13v3rm0nk3y · · Score: 1

      No offense meant, but do you mean "strait" as in "Strict, rigid, or righteous" or is this an unintentional misspelling of "straight"? I'm assuming you did not mean any of the other definitions of the word.

      I'm asking because the the former is an archaic use of the word "strait", which could be totally appropriate in this case.

      I agree that the role of the super-unbeatable Terminator character requires mostly poker-faced acting. These are single-minded brutes, after all.

      --
      -- clvrmnky
    16. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Funny
      T4? The humans detonate bombs to block off the sunlight and cut power to the machines, but the machines use humans as living batteries...

      Just kidding!

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    17. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by Mulletproof · · Score: 1

      "strait" as in "Strict, rigid, or righteous" would be appropriate. My bad :P

      --
      You need a FREE iPod Nano
    18. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by anonymous+loser · · Score: 1
      I'm more interested in seeing actual ideas explored rather than some scantily-clad blonde who looks like every other billboard-queen out there.


      Why can't we have both? I mean, I would pay good money to see supermodels intelligently discussing the existentialism of a post-nuclear wasteland dominated by machines.

    19. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by duren686 · · Score: 0, Redundant

      "Terminatrix" LOL!!@@@@@@@@@

      I should be slapped

      --
      Y2K Compliant since the late 1890s
    20. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the terminator did say "We'll meet again, John Conner" in the last 10 mins of the movie

    21. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >>> What I don't like is when some hot babe is put into a potentially thoughtful sci-fi or horror movie just to reel in the 13-year-old boys.

      ---

      Would you prefer that they cast a 450lb woman who was hit with every branch of the ugly tree? I doubt it. The logic is simple. People, not just 13-year-old boys, would rather watch beauty for two hours than watch a whole lot of ugly.

    22. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by chewy_2000 · · Score: 1

      In that case, watch Nosferatu. I haven't seen the 1920s original, but the 1970s German remake is absolutely tops. Fairly slow moving, but damn fine, and completely different from any other Dracula movie.

    23. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by danila · · Score: 1

      Why don't you go and kill John Connor, Mr. Smarty-pants?

      --
      Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
    24. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by Dr+Tall · · Score: 1

      Negative, my mission is to protect him.

    25. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by nanoakron · · Score: 1

      >>>She reminded me of Haley Joel Osment from AI in some ways.

      And this was meant to be a *good* thing?

      -Nano.

    26. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by geekoid · · Score: 2

      don't for get the evil music! you got to have the evil music.

      Hell, you could play that music to footage of Ghandi walking around and you would think he was evil.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    27. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just hope Cameron the Director gets off his love affair of the deep blue sea long enough to do T4. Hey Bill Paxton could you let him "have some of this" or update him on "current events"?

    28. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by delus10n0 · · Score: 1

      I think you just hit the nail on the head. The acting in T2 was superb. The actors/actresses _were_ their characters. Especially Patrick and Hamilton.

      --
      Not All Who Wander Are Lost
    29. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by sudog · · Score: 1

      Yea right--if this movie is aimed at 13-yr-olds, why did it aim for the "R" rating? If it were one of those movies, it'd be a lot more like Lara Croft:Tombraider, and have T2's rating.

      This isn't a movie for kids, dumbass.

      They put a hot babe in there, and she does a terrific job of being a terminator. To say nothing of the whole motherly symbolism where she basically creates her own race of fighting machines by impregnating military hardware with her own programming, I think she was a terrific choice.

    30. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool by llzackll · · Score: 1

      Spoiler Alert:

      I don't think the ending sets up what has to be T4. The ending answers the question of how John becomes the leader of the human resistance. The tale of what happens next has already been told in T1 and T2. I suppose they *Could* make another Terminator movie out of it, set during/after judgement day, but I don't think it will happen.

      Yes, the movie does have some plot holes, but I think it is the best action movie this year so far. I personally thought it was going to suck before seeing it, because the CGI scenes of the robots looked cheesy and fake in the previews, but I ended up enjoying it.

  21. No stroy continuity by DuckWing · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The one thing I really dislike about the idea of T3 is the complete disregard for the basic premise set up in T2 (or even T1 for that matter). In T2 we see the Terminator and the T-1000 completely melt away. All research work into the project from recovered parts of the original terminator, have been destroyed, so there should be no skynet, no rise of the machines. If sky-net had this kind of advanced Terminator (T-X), why didn't it send that one back for T1 and it probably would have succeeded. There are almost 2 timelines to worry about here and they seem to be going in parallel.

    The same sort of thing happened with the Highlander series. The 2 sequels completely disregarded the premise and plot/story lines set forth in the original (which was awesome). Very disappointed.

    --
    -- DuckWing
    1. Re:No stroy continuity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Continuity? When the premise for the movie is time travel?

    2. Re:No stroy continuity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They made it clear that Clare Daines's father was the actual creator of Skynet. Cyberdyne systems, in my opinion, only created the machines. Skynet created the gateway for the machines to work. Now, destroying the skynet in T2 and all machines, including the hand and arm in the gear would have changed fate. John's destiny would be different. He would have been a normal kid.

      But then, that begs the question, he would not exist because a man in the future is his father. To me, the biggest hole was in T1 when the father impregnated Sarah Conner and in T2 when Arnie told John that he would meet his father ( underneath the truck with the fucked alternator ). They told us that maybe destiny does not exist, or if it does, it's set in stone. That these movies have already been written, and who ever wrote them will not change them..she what I'm getting at? That is a major hole, or, it's a major portion of the plot. Either way, it makes the movie solely action based, requiring no thought, because what is is and what will be will always be.

    3. Re:No stroy continuity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The great time travel narratives have one common element--you can't change the present by changing the past. Every time-travel action in the past that you think will change the present in fact is the *cause* of the present state of affairs. That's why T1 was effective. Skynet thought to change the present by killing John Conner's mother, but in fact set in motion events that led to John Conner's birth.

      Of course, this whole terrain was exhausted long before T1 in the classic science fiction series Doraemon.

    4. Re:No stroy continuity by tjic · · Score: 1

      Not *all* the cyborg parts were destroyed in T2.

      Recall that Arnold's arm gets caught in a big gear and ripped off.

      That arm never got dealt with.

      I've been wondering for years wether that was a plot
      hole or if it was going to come back in a later movie...

    5. Re:No stroy continuity by Equinox · · Score: 1

      That's easy...what self-respecting geek doesn't have backups? ::ducks::

    6. Re:No stroy continuity by Thrakkerzog · · Score: 1

      don't forget about the arm left in the factory from T2.

    7. Re:No stroy continuity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no paradox and no problem about continuity, if you think about the universe as having multiple timelines:
      one timeline - T1 - the machines send a terminator back, which causes the creation of skynet
      second timeline - T2 - the machines send a terminator SIDEWAYS (to a timeline identical to T1). All research relevant to skynet is destroyed.
      third timeline - T3 - the machines once again send a terminator back or maybe sideways (I haven't seen the movie)
      and so forth.

      This is possible, AFAIK (check a website that rates movie physics) but IANAPP - I am not a physics professor.

    8. Re:No stroy continuity by diverman · · Score: 1

      Well, this is just a silly comment/question.

      If you think about before the first one came through (original Terminator) there was no need for a model to "copy". We eventually created it on our own. That was part of the point of this movie was that regardless of set-backs or certain delaying events some things will happen regardless.

      With the original terminator having left something behind, humans could could make leaping breakthroughs. I think that that was even a line in T2. Just because the hand and chips were destroyed in the second movie, do you really think that all knowledge gained from it was lost??? Any tech company worth its shreddings keeps such knowledge safe. You wouldn't keep it all in one scientist's head. You also keep your data backed up at remote locations! If the military was involved, then that DEFINITELY took place.

      Also think that not everything revolved around the building technologies of the robots themselves. The beginning of Skynet was with the AI. Who is to say that the other variables that led to the destruction of the population were all tied to what was left behind? We figured it out ourselves in the first movie.

      And finally... why didn't they send back the T-X in T2? Hmmm. Why didn't they send T2 back to the earlier times that T1 was sent, and Sarah Connor was more vulnerable? AND you could have had 2 Terminators even. It's a MOVIE! That's why! They can't take the absolute easiest path to accomplish the "goal". They need to make it difficult. THEY created the rules... don't presume that reality was a model. I mean... we're talking about time travel in a ball of electricity and fire that only flesh can go through. I mean, what kind of dumb ass designed a time machine that only scanned the surface for flesh???

      -Alex

    9. Re:No stroy continuity by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 1

      T2 left it open. Watch it again.

      *spoiler*

      T3 was about letting you know that no matter what, Judgement Day has to happen so the Terminators can go back in time in the first place. It is inevitable.

      On a side note, did everyone else notice how the meanings of Arnold's lines in the movie change after you've seen the ending?

      --
      "Sufferin' succotash."
    10. Re:No stroy continuity by siphoncolder · · Score: 1
      I'll remind you of one very crucial scene in T2 that NO-ONE seems to remember.

      In T2, Arnold gets his arm stuck in a couple of gears at the foundry near the end. Which he pries off with a crowbar and LEAVES BEHIND.

      --
      i'm amazed that i survived - an airbag saved my life.
    11. Re:No stroy continuity by AndroidCat · · Score: 1
      All research work into the project from recovered parts of the original terminator, have been destroyed,

      Dispite all the heavy security and paranoia in the movie, maybe by that time all projects are Open Source? :^P (The Tuxinator?)

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    12. Re:No stroy continuity by Etriaph · · Score: 1
      Actually, if you really want to get picky about plot...

      They're fighting a war on machines and the machines have an army. Why send one lone Terminator to go back in time to kill off Linda Hamilton when you can send fifty, or one hundred and then use the same drones to start attacking early and repopulate before humans are even close to having the power to defend themselves? Why not teleport your whole military back in time? James Cameron was a bit of a dink.

      --
      "It's here, but no one wants it." - The Sugar Speaker
    13. Re:No stroy continuity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On a side note, did everyone else notice how the meanings of Arnold's lines in the movie change after you've seen the ending?

      I'm not sure I'm picking up on some sublties you're talking about, maybe I got it when he was saying his lines, but like what are you getting at?

    14. Re:No stroy continuity by gmrc.2 · · Score: 1

      I think he means lines like "We *will* meet again" since the Arnold unit sent to protect him was the same model that assassinates him in the future ... I'm sure there's more, but you know....

    15. Re:No stroy continuity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I got that, what else might he be talking about? You didn't need to see the ending to really get what was going there.

    16. Re:No stroy continuity by gmrc.2 · · Score: 1

      Ya ... I'd need to see the movie again, but I wouldn't be surprised if nearly everything Arnold says was Sequel-Ready.

    17. Re:No stroy continuity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      I don't know if you even WATCHED the original movie, but it was explained by jon's father that the power required to send the machines back was *extreme*. Sending people/machines back through time simply wasn't easy enough to send "the entire military." the machines didn't have the resources to do this. Additionally, the first movie (or maybe the second) explains that the first terminator was sent back as the machines were *already losing* the war, the humans captured the time transporter, sent jon's father, then BLEW IT UP. It was therefore not possible (in that timeline ) to send other terminators. given this information, there are *many* reasons why only one terminator was sent. Think before you call someone a dink...

    18. Re:No stroy continuity by Loki_1929 · · Score: 1

      "There are almost 2 timelines to worry about here"

      One possibility when you consider time travel, is that changes in the past spawn new timelines. Think of time as a process. The timeline is the primary thread running. When you change the past, the original thread must remain to allow for the change to take place. Thus, a new thread is spawned, while the original thread remains intact with your alteration having never happened in it. If this is the premise which the Terminator series works on, then things start to make a whole lot more sense.

      What's really interesting is the fact that you have a causality loop occuring in the first movie. John Conner, commander of the rebels, sends who is to become his father back in time to save his mother. He fathers John and convinces Sarah to prepare for the coming war by training herself and John. Thus John Conner is the only one prepared for the war and ends up commanding the rebels. When he sends his father back in time, the causality loop is complete.

      Now, this is where the Terminator series timeline gets interesting. We've got a single timeline to start with. Due to the above-described causality loop, we have a future commander, John Conner, who helps lead humanity on to win the war against the machines. So, in the 1980s, a Terminator and a rebel appear, having come from the future. The rebel saves Sarah's life, destroys (for the most part) the Terminator, and fathers John Conner. We've initiated our causality loop, thus ensuring that the future is what we expect it to be, with the war and such. Skynet fails to destroy Sarah, thereby ensuring that John can lead to its destruction.

      Now, in the second movie, a company called Cyberdyne Systems has possession of an arm and a microprocessor from a Terminator. By reverse-engineering the chip, they make radical advances in computing, thus allowing for the creation of what will eventually become Skynet. The arm and attached hand give new insights into body construction of robotic units, thus again leading to terminators. This is, again, the result of the causality loop we witnessed in the first movie. What's interesting to note is that without the destruction of the first Terminator, Skynet never would have been built. The first movie gave us a picture of the future and a threat to man's only hope. The second movie tied up the loose ends regarding how we got from where we are today to the post-apocalyptic hell of tomorrow.

      So what's supposed to happen is that Cyberdyne uses the information gathered from reverse-engineering the chip and the arm to put together a massive defense system. The DoD convinces Congress to fund the project and all military systems are upgraded. Finally, a fully-integrated system, Skynet, is completed and sent online. Learning at a geometric rate, the system realizes that the greatest threat to its existence is mankind. Skynet's handlers try to shut it down, which leads to the nuclear holocaust we've all been waiting to see on the big screen.

      Now, when the second Terminator was sent back to kill John Conner, a new timeline thread was spawned, in which Cyberdyne was destroyed, John was saved, etc. In the original thread though, the rebel threat must exist for Skynet to send anyone back, ergo John Conner must exist. In the thread spawned, all work related to Skynet has been destroyed. Therefore, Skynet should probably never exist in that thread, at least not in the same form as it was described in the second movie. In the original timeline, the war happens, the rebels fight back, and Skynet is destroyed.

      All of this comes from having only seen the first two movies. Of what I've heard of the third movie, I don't like what it's done to the timeline either. Without hearing the whole story (which I don't want to hear until I see it), I can't make a sound judgement, but things don't look very good. As for why they didn't send the advanced Terminator back originally, they simply didn't have it. If you recall, the T-1000 in the second movie was an "advanced p

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    19. Re:No stroy continuity by rickwood · · Score: 1

      For the record, I just watched T2 again when it was on SciFi the other night, and we were all bitching about "How the hell can they make a T3 when the whole SkyNet thing doesn't happen?" Then near the end of the movie, Arnold loses more than half his arm in a big gear machine thing. So, there's your arm. I'm just sayin'.

    20. Re:No stroy continuity by Zathras11 · · Score: 1

      I agree. Highlander (the original movie) was MUCH
      better than anything that followed (TV and movies). The first movie (and there were 4, not
      3, so far) pretty much wrapped up the story. The
      only way to continue logically was to follow the
      lead character AFTER he achieved the prize. They
      chose to totally ignore that FACT and change the
      story, hence the suckiness. Now, on to T3...

      I prefer T2 to T1, slightly, and don't have any
      desire to watch T3, as to me it makes no sense
      based on the ending to T2. At least with T1, they
      left the door open for a sequel. With T2, they
      slammed the door and then melted it.

    21. Re:No stroy continuity by deathbaz · · Score: 1

      At the end of T2 they didn't destroy all of the terminator bits. Arnie got half his arm ripped off in some gears when he was fighting the new terminator. That was never destroyed with the terminators when they went into the liquid metal, thereby leaving enough material around for the skynet to be built from (and a hook for T3).

    22. Re:No stroy continuity by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 1

      I meant that the Terminator's mission was to ensure that Kate and John survived Judgement Day. So when he says "You must live" and so forth, he's referring to that mission. Everyone thinks he's there to save them from the TX when he's really there to make sure they survive the war.

      --
      "Sufferin' succotash."
    23. Re:No stroy continuity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The ending to T2 doesn't invalidate the premise of T3. The Cyberdyne research project helped the development of Skynet, but wasn't essential to the project.

    24. Re:No stroy continuity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They also created a whole series featuring his "cousin" Duncan. Sheesh, what a weird way to ruin a great movie.

    25. Re:No stroy continuity by NeMon'ess · · Score: 1

      Judgement Day doens't have to happen, it just keeps happening at different times. In T3, if John was just a few minutes earlier, Skynet wouldn't have been connected to the military facilities. Once anything gets sent back in time, the future is not set. In T3 they still tried to avert Judgement Day, but they failed. Because of T3, John may know enough, and now that he's in Crystal Palace, may have enough connection with the outside world, to save humanity from the machines. He has to. Skynet isn't aware of T1 and T2 and may send back the T-800 and T-1000. John and the resistance will counter. John now knows a T-800 killed him, so that may not happen.

    26. Re:No stroy continuity by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 1

      The Terminator said Judgement Day is inevitable. He said that in T2, they merely postponed it. Judgement Day will happen no matter what.

      --
      "Sufferin' succotash."
    27. Re:No stroy continuity by NeMon'ess · · Score: 1

      You're assuming the Terminator is infallible. Granted a machine that comes from a future where time travel exists is not likely to be wrong, but I won't concede that possibility.

    28. Re:No stroy continuity by Magius_AR · · Score: 1
      The one thing I really dislike about the idea of T3 is the complete disregard for the basic premise set up in T2 (or even T1 for that matter). In T2 we see the Terminator and the T-1000 completely melt away.
      In some defense of continuity, in T2, the T1's arm is crushed in the gears of the machinery by the T-1000. That arm _is_ left behind and not melted away. So that's some form of technology that remains of the future.
    29. Re:No stroy continuity by tgrigsby · · Score: 1

      The first Highlander rocked, no doubt. I mean, considering the special effects amounted to showing dummies getting their heads cut off and then lightening effects, and then the final cheesy animation overlay of the swirling spirits/power thing, it was a really cool sleeper. The ensuing flailing attempts to rake in more money on stupid sequels was like watching a train wreck. That kept backing up and wrecking again. And again. And then again and again in the TV series. Dumb.

      But if you're going to get into timelines and such, it's easy -- the previous timeline was erased, or, more accurately, back-looped. In the previous loops, there was no T-X developed, or at least none developed at the point in time when the terminators were sent back. There was also no "assassination model" of the Terminator as he describes himself in "T3". Different timelines, different success rates of the resistance to the machines resulting in different pressures driving development of killing machines. In the last time loop, there may have been some knowledge that previous attempts failed and, at the point in time when the new model was sent back, some effort was made to refine the machine sent back. What we see is an evolutionary process until either the machines or mankind fail completely and one or the other is wiped out. Otherwise the timelines simply represent loops along a single continuum.

      And what makes this all possible is the concept that always bugs me that time would try to "heal" itself, as though fate really is preordained and any attempt to change it is doomed to fail because the series of events will repeat themselves in some other form until the final result is achieved, even if from a different and seemingly unrelated direction.

      Ok, back to reality. That was fun....

      --
      *** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***
  22. There should not have been a T2 or T3... by tizzyD · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I actually read the book they wrote after the movie, and in it you learn some interesting facts.
    • The Terminator was sent into the past just before the big mainframe was to be destroyed by the rebels. John Connor had just about won the war.
    • The materials from the Terminator sent into the past created Skynet. This plot line was addressed in T2.
    • A la Hawkins, the Terminator could never succeed. If it did, it would cease to exist. Skynet would not have been created, and thus, it could never have existed. Ergo, no Terminator.
    T2 took some of this plot, but conveniently forgot that the humans were about to win, and created the second movie.

    Problem: it's a time causality loop. You cannot stop it! Why? Because if you do stop the war, you stop the Terminators, and you then never get them sent into the past. Without them in the past, you cannot have Skynet. Get it?!!?!

    T3 is thus the real stumper to me. By this time, all info about the cyborg chips was to be destroyed (remember going back to the office building and performing a bit of good "Office Space"-ish reconstruction). AAMOF, with the destruction of the Terminator in T2, there are to be no systems left. Recall Linda's final dialog . . . (paraphrase)I look to the future with hope...

    And now, there's to be a T4 in discussions? Why would the Terminator be molded after an old man? Arnold looks great, but he's not the glistening Austrian god he was in T1. Oh well, I hear money calling...

    --
    ...tizzyd
    1. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was always looking forward to them reminding us that Arnie got an arm stuck in a huge steel cog system in T2 and ripped his arm off, leaving it in the cogs. They never did go back and get that and toss it into the lava. Someone from that Dyson building may well have been able to do some clever stuff with that, although the chip was long gone.

    2. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Blind+Linux · · Score: 2, Interesting

      But, as you remember, the premise of T3 was that humans would inevitably create sentient, artificial life (the afformentioned Rise of the Machines). Skynet, the name given to the sentient AI system controlling the machines, took the form of a software-based US Defense program in T3. this program was called SkyNet for continuity's sake, if you ask me.

      I agree with you about the time causality loop... It was the return of the Terminator to the past that triggered the alternate timelines, as the possible future interactions of Connor and others were altered, resulting in different incarnations of SkyNet. However, regardless of whether the Terminators went into the past, the creation of sentient AI was inevitable, as was Judgement Day, the opening salvo of the war between humans and machines.

      And as for Terminator being molded after an old man, it does serve one purpose: T-101 was a state of the art killing machine in T1. By T3, it is obselete, having been eclipsed by both T1000 and T-X.

    3. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by ciupman · · Score: 1

      That would happen if there was a unique timeline .. and that would be called a paradox .. but don't forget other theories .. like multiple dimensions, if you travel back in time and killed yourself in the past.. you would create another timeline from that point, but still exist in your time line .. i think that this last theory is more plausible that the unique time line ..

      Either way, every story about the terminator going back in time is nonsense and useless in the light of those two theories behing

      The first movie was just an innocent 80s movie with an early (almost unknown) Arnold. The other two are just a lame excuse to give Arnold another action role.

      Just forget the time travel crap and enjoy the explosions ;D

      --
      I fuse with Mercer every single day...
    4. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Actually they did clearly state in T2 that the humans were about to win the war. The machines sent terminators as an act of deseration.

      The thing that has always bugged me was why all the t-800's looked like Arnold. Does the book explain this?

      It seems very illogical to me. The only excuse I've managed to come up with is that Arnold was the very first (or possibly beta) release of the T-800's. The first working models (maybe a release of 100 of them) all looked the same until the machines were convinced that the T-800 was a viable upgrade to the T-600. This is supported by the fact that:
      * The T-800's shown in the future flashback of Terminator 1 don't look at all like Arnold.
      * The humans manage to get their hands on an Arnold T-800 in T2, presumably discarded as the 2nd wave of t-800s with a variety of human appearances are accepted by the machines as their standard.
      * This would adhere to the machines pattern of behavior. Terminator 1: In their rush to send back their best, they sent the beta-release T-800. Terminator 2: Again rushed, they send back their latest and greatest, the T-1000, although this to is likely to be it's first release since their is no footage of the T-1000 in use in any "future memories" throughout the series.

      As for the case of the causality loop, I don't know much about time travel, but I'm guessing you don't either. The way I see it nobody has figured out what will happen in the case of a causality loop. After all, almost any sort of time traveling to the past causes a causality loop if you look into it at a microscopic level. I don't think one can hold the causality loop established in T-1 & T-2 against them. This was the only significant plot hole and since it requires an understanding of how the timeline restructures itself after being artificially altered, or the effective temporal value of an object that moves opposite to the direction of time I wouldn't sweat it.
      Neither of these points address T3 but I really don't intend on watching that crap. I'm just gonna pretend it never happened.

    5. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by BESTouff · · Score: 1

      Hey, calm down, relax, and just watch "Back to the Future" (the 3 films) once more. You see, those time paradoxes weren't so inextricable after all :)

    6. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, take it easy.

      My thought process went like this: T2... kickass... but wait, with no Skynet, there's no terminators... paradox. Aw fuck it, more explosions.

    7. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by TheCrazyFinn · · Score: 1

      The Book T2: Infiltrator address the issues of the T-800/T-100's looks.

      They were patterned after a German/Austrian (Can't remember which) Anti-terrorist operative, who had connections to the Connor's.

      --
      "You've got an invalid haircut" -Warren Zevon - Life'll Kill Ya
    8. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "By this time, all info about the cyborg chips was to be destroyed"

      You assume humans wouldn't be able to develop the chips on their own. It would appear that destroying the chips in the second movie just slowed down Skynet's development, not stopped it. After all, it was supposed to have been deployed by now.

    9. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "Why would the Terminator be molded after an old man?"

      The same reason it's molded after a human being to begin with: Infiltration. The less dangerous it looks, the more capable it is of that primary mission.

    10. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by bziman · · Score: 1
      T3 is thus the real stumper to me. By this time, all info about the cyborg chips was to be destroyed (remember going back to the office building and performing a bit of good "Office Space"-ish reconstruction). AAMOF, with the destruction of the Terminator in T2, there are to be no systems left.

      Actually, do you remember the scene toward the end of T2 where Arnold gets his arm caught in the gears and he pries it off and spends the rest of the movie with a stump... leftovers! So that's not really a hole.

      Also, I seem to recall that in T3, they mention that Dyson's project was only one of many projects working towards the same goal, which is why the General is the one who actually matters.

      Okay, it's not perfect, but dammit, it's not completely bad either, and you can rationalize the rest!

    11. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Leaked beta? Rushed at beta-quality? I've heard this before. Are you telling me we are still going to have these problems in the future?

    12. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, maybe we can send a robot back in time to stop this movie from being made. We could equip one of John Carmack's rockets with a flux capacitor and fly it into the past with the robot inside. Maybe it could also do something about The Matrix: Reloaded.

    13. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by G-funk · · Score: 1

      Ok let's try a few mental arguments here coz TV sucks and i'm mad coz there's no t3 here for two weeks...

      1) Sif cyberdyne didn't have an offsite backup of all data. They blew up dyson's place and the main shop, sets them back 9 months. They'd already begun modelling the chips, and it's not like the t800 is made out of magic metal.

      2) (Linear) time travel is not possible. In itself it is a paradox. The only way it can be possible, is if there are an infinite number of universes, one for each possible outcome of every event. Hence, you go back in time, kill your parents, they die, you live. A new future is created where you weren't born, you just appeared out of nowhere, and you travel down that future as time passes. Just because it can't really happen, no reason it should never be in a movie!

      --
      Send lawyers, guns, and money!
    14. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Terminators have human flesh on the outside. When Arnold goes back in the 2nd (and presumably 3rd, haven't seen it) movie, he is aware that he is obsolete. Most likely, time has passed in the future between each cyborg being sent back. Assuming all of the Arnolds came from the same production run, one could safely assume that they were all modeled after the same glistening Austrian god and the human flesh simply aged.

    15. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by evilviper · · Score: 1
      The Terminator was sent into the past just before the big mainframe was to be destroyed by the rebels. John Connor had just about won the war.

      They never said that in the movie, so it really doesn't matter. You could say the terminator was supposed to be a 90-lbs weakling for all I care... If it wasn't what was in the movie, how is it relevant?

      A la Hawkins, the Terminator could never succeed. If it did, it would cease to exist. Skynet would not have been created, and thus, it could never have existed. Ergo, no Terminator.

      There is more than one theory of time you know... Several of which say it would be possible to kill your grandfather before your were born, without affecting yourself.

      T2 took some of this plot, but conveniently forgot that the humans were about to win, and created the second movie.

      In T1, they never said humans were about to win... They said Connor finally rallied them into a fighting force, and there was a big uprising. Nothing was ever mentioned about them being near to winning.

      T3 is thus the real stumper to me. By this time, all info about the cyborg chips was to be destroyed

      Who's to say that they were all created by a chip from the future, that was left-behind in the past? It's certainly possible someone else was able to accomplish the same thing without help... Unless you're one of those that believes all our modern technology was taken from crashed UFOs.

      Why would the Terminator be molded after an old man?

      Here's a though. Why is it that, in the future, with enough technology to create artifically intelligent machines that they still aren't able to make a machine that sounds human? The terminator can imitate any voice, why doesn't he choose to sound like a foreigner with an accent so thick he can barely be understood?
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    16. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Freewill · · Score: 1

      If you recall, at the end of T2, Ahnuld does destroy himself... minus an arm, however, that is stuck in the middle of some gears. I figured that arm was a quick visual clue that not everything was eradicated. Plus, if you think like a geek, you figure that a building that is developing such super-secret advanced stuff centered around Terminator technology, would have OFF-SITE backups of all critical data. So yah, you can blow the building up, but that doesn't guarantee complete destruction of anything.

      T3 reminded me alot of T1. Even though the budgets for both films are very different, and they were helmed by different directors, the look and feel of T3 is very reminiscent of T1. The sets look low budget and you can tell that the majority of the budget went to the Terminatrix fx. So that leaves pretty much everything else as regular stunt work, which, after the Matrix FX Overloaded, is a welcome sight. The fight scene in the bathroom was especially cool, with lots of 'realistic' super-strong robots trying to kick each other's respective asses.

      To think that for whatever reason, the producers decided to not finish the Crane Truck chase scene, and Arnold pulled out his checkbook and paid $1.6 million dollars in order to finish it. He knows what the audiences want. That chase scene is one helluva ride. Of course, it doesn't explain his last few movies... they were horrible.

      Yes, the plotholes are huge, and there are some downright silly assumptions that the film wants us to make ("That's the plane I trained in!"), but I don't agree that the movie has no soul... I think it has plenty of soul. Here is a movie that details the time right before the machines destroy our life, our reality. How glum is that? Yet there was a good balance between that and the love of a father towards his daughter, the resiliency that a loner taps into once again, this time for good, and you root for an obsolete machine that is way over-powered. Is there cheese spread out among all that? Yep, but not enough to drive you to distraction.

      Listen, you can go see it for the laughs! The movie pokes much fun at its own mythology. I laughed quite a bit, and not at the movie, but with the movie.

      Anyway, they do setup the possibility of T4, and what I would love is Arnold playing a regular older human, who fights with the resistance, and is befriended by Conner, who of course recognizes this face that has been in his life so many times, who is practically a father to him, and we see how the machines kill and use Arnold's DNA to make the human skin that surrounds their new T100 cyborg. It would be nice closure. Conner would, of course, have to avoid his *real* father, a young soldier, so as to not spoil his actual creation, how weird is that? Unfortunately, the movie hints that T4 might take place right at the tail end of Conner's fight against the machines, so there would be no time to show such exposition. But I sure do like it.

      --
      n/a
    17. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      Why would the Terminator be molded after an old man? Arnold looks great, but he's not the glistening Austrian god he was in T1.

      I have thought on this one as well. Arnold could play a human leader, someone who acts as a mentor to John Connor. Skynet learns of his charisma through torturing captured humans. Skynet decides to model the T-800 M-101 after him in order to gain better infiltration capabilities.

      Arnold gets to be in the movie as an old man, and it explains why so many F'ing T-800s were made to look just like him.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    18. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by HarveyBirdman · · Score: 4, Informative
      Problem: it's a time causality loop. You cannot stop it! Why? Because if you do stop the war, you stop the Terminators, and you then never get them sent into the past. Without them in the past, you cannot have Skynet. Get it?!!?!

      Keep it. :-) There is no time travel, hence there are no real laws of time travel to nitpick.

      Read Poul Anderson's Time Patrol stories. He has a system where you can leave the timeline, someone else can make a change in it beofre you were born, erase the timeline that created you, but you still exist as long as you were not IN the timelne after the change ocurred and propagated.

      This is my main nitpick with people who nitpick time travel stories. THERE ARE NO RULES! In T2, they physically sent a terminator back in time. Once he's there, he exists. He is the physical manifestation of a potential future- the end result of an incredibly complex set of wave functions. Even if his actions skew the probabilities toward a future that does not include him, he exists NOW. The forces and functions that led to his existence in the present have already done their work.

      It's a sort of metatime. You chage a timeline from state A to state B. We now live in state B, but state A did exist at one time, perhaps along some other temporal dimension. From this view of time having more than a single dimension, the effects of state A can linger in state B.

      --
      --- Ban humanity.
    19. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why would the Terminator be molded after an old man?

      Why wouldn't it? He talks about the reason for his appearance in T3. Infiltration.

      --
      "Sufferin' succotash."
    20. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by iTron · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They did infact say that the humans had won, i rewatched the scene just to be sure i remembered it correctly. When reese is in custody and is being interrogated, the doctor asks why didn't they just kill connor then, he says 'it had no choice their defense grid was smashed, we'd won, taking out connor then would make no difference.'

    21. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by slittle · · Score: 1

      Why would they look different? It's not like robots need to recognise each other by looks, or need a creative outlet or some shit. The Arnie likeness was probably the only model they can that fits the Terminator endoskeleton and passes as a human. Ever seen facial reconstructions from skulls of people that have been dead for 5000 years?

      There's also the limitations of the time travel technology - they can only send back living tissue, which is why they're naked when they arrive in the past, and why they have to put the metal Terminators into skin (not that a bare droid running around in the 80's wouldn't attract unwanted attention).

      Of course, that brings us to the T-1000: how the fuck did HE make it back in time, considering "guns have chemicals, moving parts, but it can form solid METAL shapes." If he were a metal that could time travel, he could of just make some metal clothing rather than end up starkers like the others.

      --
      Opportunity knocks. Karma hunts you down.
    22. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey slick they would need to look different in order to fulfill the task of infiltration. Otherwise peoplecould just be on the look out for any Schwartzenegar looking dude trying to infiltrate their base or run for governor of their state

    23. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by slittle · · Score: 1

      Eh, the ones in the future-flashes were bare metal.

      --
      Opportunity knocks. Karma hunts you down.
    24. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah but didn't T2 get his arm ripped off in a gear at the end? I don't think that melted. So it's entirely possible that the remnants of that arm could be used to build the Terminator tech in T3. The thing that mystifes me is where does the time travel come from? Did the US government invent time travel in 2002? Or the terminators developed it in a mere 25-30 years after the war?

      I thought T3 was utter garbage, BTW. :)

    25. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by prockcore · · Score: 1

      This is my main nitpick with people who nitpick time travel stories. THERE ARE NO RULES! In T2, they physically sent a terminator back in time.

      There may not be rules, but there is common sense. If they send a terminator back, they should know immediately whether or not he succeeded. Why wouldn't they just keep dumping terminators back in time (to the exact same moment in time) over and over again until they succeed?

      T2 should have been about a second terminator running around with Arnold to kill Sara Connor. T3 should be about 3 or 4 terminators trying to kill Sara Connor.

    26. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah, but then they have to explain why Sara Connor keeps getting older even though time isn't passing :)

    27. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by nathanh · · Score: 1
      This is my main nitpick with people who nitpick time travel stories. THERE ARE NO RULES!

      These people watch Back to the Future and they think they've "figured it out" with regards to the rules of time travel. As you say, any fan of scifi knows that there are 100s of different rule sets. The author gets to decide, not the viewer who has convinced themselves that BTTF defines reality.

    28. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by geekoid · · Score: 1

      This all assumes a paradox is bad, or even matter.

      Of course, if time is a oment, and we just pervieve ot as linerally, then all this can happen, and there would be no paradox.

      This is why they changed the ending of T2. Origial it is an aged Sarah Conner sitting on a bench outside the white house, talking about hr sons political achievments.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    29. Re:There should not have been a T2 or T3... by darnok · · Score: 1

      Ah, hate to enlighten you, but...

      The reason they made T2 is because they made a lot of money from T1. The reason they made T3 is because they made a lot of money from T2.

      That's what Hollywood calls causality...

  23. Not going to read it by Openadvocate · · Score: 2

    Ah, this is one article I am not going to read or any replies of the replies. I fear that T3 will suck, but I have a small hope that I won't. But I always like to know as little as possible about the movie before I see it.

    --
    my sig
    1. Re:Not going to read it by mgblst · · Score: 0, Troll

      Haven't you learnt your lesson by now. Your courage against logic is admirable, in this situation, but actually going in thinking it will be shit, will be a more enjoyable experience!

    2. Re:Not going to read it by FurryFeet · · Score: 1

      No offense, but then, what are you doing here?
      "I'm not gonna RTFA or the replies. Just dropped by to let you all know". :)

    3. Re:Not going to read it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, well, that's great. Good thing you let us know, because we were all wondering.

  24. great ending by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Granted the movie is forgetable, and lacking the soul of the first two, but just imagine the job of trying to make this movie in the first place.
    It's like going on stage at a comedy club after Robin Williams and Geroge Carlin.

    Also, was I the only one who had "We'll Meet Again" going thru their head at the end?

  25. what the poo? T3 was great by Loco3KGT · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just as good as the others. Everyone should see it. Fit in well with the others, had some good jokes, the big truck chase scenes were great and brought back memories. The TX was hot. Arnie is still the man. Connor still has personality problems.

    --
    Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
    1. Re:what the poo? T3 was great by pi42 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Amen. Everybody stop hating all over T3!

      I went into it expecting a big, dumb action festival.

      I got it, and a bit more. Even the one liners didn't bother me.

      "Relax."
      "We require a new vehicle."
      "You're terminated!"

      I liked the movie. I liked Arnold. I liked the CG effects, more so than those in the Matrix Reloaded, or even LotR. The truck chase ruled. Funny Terminator-doesn't-get-it-jokes were good. There were lots of bullets and explosions.

      Did anyone else get a big kick out of how at the end, the T-X crashes into the bunker with a helicopter, and then Arnold comes in in a BIGGER helicopter?! Genius. Absolutely genius.

      I think that movies, first and foremost, are entertainment. They can be artful, thought-provoking, or profound. But just because they aren't doesn't mean you can't just sit back, flip your brain into standby, and enjoy it!

  26. Rise of the machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think the 'machines' in the title refers to current movie going audience, whose blind obedience consistently rewards talentless Hollywood hacks who produce these tired retreads.

  27. A correction: The Hand Remains by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Informative

    "T2 we see the Terminator and the T-1000 completely melt away. "

    I'm pretty sure that in T2 they take care to destroy the hand left-over from T1. However, during the factory battle in T2, Arnold's Terminator loses another hand, which remains forgotten, undestroyed.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Atrahasis · · Score: 1

      Nope - he loses the use of one arm, but it's still attached when he goes bye-bye in the molten metal.

    2. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But he didn't leave any microchips or power sources or anything related to advanced technology or AI. Who cares about the hand.

    3. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's also always off-site backups of the original Cyberdyne research. Dyson had a copy of most of his work at home (which got shot up, but hey, not completely destroyed). I would be surprised if a company that was "on the bleeding edge" like Cyberdyne was supposed to be didn't have an off-site backup.

    4. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by PhuCknuT · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Also, for this wierd time loop of t1 and t2 to have begun in the first place, skynet would have to have been created without the leftover terminator parts at least once. My theory is that the first terminator to come back mearly accelerated the creation of skynet, and when they destroyed the research they mearly pushed it back to the original date. Either that, or offsite backups... I mean, they did only destroy 1 building.

    5. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Must have dropped a few flakes of dandruff then...

    6. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by mccalli · · Score: 4, Funny
      I would be surprised if a company that was "on the bleeding edge" like Cyberdyne was supposed to be didn't have an off-site backup.

      Not having an offsite backup is what defines a company as being on the bleeding edge...

      Cheers,
      Ian

    7. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Buzz_Litebeer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Now see thats the way you should be thinking, people seem to forget that the way they are using time in the terminator movies is how they use time in say, Orson Scott Cards "Pastwatch: Redemption of Christopher Columbus"

      Each time the machines send back a terminator they create a small paradox, IE things stop happening the way that they happened the previous time.

      The first skynet could have been created in a different manner the first time, but by sending back the first terminator also facilitated his existance at an earlier date.

      When they destroyed the hands and such of the first terminator in Terminator 2, they merely destroyed the timeline that involved skynet coming to exist in 1997.

      In fact, they boldly say that is the case in the movie, when he is talking about the chick and how he met her, and he said "if you had never been sent back that time, I would have hooked up with her then"

      The original part of the series "could" happen, simply because UNTIL the first terminator was sent back, things DID happen where skynet was created, and almost created its own causal loop in creating john connor, who might not even have had the same father in the original timeline (ie some guy other than the future guy).

      Then when he came back he becames the father, thus destroying some of the time line, etc..

      it gets complicated but if you think of time is completely mutable from any instant to the intstants ahead of it, then the plot can work out just fine.

      --
      If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
    8. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I knew those backups will be the end of us! Thats it, I'm off to the machine room with a baseball bat! Destroy your backups, before its too late!

    9. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by coebabelghoti · · Score: 1

      I seem to remember him crawling across the floor right before T1000 skewers him with the metal pole. He had one arm that he used to pull himself and a little stump that was going through the motions.

      --
      "You couldn't fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life if you had an electrified fooling machine." ~Homer S
    10. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Conspir8or · · Score: 1

      Gotta back up AtariAmarok. Arnie's arm is trapped under a huge gear. Arnie wrenches the arm off and leaves it under the gear. He goes into the metal after the T1 chip and arm, but without the one under the gear.

      I recall this b/c many, many geeks in the past decade have cited this remaining arm -- mangled past use or reverse-engineering -- as the reason why Skynet and Judgment Day would still be inevitable.

    11. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 1

      The T-1000 puts Arnie's arm into some giant gears, then leaves him there. Arnie manages to rip the arm off, leaving a stump, and go after the T-1000 with the grenade launcher.

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
    12. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      When they destroyed the hands and such of the first terminator in Terminator 2, they merely destroyed the timeline that involved skynet coming to exist in 1997.

      I think everyone is forgetting something. It's 2003, there's no Skynet or robotic machines killing humans and scorching the Earth. It's just a stupid movie.

    13. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by diverman · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, but they didn't understand time travel in the 80s like we do in the 21st century. They didn't have the advantages of all the Star Trek experiments to iron out all the kinks of time travel theory. *grin*

      -Alex

    14. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Atrahasis · · Score: 1

      Of course you're right - I don't know what I was smoking this morning.

    15. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Buzz_Litebeer · · Score: 1

      the different ideas of time travel are by no means new. and to the tard that says its 2003 and there are no robots and its a movie.... yes it is, but the fun of movies is you can talk about them, and there context. I think he should go catch his latest episode of "friends" before he clubs one of us. anyway, making time completely mutable, ala Back To the Future (IE you can change time simply by knowning what the outcome would have been), makes it a more interesting movie, it allows for anything to happen, simply because the cause and events hadnt happened in the first event timeline to warrant sending a robot back, but when the robot was sent back it changed the timeline for a different robot to be sent back. that kinda thing.

      --
      If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
    16. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, Star Wars is fake! That means it sucks!

    17. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Herkum01 · · Score: 1

      So you were saying, that in the 80's that they were "ahead of their time!"

      HA! *DUCKS*

    18. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Zathras11 · · Score: 1

      OMG, my head hurts.

      Seriously, are you saying that no matter WHAT
      happens, when, where and involving whomever,
      Skynet is inevitable? Really? That is silly...

    19. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No! it's a historical document...

    20. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One can increase the humor quotient of puns an order of magnitude by simply enclosing them in scare quotes.

    21. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by Buzz_Litebeer · · Score: 1

      only in the sense that they never stopped the original project that started skynet. I mean who knows, with the mutability of time that they propose, connor could send back a terminator pre-sarah terminator one and just kill off all the people/parents of people that had a hand in creating ANY version of skynet.

      IE the brewsters chick father, anyone in that room etc... they could then "stop" skynet. but thats not how time has happened... yet...

      do you see what I am saying? In fact, time could have happened a 100 different ways by the time we see terminator 3, they could have sent back 50 terminators, each going BEFORE the previous version, or time could have happened exactly as it did happen. Hell, each terminator might not even been sent in any logical sequence that we can think of.

      Hell the first terminator might have been the "last" terminator they sent to attempt to kill john connor, the terminatrix might have been the first.

      of course as movie goers we know that simply isnt the case, but as time works it could have happened like that.

      but because time is so easy to alter, and alter in a non paradoxical way, that it doesnt matter to those perceiving time.

      Basically it puts forth a non paradox method of time travel, if you send someone back, and they kill there grandfather, they still exist in that time frame, even though they would never have been born, but by mere fact of existing in that time they exist in all instances after that time.

      other time theories would put forward that if you went back in time, you always went back in time, that heals the paradox, because you never interfered with the events that put you in your situation, think of it as how the twelve monkeys handled time travel, they sent the guy back but because they sent him back they caused the crisis which caused him to be sent back.

      Or in another sense you could think of it, if they tried to send someone back to kill their own grandfather, they would never be able to accomplish their goal, because they never did thus proving their existance.

      something to wrap your head around.

      the matrix is sorta like thinking of time as an array of time instances, all are created via some algorithm where time is some instance n, now as you go along instance N you do "work" on the array, now the array an edit itself at n and n-x where x is some arbitrary number (IE you wnt to go x time instances back in time), so when you get your initial array, lets call this instance

      Time the way time would happen initially, and then you start working along the array, and at time say n = 2032 some crazy machine decides to send a terminator back to n = 1982 and kill someone that affects it at time 2032.

      well then your index has to go back to 1982, and though the array has changed, because of the edit, there was no paradox!

      oh well im thinking of this too hard and i think i lost something in my explanation, but so goes it.

      Buzz OUT

      --
      If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
    22. Re:A correction: The Hand Remains by NeMon'ess · · Score: 1

      I like what my apartment-mate proposed, that the machines and resistance can only send things so far back in time, perhaps it takes too much energy? Else the past would be littered with Machines and resistance fighters. In T2 Judgement Day should have been in 1997, but Cyberdyne was destroyed, and Judgement Day was delayed. T2 offered the hope that humanity could learn the value of life, but there just isn't enough time to accomplish that before Skynet gets created in different ways. T3 as I think you pointed out, has this destiny things going with John noting he made out with his future wife the day before T2 happened. I'm thinking that's not destiny. In T2's timeline, perhaps John made out and married her. Then the machines sent the T-1000 back and altered the timeline, but there's no reason he couldn't have still met and married her. As a result, she's on the hit list of the T-X in T3. Him meeting her in the vet hospital could just a huge, but not impossibly so, coincidence.

      Hopefully because Judgement Day was delayed until 2006(7?) humanity has advanced its technology enough to win against the machines in T4 and T5. I think there ought to be a T4 similar to The Empire Strikes Back or The Two Towers. Then in T5 humanity is victorious. Neither of which actually requires Arnold as he was one of many different looking T-800's designed to fool the guards. The rest of the T-800's didn't have skin at all.
      Here's hoping for T4 in 2006 filmed concurrently with T5, the latter coming out in 2007.

  28. It was T2 by phorm · · Score: 5, Informative

    It comes with a scene where Sarah Conner is watching kids in a park, then starts yelling at everyone about impending doom, etc. A nuclear shockwave hits, park goes byebye and Sarah is reduced to a skeleton clinging to the fence.

    Then she wakes up... and decides to go assassinate a poor defenceless geek who just happens to be involved in the future creation of skynet.

    1. Re:It was T2 by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Decides to assasinate a poor defenceless geek....

      Sounds like a good plan to me.

      (sound of GWB thinking, "now who should we attack? North Korea or Iraq, gosh being president is tough").

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    2. Re:It was T2 by shking · · Score: 5, Funny
      Then she wakes up... and decides to go assassinate a poor defenceless geek...

      That's perfectly rational IMHO. Defenseless geeks are much easier to assassinate than geeks who can fight back

      --
      -- "At Microsoft, quality is job 1.1" -- PC Magazine, Nov. 1994
    3. Re:It was T2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Factoid: Sarah Conner was played by Linda Hamilton's twin sister, Leslie Hamilton Gearren, in that scene. Hence the un-buffed physique.

    4. Re:It was T2 by GigsVT · · Score: 5, Funny

      Then she wakes up... and decides to go assassinate a poor defenceless geek who just happens to be involved in the future creation of skynet.

      Too bad no one had a permonition in 1970 to go assassinate a certain geek that was about to ruin the tech industry.

      --
      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
    5. Re:It was T2 by Agent+Deepshit · · Score: 1

      I didn't see the first one but this sounds similar to the alternate ending of T2 which was shown on a TLC movie show...

      Linda Hamilton's character is older, sitting in a park with someone else (I forget who it is, may have been an older John). Everything is bright and happy. Then things get real bright and a blast reveals the skeletal remains of someone in the park, who I believe was holding onto a fence.

      It was interesting to see what was cut, it's mood didnt fit in with the rest of the movie. It would have been disappointing to have it included.

    6. Re:It was T2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I did. Trust me, the other guy was going to be much worse than this Bill Gates character.

    7. Re:It was T2 by the+gnat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Too bad no one had a permonition in 1970 to go assassinate a certain geek that was about to ruin the tech industry.

      That's not funny, it's sick. Besides, I'm not particularly worried about Microsoft products becoming self-aware anytime soon.

    8. Re:It was T2 by schotty · · Score: 1

      So is that what happened to that CP/M guy ...

      --
      Sigs are nice guns ...
    9. Re:It was T2 by AndroidCat · · Score: 1

      Yep, sometimes you just never know how things are ging to turn out.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    10. Re:It was T2 by renderhead · · Score: 1

      Score: -1 (no sense of humor)

      --
      I wish that my inferiority complex were as good as yours.

      -RenderHead

    11. Re:It was T2 by ccp · · Score: 1


      Maybe you're not, but you should be.

    12. Re:It was T2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +50 More Refined Sense of Humor than 99% of the JerkOffs Who Post Here

    13. Re:It was T2 by Zathras11 · · Score: 1

      Hey, keep your terrorist threats to yourself, bud! ;^)

    14. Re:It was T2 by sakusha · · Score: 1

      Contrary to the reviewer's statement, that nuclear explosion scene just after Sarah screams through a chain link fence was computer rendered. It is well known that the nuclear explosion scene was created using Electric Image on a Mac.
      There are only two film images that ever gave me nightmares. The first one was the T1 image of metal terminators' feet crunching down on human skulls. The second was the T2 nuke scene in LA.

    15. Re:It was T2 by adrianhensler · · Score: 1

      Well, I remember quite clearly watching a making of special where they had little bus models, building models etc, and then filmed a mini-explosion. Maybe it was doctored up with CGI, but it was a miniature scene to start with.

    16. Re:It was T2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, you're actually advocating the murder of another human being, just because you don't like microsoft? And you wonder why linux zealots have a bad reputation?

    17. Re:It was T2 by therealbev · · Score: 1

      What was wrong with Kildall besides a piss-poor sense of timing?

    18. Re:It was T2 by delus10n0 · · Score: 1

      It might have been composited using a computer (and probably was) but the effect was done traditionally, and if I recall with very very large blowers/fans to imitate the shockwave effect.

      --
      Not All Who Wander Are Lost
    19. Re:It was T2 by mrseigen · · Score: 1

      I thought it was an Amiga, not a Mac, but I've been wrong before.

    20. Re:It was T2 by sakusha · · Score: 1

      Look, it's not like I'm going off what I saw secondhand on some tv documentary, ferchrissake, I saw them working on it firsthand. Sure they cut back and forth to closeups of models. Has nobody ever heard of editing? The primary explosion sequence is 100% CG. Now go read the damn T2 FAQ:
      http://www.solo.net/~jnice/page/faqlist/tfaq 5.html
      [5.8]..."4-Ward Productions, who did the nuclear nightmare sequence, brought in Electric Image to model the Los Angeles skyline and blow it into particles. In fact, the good folks at EI developed their Mr. Nitro plug-in (now part of their standard package) for the film."
      Sheesh! Some people would dispute me if I was James Cameron.

    21. Re:It was T2 by JebusIsLord · · Score: 1

      You have 2 different scenes confused. One is when Sarah is in the hospital and she has a dream about going to see herself at the park and then the bomb goes off. Cue skeleton scene. This was in all versions of the flick.

      The alternate ending also takes place at a park in 2010 or something, and she's sitting on a bench watching john with his kids. No bomb goes off. Everyone is happy. They turfed it because it was too happy and made a sequel impossible.

      --
      Jeremy
  29. Uh, the video IS out. ;-) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Torrent*

    * - My download of this is 5 hours from completion, so I cannot yet vouch for the quality, but here it is.

    1. Re:Uh, the video IS out. ;-) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The quality is shit.

  30. Exposition of brains? by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1

    Michael: "Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract."

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  31. Pixel perfect explosions by mccalli · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "The nightmare of nuclear destruction in the original was rendered without CG effects, but I'll remember the skeleton clutching the chain-link fence long after I've forgotten this week's pixel-perfect explosions."

    If only more people thought like that. And if only some of the people that did think like that were film directors.

    I've posted before to this board that I dislike the increasing reliance on CGI in films. A fair point to make is that once upon a time The Last Starfighter was considered pixel-perfect, but now look. CGI dates a film really fast, because graphics improve all the time.

    Cheers,
    Ian

    1. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by Zog+The+Undeniable · · Score: 1

      Space films normally date very well. Star Wars has aged gracefully, even allowing for Lucas' tweaks in 1997. The space scenes in Kubrick's "2001", which is *ancient*, still look good. Sadly, the guys in monkey suits at the beginning are only of comedy value these days.

      --
      When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
    2. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by mccalli · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Space films normally date very well. Star Wars has aged gracefully, even allowing for Lucas' tweaks in 1997. The space scenes in Kubrick's "2001", which is *ancient*, still look good.

      That's precisely my point - they're both model-based, not CGI.

      Cheers,
      Ian

    3. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also hate this crap but i don't think the film makers are answering to market demand for CGI. I think part of the reason for it's prevalence are the filmakers' personal infatuations with this technology.
      I watched the commentary track for a bunch of movies that incorporated CGI and noticed the near-orgasmic way that directors and other filmakers will talk about these shots. It's almost like a child playing with a new toy, except that the child is an ugly old guy producing crap.
      I think what sums it up the best was something I read on the Insultingly stupid movie physics website. They said that audiences appreciate good physics. Noone outside of the /. community is gonna stand up in the middle of a movie theater and go: "DAMN that's good physics!" But nonetheless this holds true. Unless scenes are done _very_ skillfully most people will prefer those shot closer in line with reality, whether it's the elimination of CGI or of quadruple somersault backflip kickpunches.

    4. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by Zocalo · · Score: 1
      Space films normally date very well

      Let's not forget a lot of the fantasy stuff done by Ray Harryhausen either. Sure, some of it sucks by today's standards, but the skeleton scene from "Jason and the Argonauts" in particular is still impressive FX, and there sure as hell wasn't CGI then, hell, there were barely even computers...

      CGI has its place for FX, but frankly, Hollywood seems to have grasped onto this like some kind of Holy Grail in the same way that adventure games latched onto FMV a few years back. Decent scripts and acting are going out of the window in a pissing contest to see who can produce the best CGI. Another film I'll be seeing courtesy of BlockBuster, if at all, I think.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    5. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by Rares+Marian · · Score: 1

      That's precisely my point - they're both model-based, not CGI.

      Actually they're wimp moron based.

      You see to do without CGI takes a lot of effort and time, so the producer gives you a lot of leeway. To do with CGI means the producer expects you to turn water into wine. By the end there's no room for plot and other useful elements.

      CGIs don't kill movies. Producers kill movies.

      --
      The message on the other side of this sig is false.
    6. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CGI dates a film really fast, because graphics improve all the time.

      Stop motion animation (ie: Terminator 1) dates a movie even more.

    7. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what does FMV stand for? a google search produced only pages using the acronym without expanding it.

    8. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by dbullock · · Score: 1

      I saw Last Starighter when it came out (I was 16).

      It was NEVER considered pixel perfect. It is cheesy now, it was cheesy then. Cheesy was just the best they could manage.

      --
      http://www.bullnet.com
    9. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The nuclear explosion in that film *was* CGI though.

    10. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by kerrbear · · Score: 1
      I've posted before to this board that I dislike the increasing reliance on CGI in films. A fair point to make is that once upon a time The Last Starfighter was considered pixel-perfect, but now look. CGI dates a film really fast, because graphics improve all the time.

      I agree that the reliance on CGI is unfortunate, but only in the sense that it has become gratuitous- i.e. substituting effects for plot, acting, and rationality. But I don't think we should have a problem with 'dated' effects. Some of the old Harryhausen (sp?) flicks like Jason and the Argonauts look a little silly effects-wize now, but they are still really cool. If you have a good story (like Toy Story 2) it doesn't matter if the FX appear dated in the future to me. Last Starfighter's problem was that it was an effect in search of a plot, and not the other way around.

    11. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by malducin · · Score: 1

      Well the nuclear blast we see in T2, when you have that wide angle view of LA from the hills it was done with some CG, Electric Image if I remember right. In T3, the blast in the desert, that is seen in the trailrs with the beat up car, the sand shockwave was done via practical pyro effects using primacord, much like the Paris destruction in Armageddon. There is also plenty of miniature wrok, including the oputside views of the particle acelerator, and a lot of stuff in the future war is miniature combined with CG.

      CG is an incredible powerful and flexible tool and in many ways superior for many things in VFX and looks much much better if done right. Who would want to go back to see strobing effects in stop motion, visible matte lines, creatures that look like rubber and barely move, static matte paintings, etc. There is a place for old and new techniques and usually good supervisors will know when to use them. The problem is projects or facilities that aer thorwn together and just use CG as a cheap way of attaining the VFX. CG is not inherently bad.

    12. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by nsxdavid · · Score: 1

      Interestingly a lot of mininture sets/models were used in LOR2 despite all the CGI. Most looked pretty good... but some of the "Trees Attack" with flood waters were so obviously models that it really glared at me.

      --
      David Whatley
    13. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by WuphonsReach · · Score: 1

      Watching the re-mastered Star Wars - there's only a single effect that I think was really just plain dumb.

      When the death star blows up at the end, they added an explostion "donut" to the scene. Since then, I'm sure you've seen this edge-on view explosion in the shape of a ring numerous times since then.

      The problem? It's a great effect for an atmospheric explosion (e.g. the ground shockwave), but it looks really stupid in space where there is no gravity / groundplane to "shape" the shockwave. If they had lined it up with the DS's mid-line (which would be a natural weak point) it would have looked proper. Instead, it just looked tacked on. "Hey! Here's a neat effect that we'll gratuitously add to this scene!"

      Like I said, I've seen the effect in a few other places and I think it was added solely for the sake of being added. Must have been someone's "pet effect" that they were all giddy about and just "had to put it in somewhere".

      --
      Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
    14. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by Zathras11 · · Score: 1

      Right! Even the computer screen images in 2001
      are ANIMATED! Pretty slick...

    15. Re:Pixel perfect explosions by danila · · Score: 1

      CG is not a cheap way, it is a cost effective way. If you are short on money, using CG is usually the most rational thing to do, because it is basically a fixed amount of $$$ per pixel.

      --
      Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
  32. Argggh by jabbadabbadoo · · Score: 1
    Loved T1 and T2, but this one is just a piece of CGI crap.

    And to Mr. Big Shot Reviewer: the skeleton scene was not in T1...

    1. Re:Argggh by jamie · · Score: 1

      Yeah, someone else pointed that out already. I suck.

    2. Re:Argggh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes you do

  33. Last Starfighter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The CGI in The Last Starfighter was pretty good, except when they showed the huge alien carriers/battleships which had narrow outlines crawling on them in a fakey fashion like Sark's ship in TRON.

  34. Arnold is da man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just saw that old Pumping Iron movie he was in so long ago.

    Very cool.

  35. It's not a tooma. It's not a TOOMA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hi, I am Kat Hak Sung, the famous drug-smuggler
    convict from San Jose, CA. I was a seller of
    porcelain figurines in Galt Flea Market in San
    Jose, CA. One day I bought porcelaian figurings
    filled with smuggled heroin from my neighbor,
    Mr. Churchill. Then she was murdered. Then
    I was put under surveilance and attacked by
    secret agents using secret weapons, like
    microwave gun and tronid particals, until
    my brain is damaged.

    I sometimes hide in my trailer filled with porcelain. It will stay fills unless they let me in at Galt to sell figurines again. Porcelain blocks the tronic particals that beam from police goggles. Porcelain sells better at not at Galt tan at Galt than at Galt, ....."(sorry, I donot remember anymore
    what i am saying, coz my brain is damaged)

  36. At least terminatrix wasn't Chyna... by amrust · · Score: 1

    I've heard next to nothing about the woman who plays the Terminatrix. Was she convincing, or too over the top?

    I know the part is a robot basically, but sorta makes you wonder how wooden Joanie Lauer's (Chyna) acting skills were. Or maybe it doesn't, if you're at all familiar with her WWF/WWE performances.

    I remember thinking it was a good move to replace her with someone else.

    --
    VOTE!
    1. Re:At least terminatrix wasn't Chyna... by phillymjs · · Score: 1

      Was she convincing, or too over the top?

      She had the "expressionless, emotionless" thing down pat. I mean, to the point where (right after watching the movie), she looked a little strange to me when I saw a "normal" photo of her.

      They really did not touch the whole aspect of her using her sexuality to manipulate people to aid her in furthering her mission, which is kind of a shame. I mean, in T2 the T-1000 used the cop disguise for all it was worth. In T3, we barely see a glimpse of it and even then we don't see how it turns out.

      ~Philly

  37. you have T3 ? by crux6rind · · Score: 0

    im still on dial up you insensitive clod

    --

    d035 7hi5 100k 1ik3 4n l337 5i6 2 j00 ?
  38. not completely destroyed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well Arnie destroyed himself in T2... but not completely. Remember? He left his arm there after he had to break it off to free himself....

    1. Re:not completely destroyed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The arm was still attached. Remember that he hung onto the chain with one arm and did a "thumbs up" with the other.

  39. pointless fight scenes by harks · · Score: 0

    I am getting a little bored of all the movies where there are two indestructible characters fighting. They fight anyway, but you know neither will get destroyed, whether its Terminators or Neo fighting Agent Smith. What's the point of it if neither will win? ( I know that terminators get destroyed, but never without some molten steel or a big press or large explosion. They never die by fighting)

  40. T2 Redux by fbg111 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The actual movie was pretty much T2 Redux with a badder evil terminator and same old Arnold, and I'm getting reeeaaally annoyed that just any old liquid-metal-covered machine can zip through the supposedly organic-material-only time machine as easily as a human can. But I did find a few things interesting in T3:
    ****SPOILERS****
    One is that Skynet is not the product of any one human or unique technology (eg, the computer engineer Miles Dyson, or the chip from the first terminator which was destroyed in T2, or even Kate Brewster's father in T3), but rather it is the result of the evolution of AI. Skynet is the product of unavoidable historical forces set in motion long ago by the Industrial Revolution, or perhaps even longer ago when man first learned how to make and use tools. Admittedly this is an old and recurring theme in many sci-fi movies, from 2001: A Space Odessy to Matrix/Reloaded, yet I am always interested in seeing different takes on it.
    Further, it is interesting that Skynet is not hardware, it is self-aware software that uses the entire Internet as its corporal host, so to speak. I doubt the script writer was the first to come up with that idea, I'm sure its been floating around AI circles for some time now, but it was nevertheless a new concept for me to ponder. Talk about distributed computing... Are we all doomed to domination by a massive network of PS3's running Linux and infected by a self-aware nanovirus?

    --
    Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams
    1. Re:T2 Redux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Are we all doomed to domination by a massive network of PS3's running Linux and infected by a self-aware nanovirus?"

      Hopefully, they'll be powered by Windows Server technology. They'll grow really powerful, bringing mankind to the brink of destruction, then BSOD, saving the lives of the last remaining humans.

    2. Re:T2 Redux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are we all doomed to domination by a massive network of PS3's running Linux and infected by a self-aware nanovirus?

      What makes a virus a nanovirus? Is it just the speaker's desire to sound cool by throwing around meaningless pseudo-technical terms?

      Sounds like something out of the mouths of the wannabes at Wired.

    3. Re:T2 Redux by libnatel · · Score: 0

      self aware software that uses the entire internet as its corporal host? read the enders game saga by orson scott card, but more specifically thespeaker for the dead. the jane character is that down to a T. with just internet replaced with ether net.

    4. Re:T2 Redux by kerrbear · · Score: 1
      Further, it is interesting that Skynet is not hardware, it is self-aware software that uses the entire Internet as its corporal host, so to speak. I doubt the script writer was the first to come up with that idea, I'm sure its been floating around AI circles for some time now, but it was nevertheless a new concept for me to ponder.

      The first time I saw this concept was in a short story by Aurthur C. Clarke called Dial F for Frankenstein (for Playboy in 1965- and no I did not read it in Playboy :-), in which the wordwide network of telphones and integrated systems becomes self aware and calls everyone on earth with a garbled message in the middle of the night. Somebody has it online if you want to read it.

    5. Re:T2 Redux by fbg111 · · Score: 1

      You sure hit the nail on the head with your prescient analysis of my flippant remark, Coward. Glad you didn't miss the forest for the trees. Luckily for us all, there are sharp folks like you out on the internet, spending your valuable time policing us intellectual wannabes.


      What makes a virus a nanovirus? Is it just the speaker's desire to sound cool by throwing around meaningless pseudo-technical terms?

      Sounds like something out of the mouths of the wannabes at Wired.

      --
      Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams
  41. There is no continuity needed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    T1: In the future machines send back a Terminator to the past to kill John Connor's mother, because they are losing the war. The Terminator gets destroyed BUT a chip remains (the half arm in T2). The chip in the arm changes the timeline completely and accelerates the coming of Skynet.

    T2: Despite Skynet beeing built earlier, humans still win in the future. Another Terminator is sent back (T-1000). Rebels from future manage once again to save their leader AND this time Sarah and John manage to destroy everything related to this new revolutionary CPU. This only delays the coming of Skynet, again, timeline is changed.

    T3: There is no new CPU, but, there is near infinite computing power in the Internet. Skynet is born.

    Skynet is inevitable, whatever takes form in a super CPU from the future or on the vast porcessing power of the Internet, it's inevitable.

    IMHO, T3 plugged the hole of the paradox in T2. Ok story, nice movie, nothing to write home about.

    1. Re:There is no continuity needed. by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 5, Funny
      T3: There is no new CPU, but, there is near infinite computing power in the Internet. Skynet is born.

      If the Internet is Skynet then I guess that explains why it only sends naked Terminators back in time. Most of what it knows about humans involve being naked.

    2. Re:There is no continuity needed. by Skyshadow · · Score: 2, Interesting
      T2: Despite Skynet beeing built earlier, humans still win in the future. Another Terminator is sent back (T-1000). Rebels from future manage once again to save their leader AND this time Sarah and John manage to destroy everything related to this new revolutionary CPU. This only delays the coming of Skynet, again, timeline is changed.

      Not quite true.

      At the end of T2: the T1000, the original T101's chip and arm and the second T101 were all melted in the steel.

      The second T101's arm, however, was left in the machinery where it lost it (remember, the T1000 jams it into some gears, then leaves the T101 stuck there while he goes off to kill John -- the T101 severs it to get loose).

      --
      Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
    3. Re:There is no continuity needed. by darthtuttle · · Score: 1

      You could argue from this that the future is going to happen no matter what we do now. The big plot lines are already written from our past. You can change the minor details but there will be a skynet, there will be a rise of the machines, there will be a resistance.

      Before there was a T-1 there was going to be something that created skynet in the first place. Technology and inovation move on.

      A Paradox can't happen in the past, otherwise it would have happened.

      The whole series is about "can you change the future, and how does it change the past" and the result is, no matter how hard we try to change the past or the future, it still happens.

      --
      Darthtuttle
      Thought Architect
    4. Re:There is no continuity needed. by Jonner · · Score: 1

      I haven't seen T3 yet, but the overall theme is starting to sound similar to another popular movie trilogy, at least in the man vs. machine, fate, and destiny aspects.

    5. Re:There is no continuity needed. by Phantasmo · · Score: 1

      I prefer the explaination for T3 that my friend and I generated about two years ago:

      Sarah Conner wakes up one morning and discovers that she's still a child! Her entire adult life was only a dream/nightmare. She's so traumatized from dreaming of the terminators that the next day at day care she begins drawing whatever she remembered about them.
      Dyson arrives at the day care at the end of the day to pick up his son, sees the drawings posted on the wall and is inspired!
      He creates the chips shortly thereafter and humanity's fate is sealed.

      Whadya think? Could I have sold it to Cameron?

      --

      The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
    6. Re:There is no continuity needed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      T2: Sarah Conner in a straitjacket...

    7. Re:There is no continuity needed. by Zathras11 · · Score: 1

      Actually, the chip is not from the arm. They are
      two seperate things: chip (from somewhere, head?,
      body?) and arm (from arm).

      T3: silly idea to make a few quick bucks. T2 closed
      all holes. Nothing is inevitable, except death. I
      like Arnold, but have no interest in seeing this flick.

    8. Re:There is no continuity needed. by spun · · Score: 1
      the vast porcessing power of the Internet

      Porcessing power? Oh, man, is that like a beowulf cluster of swine?

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    9. Re:There is no continuity needed. by edunbar93 · · Score: 1

      T2 closed all holes.

      There's a problem with that though: the paradox.

      If Skynet is destroyed and never comes into being, then the war would never happen, the humans would never beat skynet, and there would be no reason to send Kyle Reese back in time, and thus conceive John Connor. John Connor would never have been born. He would blink out of existence at the end of Terminator 2 or something.

      John Connor's existence and the future existence of Skynet are intertwined.

      You're right though. T3 is a silly idea to make a few bucks and isn't that great a movie.

      --
      "No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
    10. Re:There is no continuity needed. by sudog · · Score: 1

      Thank god, someone who gets T3. Thank you, AC, you deserved that 5. Should've posted under a nickname.

      T3 *did* plug the gaping, horrible holes that T2 created. T3 brings back that sense of fatalism, that doomed, hopeless despair that was in T1. T3 fixes the problems that were introduced in T2 because Arnie didn't want to do the kind of movie that T1 was (his children were too young to understand.)

      T2 was an abomination: I said it then, and I'm saying it now. If we skip T2 and just go from T1 to T3, things look *much* better. :)

  42. alternate review by KaizerWill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    T3 had too many gratuitous arnold-lines. "Ill be back" "She'll be back" "Get off." "I like this car."

    i mean damn. But other than that, and a few other quibbles, it was a GREAT movie. I mean, it was a Terminator movie at heart. It was about the inevitablity of a horrific event that everyone was trying to stop, but couldnt. It even had a touch of the unwilling messiah theme going.

    Really for me it all hinged on the end. The end of Terminator 1 was bleak but hopefull. Judgement Day was coming, but Sarah would have a son who would save the human race.
    The end of Terminator 2 was bleak but hopeful. They thought theyd stopped judgement day, but they couldnt be quite sure.
    If T3 had ended with a happy, for-sure avoidance of judgement day, i wouldve hated the movie, because it wouldve abandoned the theme. but no. Thankfully, the end of Terminator 3 was bleak but hopeful. Judgement day was fucking inevitable, and the best you could do was to do your best afterwards.

    so i thought it was great, and i consider myself a fair if not good judge of movies. make your own choice of course.

    1. Re:alternate review by pod · · Score: 1

      Arnold does not say "I'll be back" in T3. He does, however, say "I'm back."

      --
      "Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
    2. Re:alternate review by SailorBob · · Score: 1

      Something funny for you. If you get the T2 special edition DVD, it has the original ending for the movie. J-day is avoided and you see John in the future as a Senetor in a peaceful and blissful USA!

      --

      Woopty Doo Basil, what does it all mean?!

    3. Re:alternate review by KaizerWill · · Score: 1

      heh yea ive got that dvd. thank god they cut that.

      not only did it cut out sequel possibilities, but that ending just rubbed me the wrong way.

      maybe its just me, but i like dark scifi...

  43. Women by Oliver_Etchebarne · · Score: 1

    I'm not a machist, but as far as I can remember, when some directors decides to include a woman in a leading role in a new movie sequel, this movie sucks :-p (can you remember 'Karate Kid 3'?, just to say one)

    --
    drmad
  44. Not so fast... by Bedouin+X · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually it's not as bad as you think and that's thanks to a massive plot hole in T2. If Skynet were truly destroyed in T2 and the war averted, then John Connor would have ceased to exist since his whole being was centered around the fact that he became the leader of the resistance and sent his father back to save his mother. So if you're going to harp on these details you're gonna have to jump on T2 as well.

    Personally I liked T3. As shown, the continuity between the other two films wasn't bulletproof and you ALWAYS have to give the writers the benefit of the doubt on time travel stories because they always tend to be paradoxical on some level. T3 is for old school action fans who can appreciate REAL stuntwork and REAL explosions as opposed to the 3D Studio MAX fests that we see all the time now. This is how action was before people started trying to base their freaking worldviews on it and I, for one, welcome it.

    I also liked the ending...

    spoilers - though they'e probably been said 100 times before this post

    A lot of people seem the miss the fact that the major Terminator theme is one of fate and destiny. The question is whether these can actually be changed. The ending of the 3rd film finishes an arc that gives their idea. Apparently the reason that Connor didn't disappear at the end of the second film was because the WAR STILL HAPPENS.

    The first film was about preserving the humans' chance against the machines by making sure that John Connor is born. The second one was about keeping the war from ever happening. The third is the same but the reality of the situation becomes apparent, like the Terminator said, "Judgement Day is Inevitable."

    I think it's cool that they took the darker path. While people say that it begs for a sequel, I think that it is the perfect ending to the story. John Connor is a classic literary JC character, which means that he CAN'T avoid his destiny. A destiny that becomes even more fitting to his type of character as you learn in T3.

    --
    Dissolve... Resolve... Evolve...
    1. Re:Not so fast... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just because John Connor's fate would be changed does not mean he would cease to exist. A total disruption to the space time continuum would occur if conner "disappeared". That would force the past to be changed and that is quite unlikely. It seems more plausible that destiny would change rather than existence. In T4 I suppose they'll introduce the flux capacitor.

    2. Re:Not so fast... by Bedouin+X · · Score: 1

      And this is my point.

      If he would have never become the leader of the resistance, he would have never sent his friend back to protect his mother. His friend turned out to be his father. If the war never happened, he would have never sent his father back therefore he would have never been concieved. His very existence depends him having to save his mother from a Terminator built by the machines that he is at war with.

      --
      Dissolve... Resolve... Evolve...
    3. Re:Not so fast... by veneficus · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Hey guys,

      I just wanted to take this moment to clear up something about time travel. Many contemporary scientists have weighed in on the subject of time travel and continuous-arc timelines, and many believe it just wouldn't happen.

      Existence is just a set of infinite points of time; it is the human in us that says that if the son of X goes back in time and he kills X, then the son must "disappear." In contemporary theory, this is not so.

      The son goes back in time, from a point which he exists. Since he did exist in that time, if he moves to a different "reference point", he still exists. If he kill his father, before he was born, he would not be born in the modified chain of events, but the son would still exist from that point.

      I don't know if I'm quite explaining this right, but that would explain why Reis (Reese?) would still exist after John Connor melted the evidence, and it would still explain why John Connor himself existed after the act. Just because our minds correlate all these facts together to evaluate "passage of time," it does not mean that these things had a specific linkage that would be disrupted through the affect of a particular cause.

      Hope I'm making sense here...

      --
      -- Hey, what the hell, it's only slashdot..
    4. Re:Not so fast... by Bedouin+X · · Score: 1

      You make sense, but of course this is all pure speculation anyway so everything is welcome.

      --
      Dissolve... Resolve... Evolve...
    5. Re:Not so fast... by Tomster · · Score: 1

      Well said, Bedouin. I agree entirely -- although I think that while they don't need a sequel there's ample room for one.

      What disappointed me most was the amount of silly comedy and the over-the-top gore. I was alternately laughing and rolling my eyes. I would have preferred a more serious, and less graphic, movie. But I'm old-fashioned and realize that doesn't sell to the kiddies.

      -Thomas

    6. Re:Not so fast... by veneficus · · Score: 1

      True, since modern quantum physics has no real way for us to "time travel" -- the closest we can get is going through a wormhole to arrive at a different point nearly instantly.. Stephen Hawking gives a good description of the idea in his book "A Brief History of Time"

      --
      -- Hey, what the hell, it's only slashdot..
    7. Re:Not so fast... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "T3 is for old school action fans who can appreciate REAL stuntwork and REAL explosions as opposed to the 3D Studio MAX fests that we see all the time now."

      HAHAHAHA! Are you kidding me? How many of the shots in fight scenes were done with 3d effects? How many times did we see Arnold tossing around a fully computer generated 3d model of T-X? I thought so. Future war? Basically all 3d (as compared to T2, where a lot of it was live action or done using animatronics). Scenes with flying vehicles? Again, more 3d for the most part.

    8. Re:Not so fast... by MatthewB79 · · Score: 1
      I don't know if I'm quite explaining this right, but that would explain why Reis (Reese?) would still exist after John Connor melted the evidence, and it would still explain why John Connor himself existed after the act.
      You make an interesting point. But you do need to take into account Reese DID NOT exist when John Connor burned the T-101 and the chip because he hadn't been born yet. Reese states in the movie that he was born ~after~ judgement day. Thus any events taking place before his birth into the timeline do not necessarily affect him (including his own death at the hands of the Terminator) and he can still exist. Until T3 we did not know why John and (by extension) Reese still existed. Now we know that Judgment Day can only be postponed, not prevented.
    9. Re:Not so fast... by Skevin · · Score: 1

      People tend to think of time as being a tad too linear and one-dimensional. I always try to explain away that paradox as compared to, say, self-modifying interpreted source code... the actual execution of that code represents one temporal axis. The actual code itself - a static snapshot - can be considered another temporal axis.

      If the program changes itself so as to edit out the subroutines responsible for modifying itself (comparable to going back in time and killing yourself as an infant), then a casual observer, just barely arriving on the scene, might step through the source code and conclude that the program was never self-modifying. Treating the execution of the code itself as the only form of Time leads one to ask *where* such agents of change originated from...

      However, we may treat *our* sense of time as yet another form of Time, where we remembered the source code as having once had a different state, a different form. As far as any entities(?) living only within the bounds of program execution itself are concerned, we precursor programmers live in a state of "super" time.

      If time travel and alteration of the past are possible, then it must therefore be equally possible that there is some form of "super" time, whereas there exists a whole history of different Pasts and Futures that our universe had once taken, but, because we do not experience Time on that level, we are constrained within the bounds of our own sense of Time to believe that the Past that once was, always was.

      My inspiration for this model of time travel was derived by Neil Gaiman's "Dream of a Thousand Cats". Check it out sometime.

      Solomon K. Chang

      --
      "Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
    10. Re:Not so fast... by Zathras11 · · Score: 1

      Well, you've convinced me. This is all WAY too
      confusing, so I'm burning my Terminator DVD's...

      Hey, if I melt them instead, will this thread go away?

    11. Re:Not so fast... by HolyMe · · Score: 1
      Actually it's not as bad as you think and that's thanks to a massive plot hole in T2. If Skynet were truly destroyed in T2 and the war averted, then John Connor would have ceased to exist since his whole being was centered around the fact that he became the leader of the resistance and sent his father back to save his mother. So if you're going to harp on these details you're gonna have to jump on T2 as well.
      Hmm... this is where most people don't understand a thing from a quite nice scenario (not too profound, but not idiotic as well). I guess this is what should happen when you produce a movie in States and for such a market. His father is sent with a story. Which he must know in order to do something. That is the story for _his_ father. Gee! So many are so shallow as this is not the only post specifying this. His father's purpose is to make sure John _will_ exist. It's obvious the net and the robots were never destroyed. The chip isn't a byproduct of the 'new' past. But only a mere fact. The circle getts closed. T2 comes with the same problem - ensuring that the past is 'done'. Skynet isn't and couldn't be distroyed. Only the little John is protected. And even if Skynet is broken, John will resume a common destiny and exist till the end of his natural life as a regular fellow and not the 'leader of the human resistance'.
    12. Re:Not so fast... by theendlessnow · · Score: 1
      Existence is just a set of infinite points of time; it is the human in us that says that if the son of X goes back in time and he kills X, then the son must "disappear." In contemporary theory, this is not so.

      Real scientists however don't toss around terms like "theory" when they actually mean "fiction" or at best... and it's a stretch in this case, "hypothesis".

      We now live in a world where fiction has become science.... sad, but true. Hand me a wheel chair and a touch pad and a few episodes of SSTNG... and I'm a SCIENTIST!! Sad... very, very sad.

    13. Re:Not so fast... by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Hey guys,

      I just wanted to take this moment to clear up something about lighter then air travel. Many contemporary scientists have weighed in on the subject of lighter then air travel and mans ability to fly, and many believe it just wouldn't happen.

      Hope I'm making sense here...

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  45. Still carrying on the tradition... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I spent the whole movie trying to reconcile John Connor's perceived age with how old he is supposed to be, based on facts gleaned from the movies.

    T1: Takes place in 1984.

    T2: "Ten years ago, the Machines who rule the future sent an unstoppable Terminator to assassinate the yet unborn John Connor. They failed." [trailer]

    Okay, so T2 is supposed to take place in 1994. We see on the police car computer that John Connor was born in 1985. That makes him 9 years old in T2, but he was played by a 13-14 year-old.

    T3: Numerous references to things that happened at the time of T2 "ten years ago." So this movie takes place in 2004, which makes John Connor 19, but he's played by a 23-24 year-old. So at least they are somewhat consistent in their inconsistency.

    But this chick Kate is right around the same age as John. So we're supposed to believe that at age 20 or so, this girl has had the time to complete college and veterinary school, and find herself a fiancee, and learn to fly a plane? Riiiiiight. She is clearly living the life of someone who is 24 or 25. I think at one point we even see a photo of her from her college graduation.

    This age discrepancy thing has stuck in my craw since I saw T2.

    1. Re:Still carrying on the tradition... by libnatel · · Score: 0

      what will really blow your mind is when you do watch austin powers, do the math, and reallize that scott (seth green) is supposed to be 30.

  46. CNN review by cocomirla · · Score: 1

    jamie, please go here http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/03/sprj. cas03.film.boxoffice.reut/index.html you'll find that CNN DID in fact acknowledge they are "related" to WB. please do your homework better next time.

    1. Re:CNN review by jamie · · Score: 1

      That's actually worse. CNN puts in the disclosure when they're just reporting on T3's box-office take -- but they don't see the need to do the same when they're giving it a positive review?!

  47. suitable audience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    "it's big and dumb"
    Just like its American audience

    that old Austrian bodybuilder is still taking the piss out of you and you smile and hand him your dollars, the guy even wants to speak for you (his wallet) and be a politician, god bless you indeed.

    T3 is pure crap, Take the plot, for instance. In the first "Terminator" movie, a man from the future is sent back to the present to protect Sarah Connor from a cyborg out to kill her. In "Terminator 2" a cyborg from the future is sent back to the present to protect Connor's son John from a cyborg out to kill him.

    So it comes as no surprise that in "Terminator 3" a cyborg from the future is again sent back to the present to protect John Connor from a cyborg out to kill him.

    For those counting, it took a team of three screenwriters to pound out this new synopsis, whoo inovation there.

    wake up people and demand more for your $, we/you deserve better than this crap, these people are taking the piss out of you to your face and you continue to smile and let them.

    Luckily i guess, DivX will shake them up more as time goes on to innovate or die, just like mp3 and the music biz, the customer is now in the driving seat (unfortunatly he's driving too slow)

    1. Re:suitable audience by Pres.+Ronald+Reagan · · Score: 0, Troll

      I'm sure the international revenue will be more than the US revenue.

      Those dumbass Europeans don't know a bad movie when it kicks them in the ass.

      --

      Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.
      --Ronald Reagan
  48. Cameron didn't direct it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    'nuff said!

    I'm just a likeable motherf***er -- SnoopDog

  49. I just saw it last night.... by Cnik70 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    At age 54, Arnold still kicks ass. But what the fuck happened to Claire Danes? When did she go from 18 to 40 overnight.... damn she looks like shit! Overall plot was a bit bland, but you can see the setup for T4. The action was great, nice effects! And the one liners were perfectly blended into the dialog. Well worth the few bucks, and a nice escape from the summer heat.

    --
    -Cnik
    1. Re:I just saw it last night.... by British · · Score: 2, Funny

      When I heard Claire Daines was going to be in it, my first thought at the title was "My So-Called Terminator"

    2. Re:I just saw it last night.... by Wolfrider · · Score: 1

      --I wish everybody would stop ripping on Claire - I mean come on, she's no worse than Molly Ringwald!

      --
      .
      == WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
    3. Re:I just saw it last night.... by Cnik70 · · Score: 1

      That would make an interesting poll question: Who is hotter: (1) Molly Ringwald (2) Claire Danes

      --
      -Cnik
  50. Kinda late? by boulat · · Score: 1

    I saw T3 on june 30th (monday)

    you guys posting this after all ppl saw it and decided it was a big disappointed

  51. Review of slashdot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Full of dorks.

  52. Free will vs Determinism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Seems like the T-universe supports determinism after all which makes sense and resolves some of the paradoxes; alas it invalidates Cameron's big "The Future Is Not Set" argument as it clearly is in a single universe set-up.

    There are two arguments for time travel which strangely enough mirror the Matrix Reloaded's arguments about free will versus determinism:

    The first theory is based on determinism: for time travel to remain consistent the past cannot be altered. In other words, the time traveller from the future always existed within the past so whatever changes he attempts to make cannot and *do not* occur in such a way to alter a future timeline. In other words the entire past is set in stone for the present to exist, and as the present is the future's past, the events of tomorrow are similarly predetermined to ensure continuity of the timeline. There is no free will, and the grandfather paradox does not occur: it will be impossible to murder your grandparents and any changes to the timeline you made in the past *always* happened in the past relative to your present.

    The second theory is free will and relies on parallel universes. In this case the grandfather paradox is also fixed because each time traveller ends up in a similar but not equal universe to the one they left. If they change the timeline it does not effect the timeline of the universe they left, only the one they arrived in. Alas, this also means the chances of returning to the exact universe you left are remotely slim. You can never go home again.

    Finally, a time traveller travels along a closed time-like curve that is created when the first time machine is created. In other words they would not be able to travel back to a point previous to the first time machine existing, and would only be able to travel along the 4th dimension on the fixed xyz co-ordinate of the time machine in question. This essentially invalidates all the Terminator films anyway as there is no evidence of time travel equipment present in the 1984 film.

    Ronald Mallett is currently working on a light-based time machine (using the concepts of spacetime frame dragging) so we'll know what is right (if anything) when he turns it on.

    1. Re:Free will vs Determinism by Edgewize · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You make the classic mistake about a one-path deterministic future: "There is no free will."

      From an external viewpoint, it would seem that free will must not exist, because the timeline is completely determined. But we exist as creatures in time, not external to it. At any moment, we are free to make our own choices. Just because these choices have already happened from another viewpoint does not mean that we did not have free will at the time of the choice.

    2. Re:Free will vs Determinism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The first theory is based on determinism: for time travel to remain consistent the past cannot be altered."

      Yeah, I learned that from the BTTF-Universe also that you need 1000 jigawats to travel through time.

    3. Re:Free will vs Determinism by shirai · · Score: 1

      Free will?

      But is it free as in beer or free as in speech?

      --
      Sunny

      Be my Friend

  53. some sequel ideas by Scholasticus · · Score: 5, Funny

    T4: The Terminator Returns Again
    T5: The Terminator & Robin
    T6: The Terminator vs. Mothra
    T7: The Attack of the Clone Robots
    T8: Abbott & Costello & The Terminator Go To Mars
    T9: Terminator Resurrection
    T10: Star Trek: Nemesis
    T11: The Terminator Has A Fistfull of Dollars
    T12: The Terminator Goes To The Grand Canyon With The Brady Bunch

    1. Re:some sequel ideas by mdielmann · · Score: 2, Funny

      T12: The Terminator Goes To The Grand Canyon With The Brady Bunch

      I can't see how that can go wrong. No matter what happens, you'll be happy at the end.

      --
      Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
    2. Re:some sequel ideas by BigBadBri · · Score: 1
      T8: Abbott & Costello & The Terminator Go To Mars

      IIRC, this was called 'Total Recall', wasn't it?

      --
      oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
    3. Re:some sequel ideas by cheekyboy · · Score: 5, Funny

      T69: terminator does dallas

      --
      Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
    4. Re:some sequel ideas by Ath · · Score: 1

      You forgot:

      T13: Terminator Vacation

    5. Re:some sequel ideas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      T1: Terminator
      T2: Judgement Day
      T3: Rise of the Machines
      T4: The Nuclear War
      T5: Animatrix
      T6: Matrix
      T7: Matrix Reloaded
      T8: Matrix Revolutions

    6. Re:some sequel ideas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Should T10 be:
      T10: Star Trek: First Contact? (Interesting three-way fight. Ending? The Vulcans come, they see, they say Fuck this shit! and leave.)

    7. Re:some sequel ideas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you forgot jason and freddy vs the terminator.
      -ac

    8. Re: some sequel ideas by Omniscient+Ferret · · Score: 1

      Send Terminators back after John Connor's ancestors, like in a Jane Austen / Terminator crossover...

      "Indeed," said the man (whom Patience could not help but think of as made of clockwork, though he manifestly was something far stranger)...

  54. Eh? by HugoQuixote · · Score: 2, Funny

    Rise of the Machines?
    More like Rise of the Robots.
    Here's hoping no-one's forgotten the above abomination of gaming... =)

    --
    "I hate Cthulhu, Cthulhu hates me, I kill his cultists, He eats worlds for tea"
    1. Re:Eh? by Trurl's+Machine · · Score: 1

      Here's hoping no-one's forgotten the above abomination of gaming... =)

      How can you forget installing a game from eleven floppies!

  55. These days... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...it's not about HOW GOOD a movie is.

    It's about IF and HOW BAD a movie is.

    IF and HOW BAD copyprotcted the movie and soundtrack is comes #2.

  56. T4 Ahnold Runs for Office. by koan · · Score: 1

    Here's hoping this tripe keeps him out =)

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  57. It's not like nudity can make it WORSE... by Alereon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While I will most certainly agree that tossing some random naked chicks into a movie can't make up for a bad movie overall, it's not like said random naked chick can actually turn a good movie into a bad movie (unless, I suppose, it was a kids movie). If they're not replacing good content with nudity, then who cares? When it's a question of breasts vs. another ten seconds of a car chase, I'll take the breasts, thank you very much.

    Now let's play "guess my age and gender!"

    1. Re:It's not like nudity can make it WORSE... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      12 and male?

    2. Re:It's not like nudity can make it WORSE... by diverman · · Score: 4, Funny

      Male, between 12 and 65 (older if you take Viagra). :)

      -Alex

  58. umm, .torrent anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    thx

  59. Beyond silly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's okay to show violence in virtually all its forms in movies and it is considered 'okay' and a good pass-time by joe sixpack. However, on the other hand, nudity, people making love etc. is considered as not 'politically correct'. How can that be? It's beyond silly if you think about it.

  60. Best Unintentional Joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    By far the best unintentional joke was:

    I am paraphrasing, but it is a pretty accurate quote:

    "Skynet is connected and now controlling the worlds neworks. IT IS PUSHING DATA THROUGH AT 60 TERAFLOPS A SECOND."

    I laughed out loud so hard when they said that that people thought I was having a coniption.

    Come on, what can top that?

    -ddw

    1. Re:Best Unintentional Joke by jedinite · · Score: 1

      i just saw T3 last night.

      The quote was

      "..it is processing at 60 teraflops a second"

      too bad I wasn't in your theater, as I could have laughed at you... ;)

      --

      ---------
      There is no try at jedinite.com
    2. Re:Best Unintentional Joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      "..it is processing at 60 teraflops a second"



      So that's 60 trillion floating point operations per second per second



      Mein Gott! It's accelerating

  61. Still... by Winjer2k · · Score: 1

    I think a coooler plot for T3 would have been:

    1.) John Connor Realizes in the future or present that without Skynet, he can't become the great worshiped leader of the humans.
    2.) John either tries to further along Skynet's progress in the past or allies with Skynet in the future to hurry along production.
    3.) Rebels within the human resistance send back Arnold to kill John in the past.
    4.) John/Skynet send Terminatrix back to kill Arnold.
    5.) ???
    6.) Profit!

    I'm sure there's some time travel loop-holes there, but I still think that plot would have been cooler. In fact, after seeing the teaser for the first time, I thought that that's maybe what was going to happen. Now I'm a bit disappointed!

    --
    I sig for world peace
    1. Re:Still... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It'd be neat to do a T4 with a link to the Matrix in there. I'd like to see how Ahnold and Agent Smith match up... plus, we'd get to see Trinity one more time...(but, maybe, they could make her jaw not as huge as it looks in Matrix Reloaded)

  62. Special effects getting worse? by misleb · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Is it just me or are special effects in movies getting worse? Maybe I am just getting older and too attached to the "good ol' days" or something like that, but I sincerely feel that the original Star Wars series was far more moving and "believable" than the latest 2 movies. Same with Terminator, as this reviewer notes. There is just something really not right about all the over blown CG effects. The Matrix suffered from this too. For as much as I might have liked the plot in these movies (well, Star Wars I an II were just plain stupid), the effects ultimately turned me off.

    Besides LoTR and animated films like Shrek, almost all action/sci-fi/fantasy films lately have totally over done it with the CG effects. Way over the top. Its like directors and producers have this new toy and can't wait to exploit it every chance they get.

    All I can say is give me animatronics. Give me real stunt people. Give me true artists. Not some kids out of college who just learned out to operate a 3D rendering application.

    -matthew

    --
    "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
    1. Re:Special effects getting worse? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AMEN!

      There are millions out there that agree with you!
      Bring back real fx, not CGI that distracts from the STORY, which should be the focus of the film.

    2. Re:Special effects getting worse? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for sharing. BTW, you should turn around and get back to work. Bart & Milhous are there and they want to buy the current Radioactive Man. Thanks.

    3. Re:Special effects getting worse? by robson · · Score: 1
      Is it just me or are special effects in movies getting worse? Maybe I am just getting older and too attached to the "good ol' days" or something like that, but I sincerely feel that the original Star Wars series was far more moving and "believable" than the latest 2 movies. Same with Terminator, as this reviewer notes. There is just something really not right about all the over blown CG effects. The Matrix suffered from this too.
      Right. Here's what I think is happening: Effects are getting more and more ubiquitous, but they're not getting easier to implement at the same rate. Here's the scenario I imagine:

      Producer: Okay, I love this nth rewrite of the script. And scenes x, y, and z are gonna be CGI.

      Director: That's not really necessary, we can do those scenes with practical effects...

      Producer: Nonsense. CGI is easy these days. Everyone's doing it. Remember Gollum? They can do anything now.

      ...but there's a point that gets glossed over: Just because one or two effects houses are capable of the best work, that doesn't mean the entire art/industry is capable of the same. A lot of stuff in the second Matrix film seemed like it could've looked right with some polish.

      Anyway, that's my hypothesis.
    4. Re:Special effects getting worse? by cgenman · · Score: 1

      While effects look more and more correct, they get less and less believeable because they are shot with less and less skill. If the trees storming Isengard scene was filmed in the 80's, it would have been carefully choreographed with a lot of low-angle shots, quick clips of moving branches, reaction shots, etc. Now it gets rendered from above in a single sweeping shot that doesn't do anything to bring people into the experience. Revolutions suffered from the same fate: the scene with the clone Smiths was such an unbelieveable and unreal event that they should have humanized it, filming it with a minimum of effects, and never allowing the camera to drift from within 1 foot of the characters. Instead it was shot artlessly, largely from over-the-head shots, and without any attempt to make believeable what was happening. Just because every individual frame looks right doesn't mean that the overall scene will have believeable movement or human depth.

      The best effect from Matrix: Revolutions was the multiple moniters setup in god's apartment. That effect was in service of the human aspect of the story, and worked well. The action scenes in the original Matrix all served the human aspect of the story, and therefore worked well ("Do you think that's air you're breathing? Hm?"). The terminator worked in T2 because he was playing the role of Data: an exploration of how far a machine can become a person without losing its identity.

      3D rendering doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. Gollum is the perfect example of this: he is a character with redeeming value done in CG. The same thing for the T-Rex in Jurrassic Park.

      In some ways this early generation of 3D artists has forgotten the lessons of filmmakers past: never pull back to show all of a set, never film from above your characters heads, always obscure parts of the scene even if you don't have to, maximize impact on the audience not the size of your explosions, and always make your effects service the human aspect of your film. If we can see more of this kind of CG, then it will have come into its own.

      I hope this will come sooner rather than later.

      -Chris

    5. Re:Special effects getting worse? by malducin · · Score: 1

      Well to me VFX are getting better all the time. The problem now is that with CG there are a lot more places doing VFX (there are tons of boutique VFX shops) and also there is a bigger quantity of films with VFX. So while we have better VFX there is also a larger number of films (and maybe higher percentage) with so-so VFX. Still there are projects with great VFX. And there are still facilities that still do all sorts of VFX, not only CG but stuff like miniatures). It seems that this larger portion of so so VFX gives the impression that all VFX are bad but that is not so.

      Also it seems that you can't separate the VFX from the story. Just because you didn't like a movie or story doesn't mean the VFX suck. Each should be judged by themeselves unless you criticize the whole package. Or take this as an example, you can see a movie with a sucky story and great photography, or say you can see a great film with bland photography. You can certainly pick apart the different disciplines and art involved. Of course all that contributes to the overall experience if you like the film or not, but it would be stupid to say a filmed sucked because the cinematography was bland and presdict the doom of movies.

      And it's incredibly naive to say the CG guys are not artists, There is not much difference between being an artists with a pencil and one with a computer. The computer is just an incredible high tech pencil and it takes real artistry to do great stuff for it. I take you have never met or seen documentaries with CG animators. It would be the same as to say photographers are not artists because they use a machine as opposed to a brush and canvas. There are both artists in their disciplines.

      Granted some people out of college (many of them button pushers) might want to do CG and VFX. But many of the people in top acilities have been doing CG for more than a decade. Wouldn't you consider John Lasseter of Pixar, who directed both Toy Storries and has done CG since the early-mid 80s an artists. What about T3's Animation Supervisor Dan Taylor who even did stop motion long before joining ILM. There is much talent and artistry in CG VFX, too bad most people don't see it and think every animation app has a render dinosaur or animate alien monster buttons.

    6. Re:Special effects getting worse? by md65536 · · Score: 1

      I agree. I think one of the problems is that special effects are based on existing special effects rather than on anything resembling reality. The next big movie's effects look just like the last big movie's effects, only bigger and badder. There is little diversity. A lot of effects get faker and turn into more refined versions of the same thing we've seen before, but no matter how good the CG gets, it never looks real.

      I remember seeing really old Russian sci fi special effects, with rockets in space emitting cool blue exhaust flames. It still looks amazing, because it's subtle and different. Modern Hollywood does not seem to like difference, subtlety, or reality in its effects.

      One example of all of this is that anything involving fire (eg. a missile launch, an explosion, a house on fire) now makes a "Schwepp!" sound. I've never heard this sound occur in reality, and I'd never heard it in sci fi before coming across it with the end boss in Doom II. But now because the last rocket effect used that sound, the next rocket effect must, only they'll make it even bigger and stupider and maybe add some more glitz.

    7. Re:Special effects getting worse? by CvD · · Score: 1

      Well, at least in Tomb Raider 2 they have some honest stunt work, like BASE jumping and flying with Birdman Suits. Very cool scenes with no CG in it... although the part where they run out of the building is a bit fake. You can't run with a Birdman suit. You can only waddle forward, much like a penguin or a duck. :-) But for the rest, a big thumbs up for that scene.

      Cheers,

      Costyn.

    8. Re:Special effects getting worse? by malducin · · Score: 1

      "In some ways this early generation of 3D artists has forgotten the lessons of filmmakers past"

      That is some true in many cases but not all of them. People like John Dykstra, Richard Edlund and Dennis Muren know quite a bit of cinematography and also come from the time of classic VFX: shooting opticals, framing shots and lighting and composition, etc. That's why films usually done by veterans fare much much better than those done by new guys (especially boutiques). In some films you get that CG camera syndrome, which makes them look like an amateur demo reel or a motion based ride film.

      There is one forgotten aspect though. There are tons of small and dramatic films that contain the "invisible" type and subtle VFX. Stuff like on Pollock, A Beautiful Mind, What Lies Beneath, Forest Gump, Adaptation, Gangs of New York, Punch-Drunk Love, Panic Room, etc.

      Even in big films there can be quite a bit of subtle VFX like sky replacements, removing rigs and mics, set extensions, etc.

    9. Re:Special effects getting worse? by Jon+Abbott · · Score: 1

      From what I have heard, there is some real stuntwork in T3... According to a recent interview with Arnold, he cracked a couple ribs doing a stunt because he slammed into a misplaced I-beam in a building he was being dragged through. I think T3 has a lot more real explosions and effects than a lot of other movies out there nowadays.

    10. Re:Special effects getting worse? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Give me true artists. Not some kids out of college who just learned...to operate a 3D rendering application.

      Gotta give all those those ex-dot-com'ers something to do

    11. Re:Special effects getting worse? by misleb · · Score: 1
      Also it seems that you can't separate the VFX from the story.Just because you didn't like a movie or story doesn't mean the VFX suck.

      I do see a difference between a bad story and bad VFX. As I noted, Star Wars I and II were just bad movies that also had bad VFX. The Matrix was a good movie that had overdone CG. I think the term "pixel perfect" describes modern VFX best. Life isn't pixel perfect. Movies shouldn't be either. There is just something I liked better about the old, animatronic Yoda.

      Granted some people out of college (many of them button pushers) might want to do CG and VFX. But many of the people in top acilities have been doing CG for more than a decade. Wouldn't you consider John Lasseter of Pixar, who directed both Toy Storries and has done CG since the early-mid 80s an artists.

      I think CG is GREAT in the context of animation. I loved Toy Story, Shrek, Monsters Inc., etc. (well, Ice Age sucked). See, the problem with CG in non-animated movies is that it tends to look like animation. It's close to realistic, but not quite. I think that back in the day they knew that animatronics didn't look quite real, so they used special photography to create the illusion.. close up shots, quick pans, etc. Now, they just pan out and show you the whole damn scene in all of its computer animated glory... and it often looks animated. I use Star War as an example because I think it is the only series that had the same director but used totally different methods for creating effects. The original Star Wars series was so much richer and engaging. And I don't mean just the plot.

      Then again, there are movies like Gladiator that looked good. You know, where they inserted all those CG people in teh audience and stuff. But the thing is, that wasn't central to the movie. They didn't build the movie around that effect. The real action, blood, and story was not CG, AFAIK.

      -matthew

      --
      "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
    12. Re:Special effects getting worse? by malducin · · Score: 1

      I guess I misunderstood you a bit though I still don't agree with the final consequences.

      Why would CG be fine for animation but not VFX. The argument is analogous. You could divide them in classic hand drawn and into CG animated. I think both forms are valid, and some like Sinbad and Spirit mix the two. Imagine if people said all CG animated films sucked or are not worthy because CG is not real art, no stylization, it's cheating because you use computers or doesn't make it look like animation but a video game?!?! Same thing thing with VFX, the computer is just a tool and it's the right step forward. The only problem is when it's poorly used.

      And I do disagree, both Star Wars prequels had stupendous VFX. The American and British Academies thought so, so did VES and SIGGRAPH. Granted some VFX are not up to par, but the same thing happens with most movies like Matrix, LOTR, X2, etc.

      The other implication is that especially action and scifi movies shouldn't use CG and VFX since most of them the VFX would be the central part, not the story and characters. But how are we supposed to bring to life aliens, creatures, ships and other planets? There are good and bad ways to achieve them, either CG, traditional or both.

      There are action and acifi extravaganzas that looked good with tons of CG, and others that didn't. There is also the perceptual thing. Just because you know it's CG doesn't mean it looks CG. After all miniatures and stop motion in classic films are easy to spot, that doesn't mean you discredit the film.

      Sure I agree that some movies are built around the action and VFX and sometimes they do suck. But CG is a great tool and can be used to (pardon the pun) great effect.

    13. Re:Special effects getting worse? by Wesser · · Score: 1

      Actually, the real issue isn't that you don't like CGI even though it may seem that way. The problem is you know they're CGI. When you get used to a certain method of something, in this case, special effects, you simply get used to them being done the way they've been done for a long time. Miniatures, lots of makeup, real explosions. With all of those things, you don't get a grand feeling of "Wow, look how big and badass this explosion is" because it's simply not that big of a deal. When you see modern specical effects, they're so solid and in-tune and grand that you sit there and are like "This is new to me, I can't handle it, I know it's CGI and fake, it doesn't look like the miniatures I've gotten used to, I don't accept it". And you don't like it. All of this happens on a sub-consious level. That's simply how it is. And in 15- 20 years when there are not many more real actors, people will take some time to accept that as well and the old CGI crap we have now will be accepted.

    14. Re:Special effects getting worse? by Tomster · · Score: 1
      cracked a couple ribs....

      You think that's bad, man, you should see the I-beam!

      -Thomas

    15. Re:Special effects getting worse? by misleb · · Score: 1
      While I understand where you are coming from, your theory would only hold water if you could find many people who were used to special effects from teh 50's and thought that the animatronics of the 70's and 80's were worse or less realistic or whatever. Somehow I suspect that most would feel that the FX field had evolved or improved.

      The real issue, as others have pointed out, is more likely that there are just more movies hitting the mainstream that use CG. A mainstream that isn't exactly known for quality in the first place. If they can't a simple plot/acting right, how should we expect them to implement CG right? CG probably is a superior or more evolved method of generating special effects. Its just that most of these movies would suck no matter what is used to generate the effects. Also, when I think back to "the good ol' days," I am generally drawing from a very small subset of movies such as Star Wars and 2001. Where I would convieniently forget about all the movies that also came out during the time that were really bad and looked fake. Oh well.

      -matthew

      --
      "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
    16. Re:Special effects getting worse? by f0rt0r · · Score: 1

      I think what person who started the thread meant is that CG effects do not look as real as techniques used in the past. That is my take on it too, I see CG effects, and I think I am watching a cartoon. There are a few exceptions to this, but mostly I am no longer "in" the movie once the first bad CG scene is shown.

      --
      I can't afford a sig!
    17. Re:Special effects getting worse? by shirai · · Score: 1

      Yes, I think special effects are getting worse in many ways but this seems to be a side effect of CG becoming more accessible. It's like graphic designers and dare I say web designers when the technology first became available. Heck, even now.

      And I honestly believed this was due to CG too until I saw the making of Black Hawk Down. You wouldn't guess how many scenes were done with or augmented by CG because you simple couldn't tell! All the dust storms kicked up by the helicopters were done in CG. Many of the helicopters themselves were CG.

      They also talked about how movement caused a problem. First they figured they're helicopters so they moved them any way they wanted but then realized it looked fake. Then they noticed that helicopters tilt around the base of the rotors and that's what added realism. I've noticed that most CG problems have to do with motion, not so much with the individual frame itself.

      --
      Sunny

      Be my Friend

    18. Re:Special effects getting worse? by babbage · · Score: 1
      Go rent City of Lost Children, a French ["Freedom"?] film from many of the same people that made 2001's Amelie and 1991's Delicatessen. All of these movies are wonderful, but CoLC in particular makes excellent use of CG effects. One of the more prominent characters, for example, is a flea who has been trained as an assassin, who will on command seek out his quarry, climb onto his scalp, and inject him with poison -- and none of these sequences could have been filmed they way they are if digital effects didn't exist.

      Go rent David Fincher's most recent movies, Panic Room and Fight Club. Again, these non-scifi movies make very creative use of digital special effects to enhance the cinematography, allowing the camera to move through the handle of a coffee pot, or transforming a condominium living room into an animated page from an IKEA catalog.

      Both of these directors get it. They are using CG effects not for the over the top explosions (though of course they are part of the toolkit if necessary), but rather as a way to do things that a traditional camera was never able to do, moving it around in creative ways, splicing together scenes that are separated by time & space, and doing everything they can to not draw attention to themselves while they're busy making the impossible look natural.

      Crap like Terminator, Star Wars I&II, and Matric? I agree with you, it's too much candy and not enough substance. But better examples of how to do use CG are out there, if you're paying attention. I think guys like Fincher & Jean-Pierre Jeunet are showing us how, as digital effects become cheaper & more seamless, they're going to start becoming a standard part of every mainstream director & cinematrographer's toolkit, just as things like camera lenses & lighting arrangments were in the past.

    19. Re:Special effects getting worse? by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 1
      Besides LoTR and animated films like Shrek, almost all action/sci-fi/fantasy films lately have totally over done it with the CG effects. Way over the top.

      Back in the 80's even poor musicians started being able to afford synthesizers, and for a while all you heard was synth-heavy tunes. By the end of the decade people started to calm down and figure out where it makes sense to use synths and when it doesn't.

      Now that CG has newly become fairly cheap, expect ~5-7 years of CG-heavy movies until everyone calms down and learns when to use this tool.

      --
      PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
  63. whats with the hype by crow976 · · Score: 1

    Usually, most trailers are pretty effective at making people (at least me) go see a movie... but seriously, nothing from the T3 trailers made me want to go see this flick. I mean, it's still the terminator, and it's still after john connor to protect him as in T2... the only new stuff I see is just obviously better special effects and chicks. I dont think the whole story is that much exciting anymore... we've seen too much....T3 will gross some money anyway that's for sure... but seriously, as much as I would like it to be good, I don't think I'll even bother go seeing it. It's time for some new, original, intelligent stuff... but until then, what's next.. charlie's angels 3? yeye! *braindead*

    1. Re:whats with the hype by llzackll · · Score: 1

      Don't let the trailer stop you from seeing this movie. I thought it was going to suck after seeing the trailers too, but it turned out to be good. The trailers show a lot of the CGI effects, but the actual movie doesn't rely too much on these.

  64. CNN review by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CNN usually mentions when Time Warner is involved with production. For instance, check out their Matrix Reloaded review:

    Here

    Incidentally, it's the same reviewer as T3 and he didn't particularly like Reloaded (also a Warner film).

    I think legally they have to say when they are involved with the production. Perhaps T3 is a special case. I remember hearing Jonathan Mostow (the director) claiming something about how it was "legally an independent film." So maybe they don't have to mention Time Warners involvement in the review?

    Here is the interview with the director where he talks about the production.

    Anyway, if you really want reviews of this movie, go to Rotten Tomatoes. it currently has a fairly respectable 71% rating.

  65. HA!Ha!HA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is really one of the funniest comments I've heard in a long time! "Now it is time for you to DIE BY FIGHTING". Certainly has more dramatic value than "beat you to death".

    No seriously, I know what you mean though. In the rare cases when it happens, it's really great to see a character avoid a useless fight.
    The thing that I hate much more that this though, are fights where it's too easy to kill, or knock out the other person. I'm sure today if most people attempted to knock someone out with their bare hands they would only succeed in pissing them off. Additionally, it seems nowadays in movies, neck snapping only requires forcing one's chin to rotate at a 45 degree angle from it's central position. I'm certain that if i tried to snap someone's neck right now I'd only succeed in getting the crick out for him.

    Yeah, pointless fights are annoying but I'd rather to see indestructibles fighting each other than the classic indestructible vs fragile, handle with care.

  66. FWIW, one of the greatest chase scenes ever by kaltkalt · · Score: 1

    The chase scene in this movie (crane) is one of the greatest I've ever seen, and I cannot think of a better one off the top of my head. It blows away the crap scene in that CGI cartoon, Matrix 2. More destruction, and unlike Matrix, this actually looks real.

    I expected this movie to absolutely blow. No James Cameron. No Linda Hamilton. The director of U-571. But it was actually quite good, IMO. Nowhere near as good as T2, mind you, but infinitely better than I thought it would be. And that chase scene kicked ass.

    --

    Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
  67. At T3, note that every "preview" is for a sequel by kaltkalt · · Score: 1

    I don't know if every theater shows the same previews for each movie, but there were 5 or 6 previews when I saw T3 the other day, and every single one of them was for a sequel. And, of course, the main feature was a sequel. Are original movies too risky to make nowadays because they don't have a proven potential audience?

    Something is seriously wrong with the world when they are making "The Whole 10 Yards" ... a sequel to that idiotic "The Whole 9 Yards" movie w/ Bruce Willis and the 'Friends' gimp. TombRaider 2, Bad Boys 2, Whole 9 Yards 2, and about 2 or 3 others that, not surprisingly, I can't remember.

    --

    Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
  68. It wasn't 100% clear by roystgnr · · Score: 1

    That was one of the little details that I liked: even though those two clueless cops didn't recognize that they were hauling an imposter, Kate stopped running toward it and realized she wasn't looking at her fiancee even before the change started.

  69. Other Terminator stories by phillymjs · · Score: 3, Informative

    There are at least two series of books that pick up where T2 left off (I guess nobody thought there would be a T3). Both are very good, IMHO, and answer quite a few questions that may have been gnawing at Terminator fans of the "alt.nerd.obsessive" type since they saw the first movie. If you're hungry for backstory, continuation of the Terminator saga, and/or an account of what really happened on August 29, 1997, you ought to give both of these series a read.

    The New John Connor Chronicles series, by Russell Blackford.
    I've read only the first book of this series, but a second one is already out and a third is due in a month.

    T2 series, by S.M. Stirling.
    I've read the first two of this series, and the third is on its way to me now.

    James Cameron has no connection with these books other than getting credit (and presumably, some sort of royalties) for originally creating the main characters and the world they inhabit. Having said that, though, the books do achieve a Cameronesque level of story detail, and they do dovetail perfectly with the films-- I don't recall coming across any discrepancies that made me stop reading and say, "Huh?"

    ~Philly

  70. Offsite Backups. by uberdave · · Score: 1

    Surely Cyberdyne would have offsite backups in case of disaster. (Like, say, the building blowing up?)

    They just played T2 on TV the other night. There were a lot of scenes that I'd never seen before (must have been a director's cut). Scenes like John Conner teaching T101 how to smile. T1000 killing the dog. Removing the chip from T101's head when they were in the garage. T1000 having sampling glitches after being frozen and reliquified. That is how John Conner was able to tell the T1000 apart from his mom. The T1000's feet had cloned the industrial plating that it was standing on. Unfortunately, the whole thing was so cut with commercials. Now I'll have to go rent the director's cut to fully appreciate the film.

    1. Re:Offsite Backups. by mrseigen · · Score: 1

      Yes, the backside of the double-sided metal-box DVD has all those scenes, as well as a handy guide and a hidden alternate (good) ending (you have to input a damned hard code to access it)

  71. Its an Arnie movie after all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and if you guys have seen enough Arnie movies (lets not talk about Junior), you would realize that without the special effects the following would be seen at your local theater

    Screen 1
    Arnie Movie - 7:00P
    Arnie Movie - 7:04P
    Arnie Movie - 7:08P
    Non Arnie Movie - 7:12P
    Arnie Movie - 9:45
    Arnie Movie - 9:49

  72. Depictions of nukes unrealistic by StandardCell · · Score: 1

    I saw this movie, and I thought it was great with the exception of one thing - the nukes. It's my understanding that most nuclear warheads are programmed to detonate a certain altitude OVER their target (air burst) in order to maximize the destructive power. Sure, if you actually hit somthing at its surface with a nuke, you will obliterate a certain mass of the atoms right at the center of the explosion, but this doesn't continue indefinitely and would only likely be necessary to target specific explosions.

    The other thing is that we didn't see one of those enormous nukes, like the 55 Megaton monster detonated over Novaya Zemlya by the former Soviet Union. Every time I see that footage, it makes my skin crawl. I've been told by several people that there were 500 Megaton nukes pointed at the most critical targets in a nuclear war in North America because Edmonton, Alberta (where I'm from) was apparently the Soviet/Russian #4 target in the world in a nuclear strike. This was due to the large number of chemical/petroleum processing plants, landing strips and relative close proximity to northern Asia. Now THAT I would've wanted to see.

    1. Re:Depictions of nukes unrealistic by MKalus · · Score: 1

      Got a link to that footage? I don't think I ever saw that.

      --
      If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
    2. Re:Depictions of nukes unrealistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most nukes target other nukes. If you're going to hit a silo, you want a ground burst. Air bursts are used for anti-personnel, yes, but most nukes would probably be ground bursts. And anything in the 55 megaton range would be overkill; it's tactically more sensible to make lots of small bombs than a few big ones. Finally, nearly every town said it was the #3, #4, or #5 target in a nuke strike. That ain't the way they were targeted. IANANS, I've just read a lot of publicly available stuff on the subject.

  73. Re:It wasn't 100% clear [spoilers!] by phillymjs · · Score: 1

    even though those two clueless cops didn't recognize that they were hauling an imposter

    Well come on, the guy answered the door and was fine. Why would a cop in 2004 have reason to suspect that it was actually a highly advanced killing machine from the future in a clever disguise? I think they may have figured something was up when the T-X killed both of them and then proceeeded to drive the cop car from the rear seat, with her arm still through the midsection of the cop in the driver's seat. Didn't you see them still slumped over when the car pulled up? I thought for sure Kate would've noticed THAT and run away, which would have made a LOT more sense IMHO. It seems pretty fucking stupid to me that the T-X would unmask herself prior to termination of the target she was trying to fool.

    The only purpose that scene really served was to force Kate to believe what John and the T-800 were telling her, but that doesn't make it any less dumb. The T-800 could have just done the 'tear off my arm skin and show the skeptic my endoskeleton' trick that worked in T2.

    ~Philly

  74. Another classic on this subject by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A classic short story on this subject is "The Roads Must Roll" by Robert A. Heinlein

  75. Reminder by Rogerborg · · Score: 0, Insightful

    The majority of Americans believe that Saddam Hussien was behind the WTC attacks, that there are WMDs in Iraq, and 80% of Americans questioned said they are actively proud of America's military, i.e. capacity to kill people.

    Given all that, I'm frequently surprised that movies make even a token attempt at dialogue, wit, acting or plot. I guess we can blame a few die hard script writers and directors for that. When digital effects become so cheap that it's not financially necessary to insert talky bits as filler, we can look forward to movies that are just 90 minute chase sequences.

    Meanwhile, we're spending a quarter of a million bucks a minute to keep American troops and Iraqis killing each other, Osama bin Laden is sniggering in his cave, opium is flooding out of Afghanistan, we are building death chambers in Guantanemo Bay in preparation for executing political prisoners on the basis of confessions tortured out of them, and we sit here discussing whether there might be too much action and not enough plot in Terminator 3.

    It must be summer.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    1. Re:Reminder by jstroebele · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      How did this off topic post get rated a two? But setting the facts straight WMD was found in Iraq see here and last time I heard most thought UBL was behind the WTC.....

    2. Re:Reminder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can't you even read your own fucking article? They say they found evidence of weapons programs, not weapons themselves. Probably a couple more balloon trailers or something.

    3. Re:Reminder by vudufixit · · Score: 1

      What movie studios spend on making filmed entertainment is truly no one's business but theirs - it's all private money. Don't confuse private and public functions. In addition, people have the power to end bad movies and bad political decisions - the former by voting with their feet and not seeing them, the latter by voting. >Meanwhile, we're spending a quarter of a million >bucks a minute to keep American troops and >Iraqis killing each other, Osama bin Laden is >sniggering in his cave, opium is flooding out of >Afghanistan, we are building death chambers in >Guantanemo Bay in preparation for executing >political prisoners on the basis of confessions >tortured out of them, and we sit here discussing >whether there might be too much action and not >enough plot in Terminator 3.

  76. Full Motion Video by EnglishTim · · Score: 1

    Full Motion Video

  77. LOTR Still Rules by cpn2000 · · Score: 1
    Of all the sequels/prequels, mish mash of heavily CG based movies, the only series that has really made it for me has been the LOTR series. I like Matrix reloaded too, but LOTR really rules.

    I think the trick is to not get lulled into using technology as an ends. If CG helps you tell your story more convincingly/provocatively, more power to you, but when directors forget that, we have end products like the Star Wars prequels, which are great eye candy, but they dont do any justice to the plot.

    --
    All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be ... Dark side of the moon
  78. The Internet without infrastructure? by daidojiuji · · Score: 1

    I'm going to do a quick spoiler pad here, even though if you've read this article and comments you've already subjected yourself to endless spoilers. Anyway...

    It seems to me that everyone has forgotten that the end of this movie contains worldwide nuclear holocaust. And that the premise of Skynet is that it's a giant distributed app. Adding those two important components together, doesn't Skynet kill itself when it destroys all of the cities containing its hosts, all of the power plants powering those hosts, and the network infrastructure connecting its hosts? What computers will still be running without power, indefinitely? How useful are disconnected computers? And in nuclear winter, will it really be a priority for regular people to maintain their PCs?

    Unless Skynet somehow trained those T1s to repair T1s...

    1. Re:The Internet without infrastructure? by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 2, Funny

      And in nuclear winter, will it really be a priority for regular people to maintain their PCs?

      But you just have to run Windows Update. Oh yeah, and don't forget to defrag.

      --
      I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
  79. Re:At T3, note that every "preview" is for a seque by mozkill · · Score: 1

    i think your right. hollwood is too scared to take risks on new material. they try to stick to what works as much as possible and its too bad that americans just eat it all up.

    for example, the movie Pitch Black rocked but it wasn't because of one of these scared movie execs. it was because someone had an artistic idea and explored it and somehow someone let it through the cracks.

    --

    -- Betting on the survival of the media industry is a serious risk. I advise investing elsewhere.
  80. Perhapse AOL has something to do with this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Before aol merged with time warner, terminator 2 and the matrix were both great movies...after the aol merger, their sequals were produced, and they were both sub par...is this only a coincidence?

  81. No mixing and matching of movies allowed... by evilviper · · Score: 1
    It's been ten years since I watched the first Terminator and maybe I'm remembering it better than it was. But it had an emotional depth, a heart that neither of its sequels matched. T3 is slicker, yes, but darker!? It's light fluff. The nightmare of nuclear destruction in the original was rendered without CG effects, but I'll remember the skeleton clutching the chain-link fence long after I've forgotten this week's pixel-perfect explosions.

    It's interesting to know that the reviewer thinks neither T2 nor T3 matched the dark moving scenes like the skeleton clinging to the fence...

    But wait! The scene with the skeleton clinging the fence isn't in the first Terminator, it's in T2! Yes, that's right. According to the reviewer, T-2 can never hope to match... uhhh, itself!

    That said, yes, the first one was far darker than the second, but T-2 did improve on many other aspects of the movie that the original fell short on, even if it got slightly cartoony. Maybe that's the result of the original being lower budget, but whatever it was, the second can't be considered a disappointment by any measue.

    As for the review, despite the reviewer's memory lapses, his description sounds all too real. Indeed, I can't even list the number of sequals that have been completely ruined, and don't even remotely live up to their legacy. Matrix and Star Wars come to mind. Maybe everyone in hollywood is simply feeling the same outside infuence leading them to make crap, or maybe they are just money-grubbing individuals looking to squeeze every last penny out of their work, quality and integrity be dammed. Whatevery it is, it almost seems like absolutly everything has been this way for the past year or two, and there was plenty heading this way before then.

    As much as it sucks, I really don't care much. I've got a subscription to netflix, and a queue big enough to take me years to go through it... If hollywood doesn't want to make good movies anymore, I'm not going to give them any more of my money, that's for sure.
    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    1. Re:No mixing and matching of movies allowed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It's interesting to know that the reviewer thinks neither T2 nor T3 matched the dark moving scenes like the skeleton clinging to the fence...

      But wait! The scene with the skeleton clinging the fence isn't in the first Terminator, it's in T2!

      Yup, it's in a flashback. That's the thing I noticed with the review right away. Ahh, the power of rose coloured glasses...

  82. Sorry, editor, YFI by usotsuki · · Score: 1

    There actually was a CG effect in the T2 "Nuclear Nightmare" sequence: the stop sign was reversed digitally.

    -uso.

    --
    Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
  83. The one part that drove me nuts... by JRHelgeson · · Score: 4, Funny
    Being a computer expert, there was one line in the movie that just drove me nuts. "The virus is spreading, but the firewalls are holding up!"

    When the 'internet' was becoming self-aware I just sat there and shook my head and thought, no way in hell would this ever happen with Microsoft products running on 80% of the machines out there... but then I remembered Clippit.

    We don't need to worry about Skynet or whatever, we just need to obliterate that fucking paper clip and we'll save the world.

    --
    Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
    1. Re:The one part that drove me nuts... by contagen · · Score: 1

      Agreed. The part that really got me was that Skynet was processing at "60 teraflops per second" I nearly spit out my drink :p

  84. Agree with review by sacrilicious · · Score: 1

    Saw it, only because my company had an outing to see it and my ticket was paid for. It was garbage. No soul, and a shamelessly dangling ending calling for T4. Boo.

    --
    - First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
  85. please... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why do poeple always say they will "wait for the video?" Like the $8.50 ticket price to see it in the theater is really putting a dent in your bank account. A rental is going to cost you around $4-5 anyway! I say go see it in the theater or don't plan to wait for it to come out on video. The worst people are those that say, "I'm going to wait for it to come on TV." Years later after everybody has forgotten the movie even exists.

  86. your missing the biggest plot hole by libnatel · · Score: 0

    the biggest plot hole is that traveling back in time is impossible. anything that the terminator did would have gigatic reprecussions and would probably lead to the destruction of skynet before it was ever even created.

  87. length? by claudius0425 · · Score: 2, Funny

    you know, T3 should be really short: all that bandwidth, so little content

    --
    Phus. Sysiphus.
  88. Re:No story continuity by thepustule · · Score: 1

    Completely melt away? I think there's a mashed metallic arm laying around somewhere. And the blowing up of the office building? Ever heard of off-site backups?

  89. There is no fixed timeline by roystgnr · · Score: 1

    T2 took some of this plot, but conveniently forgot that the humans were about to win, and created the second movie.

    Humans were about to win in the "original" T1 timeline. (note that it can't be really "original", since the original timeline could have included a John Connor whose conception was the product of time travel) In the T2 timeline, the computers had the advantage of the "head start" that the Terminator's captured circuitry gave them, and so presumably had another chance to send back a time traveler. In the T3 timeline, presumably a side effect of the "delayed" Judgement Day was another opportunity.

    AAMOF, with the destruction of the Terminator in T2, there are to be no systems left.

    The systems destroyed in T2 delayed the invention of these self-aware computers, but didn't prevent them. Thanks to Moore's law, the superchips that people could have invented with help by 1997 were instead invented independently a few years later.

    Okay, if I've done a little bit to soothe your plot holes, perhaps someone can help with one of mine:

    If Skynet has no "central core", then what exactly is it that they were agonizing over hooking up to the internet when Kate's father finally typed 'Y'? And if this was the first access Skynet had to the internet, how did it manage to start some massive computer virus in the first place?

    1. Re:There is no fixed timeline by Dimensio · · Score: 1

      Also, what happens when Skynet's first strike destroys more than half of its own infrastructure? Not a very bright move, I should say.

    2. Re:There is no fixed timeline by Iscariot_ · · Score: 1

      If Skynet has no "central core", then what exactly is it that they were agonizing over hooking up to the internet when Kate's father finally typed 'Y'? And if this was the first access Skynet had to the internet, how did it manage to start some massive computer virus in the first place?

      I have some thoughts on this... At one point in the movie, at the end before Robert Brewster gets shot, John tells him that they need to shut Skynet down. Robert says something like "yea but what about the virus." Connor replies "skynet is the virus." My theory on this is that Skynet (the incarnation from T3) sent the TX back to not only kill, but to also distribute a virus that would motivate the military to activate Skynet.

    3. Re:There is no fixed timeline by ErikZ · · Score: 1


      Skynet HAS to run on something. It may have infiltrated everyone's computers, but after the nuclear holocaust, I can't imagine many computers surviving. Those that did would be stranded, no communications networks would be working.

      On the ground.

      It's possible that Skynet involves satellites.

      So, first, skynet DID have a central core, then when they plugged it into the internet it changed to a more distributed model. :-)

      I want to know what it does now. It has no arms man! It has control over robots...with no arms! How the hell is it going to do anything?

      --
      Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
  90. Got to be kidding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You must be desperate. Neither of the Arnolds aren't good to look out and they're lousy actors.

    And the nudity, .... Do you really want to see either Roseanne or Tom Arnold nude? No thanks. I'd rather have all the evil terminators from the future being "Jar Jar" clones. Both are scary, but at least with the Jar Jar clones, I won't lose my lunch.

  91. Not really nudity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Showing a gal's ass-crack and arnold's ass crack for under 2 seconds hardly counts as nudity.

    If anything, the movie held back; the female terminator was very very attractive, and they made sure she was completely covered for the entire movie save a brief 3 second view of her ass-crack.

    If that bothers you, I suggest you have some self-image problems. You're seriously screwed up.

    1. Re:Not really nudity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >I suggest you have some self-image problems. You're seriously screwed up.

      Nah, just American, sure they'd kick any invading armies ass with their massive military technology and violence trained population, but you could get them in their weak spot by just invading with a bunch of nudists, a lot of them would go off running in sheer fear of a naked body in front of them, heck to have a bunch have heart attacks have the invaders be sexually aroused while you're at it.

      Remember, we're talking about a country where in some states you still cannot engage legally in certain sexual acts in the privacy of your bedroom. Yeah, the "land of the free" unless you want to watch a porn movie in Alabama where it might be banned, doesn't sound to "free" to me when some asshole in office can impose their own puritan views on the rest of the populace.

      I love the American people, but the people they put in charge of things are a bunch of fuckwads basically.

  92. Oh brother by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "But the tongue-DNA-sampling bit was certainly gratuitous."

    It was funny and added to the character's "ruthlessness".

    Honestly, this chick was not very scary as a terminator, they kept her covered like she was a nun... this is pretty tame stuff.

  93. That wasn't the director's cut. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I remember seeing all those scenes in the theater.

    1. Re:That wasn't the director's cut. by uberdave · · Score: 1

      I didn't. I didn't see any of those scenes in any of the multiple times I've seen the movie. Not on TV, not on videotape. Perhaps they'll be on the DVD.

    2. Re:That wasn't the director's cut. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've got the DVD and they are.
      Adds a lot to the movie.

    3. Re:That wasn't the director's cut. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have the director's cut DVD here and it has all those scenes. It was pretty awesome too ;)

  94. Self-Aware MS by airos4 · · Score: 1

    You aren't? Funny, every time I see MS getting closer and closer to Skynet I cringe. "Where do I want to take you today?" is only a few years off. And trust me, Bill would LOVE to plant a little spy in your house that could go screaming back to him if you run a pirated Office or god forbid, you're one of those stinking Mac users.

    --
    I wish there was a choice that said "Factually Wrong -1" when I mod.
    1. Re:Self-Aware MS by BeerSlurpy · · Score: 1

      I hate to respond to stupid posts, but microsoft LIKES having its software pirated by the average user. The more home users that steal office, the more remain proficient in the office product and demand their bosses buy it at work, which is where MS makes all its money.

      Microsoft's antipiracy attempts are all about making business pay up. The 15 year old kid with a terabyte of wares doesnt have any money to spend on software, and has all the time in the world to steal it, so your efforts are wasted on him. Businesses on the other hand consider their time valuable and have deep pockets.

      You dont think its an accident that no version of office or windows has had significant copy protection in the past 15 years.

    2. Re:Self-Aware MS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, because we all know you're the number one expert in the world on what Bill Gates wants.

    3. Re:Self-Aware MS by GigsVT · · Score: 1

      I think that used to be true more than it is now.

      After all, XP home versions had copy protection, but the corporate versions did not.

      --
      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
    4. Re:Self-Aware MS by Moofie · · Score: 1

      Umm, maybe that was to stop office people from buying the non-protected version?

      You might note that the terms "Home" and "Professional" indicate little about the actual utility of the software in the box, and a great deal about your susceptability to marketing ploys.

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
  95. Big disappointment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    THe trouble with the movie is that there is no drama. Yes, we know we'll see the big effects. Yes, we know arnold will do some nutty things as a clueless terminator. Yes, we know John Connor will save the world.

    Where's the drama there?

    Also, you add scenes where she can control physical things (cars) with electronic means defies any kind of rational explanation. Its dumb for dumb sake.

    Overall, worth seeing, but its a dumb flick.

    1. Re:Big disappointment by llzackll · · Score: 1

      ...Also, you add scenes where she can control physical things (cars) with electronic means defies any kind of rational explanation. Its dumb for dumb sake.

      Most car's ignition systems are totally electronically controlled these days. It's definately possible to control the speed, and related functions. But as for the steering.. Well, there is no rational explanation I can think of. Keep in mind the target audience of the movie. Only the slashdot type crowd would question this stuff.

  96. Depictions of nukes WERE REALISTIC by e_pluribus_funk · · Score: 2, Informative

    Whoever told you that there were 500 megaton nukes 'pointed at the most critical targets' either was a dumbass or lied through their teeth. The largest deployed nukes were single warhead 25 megaton nukes on Soviet SS-18 missiles (the SS-18 also came in a 10 warhead, 550 kiloton per warhead, version). Optimal detonation height for blast damage varies depending on the yield of the weapon, but generally speaking, we're talking about 2000 feet. When you are looking at it from above (like in T3) it could very well look like it 'exploded' on the ground. What they captured well, and what I hadn't seen in a movie before (but have seen in actual test footage) was the blast wave's compression of water vapor into clouds.

  97. You should have mentioned the humor (spoilers) by roystgnr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    IMHO this movie wasn't as good as T2, but it was better than the first Terminator, and what made most of the difference was that it could laugh at itself. Fumbling with car keys and blood splatters from off screen are a little cliched, but not exactly laughably bad images; the only real unintentional groaner was the "blow up ten supercomputers" line.

    And the intentional humor more than made up for it. There were a couple failed tries ("She'll be back" was too obvious to be funny, for instance), but most of it came off well. Redoing the "naked Arnold walks into a bar to steal clothes" scene, but then tongue in cheek replacing the bar with a male strip club, was hilarious. The Terminator's exchanges with Kate managed to be witty without breaking character, as were the first few Terminatrix scenes.

    1. Re:You should have mentioned the humor (spoilers) by puppetman · · Score: 1

      "...this movie wasn't as good as T2, but it was better than the first Terminator...".

      How much have you had to drink this morning? Time to cut back, buddy. I know it's July 4th, and all...

      T2 had a whiney kid who couldn't act, and the movie started to get "cute". T1 had the best lines, and it was actually scarey when the Terminator was hot on their trail (unlike T2/3). And the scenes of what life was like in the future was very unsettling. Roasting rats over the fire in the TV, etc.

      Was it just me, or did Arnie have an easier time against the T3 terminator than he did against the T2 terminator?

      I thought the acting was pretty poor in general.

      Overall, a 5/10.

    2. Re:You should have mentioned the humor (spoilers) by FroMan · · Score: 1

      I thought the humor was okey, but as the reviewer mentions:

      Best unintentionally funny line: "I've got enough C-4 to blow up ten supercomputers!"

      My wife and I saw the movie last night. When Conner said that, we both were thinking, "So, exactly how many libraries of congress is that?"

      --
      Norris/Palin 2012
      Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
  98. The Terminatrix.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...imagine a beowulf cluster of those!

    (sorry!)

  99. Not exactly suck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The movie is worth seeing because of the eye candy. But the plot is so dumb.

    Here's what I don't get. They'll spend $200M on special effects, but not another $100K to get somebody to write a decent script.

    That's so dumb that I can't believe it.

  100. It was a good movie by Sandman1971 · · Score: 1

    I kindda liked T3. It's the kind of bubblegum summer movie where you park your brain at the door and just enjoy. Not every movie has to be intellectual or perfectly made. These bubblegum movies is what makes summer movies so great. If I want to think, I'll pick up a book or have conversations with friends.

    --
    It's better to burn out than to fade away
  101. What OS is the T3 running by [000000] · · Score: 1

    Set in the future but not too far What OS is the T3 running...Hmm Windows 2003 + .NET (Passport) and Bluetooth?

    1. Re:What OS is the T3 running by Lord+Kano · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Probably has some 802.11z or something as well.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    2. Re:What OS is the T3 running by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't you mean SKY.NET?

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    3. Re:What OS is the T3 running by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, come on... if it was running Win2K3.NET, why bother fighting it? Just hack it and it would blue screen.

    4. Re:What OS is the T3 running by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I doubt it.

      Probably running on a 65816. The old terminators use a 6502. You know microsoft doesn't touch that kinda stuff.

    5. Re:What OS is the T3 running by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SCO UnixWare.

    6. Re:What OS is the T3 running by aerique · · Score: 1

      Ah! So that's why they're so pissed off.

  102. My thoughts **A few spoilers included** by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2, Informative

    I found myself thinking that if these two idiots are the best hope for mankind, I might be better off if I get caught in a blastwave on "Judgement Day".

    The timelines don't match up. Kyle Reese was sent back to fight the T-800 in 1984. That was when he impregnated Sarah with John. So, John would have been born in 1985. John says that he was 13 when the second T-800 was sent back to protect him, that would have placed the events of T2 AFTER judgement day was originally supposed to happen(August 29, 1997).

    Sarah being dead was a disappointment. But I like the fact that she was such a forward thinker, she made provisions, just in case it wasn't really over.

    There is a repeated theme from T2, that is when they have eluded the new and improved terminator, they make the point of going into the Lion's Den, so to speak and try to save Kate's father.

    How do Kate and John just waltz into a top secret military research facility? No ID? No search to see if they're armed? "Sure ma'am just bring in that AK-47 and those C4 charges. It's cool."

    When the T-X is about to incinerate them at Crystal Peak, John actually takes the time to stop and thank the T-800. WHAT?!?!?!?! It's a F***ING MACHINE! It doesn't care about your gratitude.

    They dashed to pieces John's belief that there was No Fate. Obviously according to this movie, there is fate. We can't stop or change it, we can only delay it.

    Also, Skynet is no longer a single computer, but Skynet is software distributed over the widest of wide area networks. I guess I can understand that the internet was designed to operate in the event of a nuclear war, but when the power plants go out, so do all of the computers that make up Skynet.

    If Skynet is no longer a central machine, how then can John and Kyle Reese "smash" its defense grid and defeat in 20 or so years?

    I also thought that it was stupid that Kate starts to fall for John the SAME F'ING DAY that her fiance gets murdered by the T-X. Maybe a brief period of mourning would have been in order.

    John is also a pill popping boozer. I'm not sure how that plays into his future role as "leader" of humanity.

    But there were many points that I did like. For example, they showed what was obviously the first gen Terminator, the T1. They showed prototypes for the HK. They show exactly HOW it was that John came to be thought of as a leader.

    Not perfect, not as good as the other two, especially when taking them all as a trilogy, but still worth plunking down $8.00 to see. I enjoyed it, more for the background on the Terminator universe than for its own merits, but I still enjoyed it.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    1. Re:My thoughts **A few spoilers included** by DoorFrame · · Score: 1

      "How do Kate and John just waltz into a top secret military research facility? No ID? No search to see if they're armed? "Sure ma'am just bring in that AK-47 and those C4 charges. It's cool."

      Well, presumably the Terminatrix went in first, and little things like doors and military men with guns weren't going to stop her. I'd assume that Arnold and crew simply followed through on her charred and smoking wake.

      "When the T-X is about to incinerate them at Crystal Peak, John actually takes the time to stop and thank the T-800. WHAT?!?!?!?! It's a F***ING MACHINE! It doesn't care about your gratitude."

      Even if John Connor hadn't explicity stated it in T3, it's pretty clear in T2 that the Terminator acted very much as a father figure for him. Due to their physical similarity, I'm willing to forgive John treating him like a human... he does look and behave like a human... and one who's saved John's life dozens of times at this point.

      "Also, Skynet is no longer a single computer, but Skynet is software distributed over the widest of wide area networks. I guess I can understand that the internet was designed to operate in the event of a nuclear war, but when the power plants go out, so do all of the computers that make up Skynet."

      Was it ever stated that the power goes out everywhere? The computer was controlling the Nuclear strikes, I'd assume Skynet targetted the missiles to leave more then enough infrastructure to start it's base of operations from. Including power.

      "If Skynet is no longer a central machine, how then can John and Kyle Reese "smash" its defense grid and defeat in 20 or so years?"

      I guess that depends on what a defense grid is. I'm not entirely clear.

      "I also thought that it was stupid that Kate starts to fall for John the SAME F'ING DAY that her fiance gets murdered by the T-X. Maybe a brief period of mourning would have been in order."

      It was a rough day, I'll forgive it.

      "John is also a pill popping boozer. I'm not sure how that plays into his future role as "leader" of humanity."

      I think he was only popping pills because of the motorcycle accident... somewhat legit medical usage. And we only saw him drink one beer, which he didn't even remotely finish. I wouldn't have called him a drunk or a pill-popper.

      "They show exactly HOW it was that John came to be thought of as a leader."

      That was really good, it always seemed odd that this punk kid would somehow march out of the ruins of LA and take over the army.

    2. Re:My thoughts **A few spoilers included** by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      Well, presumably the Terminatrix went in first, and little things like doors and military men with guns weren't going to stop her.

      No gunfire? No alarms?

      Even if John Connor hadn't explicity stated it in T3, it's pretty clear in T2 that the Terminator acted very much as a father figure for him. Due to their physical similarity, I'm willing to forgive John treating him like a human... he does look and behave like a human... and one who's saved John's life dozens of times at this point.

      Then get the hell past the blast door and yell a thanks back to him. The TX was RIGHT THERE!!!!

      Was it ever stated that the power goes out everywhere? The computer was controlling the Nuclear strikes, I'd assume Skynet targetted the missiles to leave more then enough infrastructure to start it's base of operations from. Including power.

      Two problems with that. Skynet launched the US's missiles. Missiles coming back were defensive responses, which would have been targetted to cripple the country. Even if they weren't, the EMP from the strikes would have been enough to shut down the power in most if not all of the country.

      It was a rough day, I'll forgive it.

      I hope that your S.O. finds you more important than that.

      think he was only popping pills because of the motorcycle accident... somewhat legit medical usage. And we only saw him drink one beer, which he didn't even remotely finish. I wouldn't have called him a drunk or a pill-popper.

      An entire bottle of pills is hardly a legit medical use. Maybe I was assuming too much, but it seemed to me that it was not his first beer that day that he dropped into the water.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    3. Re:My thoughts **A few spoilers included** by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "How do Kate and John just waltz into a top secret military research facility? No ID? No search to see if they're armed? "Sure ma'am just bring in that AK-47 and those C4 charges. It's cool."

      Don't forget they had a Terminator with them.

      "Then the T-X is about to incinerate them at Crystal Peak, John actually takes the time to stop and thank the T-800. WHAT?!?!?!?! It's a F***ING MACHINE! It doesn't care about your gratitude."

      So he's not going to be human anyway? Anybody would have done that. Besides, Arnie did something rather selfless.

      " I guess I can understand that the internet was designed to operate in the event of a nuclear war, but when the power plants go out, so do all of the computers that make up Skynet."

      Skynet was born within the complex. It had the resources it needed there, and the other T-1s were protecting it. Nobody outside of the facility even knew what was going on.

      No plot hole here, move along.

      "If Skynet is no longer a central machine, how then can John and Kyle Reese "smash" its defense grid and defeat in 20 or so years?"

      Who say's its not a central machine 30 years from now?

      "I also thought that it was stupid that Kate starts to fall for John the SAME F'ING DAY that her fiance gets murdered by the T-X. Maybe a brief period of mourning would have been in order."

      1.) She liked him already. 2.) Who said anybody fell for anybody? The best you got was a handhold while John was stepping into the role he didn't want to be in.

      "John is also a pill popping boozer. I'm not sure how that plays into his future role as "leader" of humanity."

      1.) He was drinking to get over the trauma he suffered. That hardly makes him a boozer. Even if it did, it's tough to imagine booze was widely available during the war. 2.) He was pill popping because he injured his leg. 3.) What's one got to do with the other? He had more knowledge about what was to happen than anybody else did. In a sense, the Terminators created John Connor.

      I know it's way too late to expect you to see this, but I caught your post after spotting the topic during metamod. I think you're overanalyzing the movie looking for faults in it, thus removing the fun for yourself.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    4. Re:My thoughts **A few spoilers included** by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      Don't forget they had a Terminator with them.

      I didn't. I have visited military bases. For non sensitive areas there is more security than there obviously was in this case.

      So he's not going to be human anyway? Anybody would have done that. Besides, Arnie did something rather selfless.

      As much as I love it a good song comes on the radio as I'm driving to work, I never thank my SUV or the stereo system in it. The terminator was a machine, doing what it was designed, built and programmed to do.

      Skynet was born within the complex. It had the resources it needed there, and the other T-1s were protecting it. Nobody outside of the facility even knew what was going on.

      No plot hole here, move along.


      Huge gaping plothole here. When John tells Kate's father that he wants to stop Skynet, he would have instructed him to destroy the facility that they were in, if that was where Skynet resided. The T1s were not protecting anything in that building, they were killing as many people with knowledge about Skynet as possible. People who might survive the nuclear war and assist the human resistance years later.

      Who say's its not a central machine 30 years from now?

      Valid point. I did not think of that. Perhaps, when the humans win, it's Skynet XP or something that they are fighting.

      1.) She liked him already. 2.) Who said anybody fell for anybody? The best you got was a handhold while John was stepping into the role he didn't want to be in.

      She liked him 10 years before, and that handhold proves my point that she "started" to fall for John. I didn't assume that they started making babies that night.

      1.) He was drinking to get over the trauma he suffered. That hardly makes him a boozer.

      That is exactly what makes a boozer.

      Even if it did, it's tough to imagine booze was widely available during the war.

      Booze was available 5 thousand years ago, if they have energy weapons, making some wine is not going to be beyond their technology.

      2.) He was pill popping because he injured his leg. 3.) What's one got to do with the other?

      A whole bottle of pills, in one session? And they hinted that it wasn't the first time.

      He had more knowledge about what was to happen than anybody else did. In a sense, the Terminators created John Connor.

      Another valid point.

      I know it's way too late to expect you to see this, but I caught your post after spotting the topic during metamod. I think you're overanalyzing the movie looking for faults in it, thus removing the fun for yourself.

      I always check back for responses. I did enjoy the movie, but it could have been much better.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    5. Re:My thoughts **A few spoilers included** by NanoGator · · Score: 0, Troll

      " For non sensitive areas there is more security than there obviously was in this case."

      Arnie woulda handled it.

      "As much as I love it a good song comes on the radio as I'm driving to work, I never thank my SUV or the stereo system in it."

      Sorry, I don't buy it. It's well established in this movie that John had found Arnie's previous incarnation to be a father figure, and with good reason. The terminator, though a machine, valued human life. Argue all you want, but when it looks human and acts human, you're not going to think about whether or not you should thank him, especially when it clearly shows independent thought.

      "When John tells Kate's father that he wants to stop Skynet, he would have instructed him to destroy the facility that they were in, if that was where Skynet resided."

      Nope, sorry. Her father, wasn't paying attention to John, he wanted her to be taken somewhere safe. Crystal Peak. Destroying skynet wasn't on his mind, considering he had a hole in his abdomen.

      "Valid point. I did not think of that. Perhaps, when the humans win, it's Skynet XP or something that they are fighting."

      Or maybe there's only one power source left? Maybe the defense grid was protecting the single automated factory?

      There's a problem here. When the first movie was written, it was widely accepted that a supercomputer was a single entity that filled a room. The distributed computing idea didn't show up in the mainstream until recently. It may never exactly line up.

      "A whole bottle of pills, in one session? And they hinted that it wasn't the first time."

      Yep, you're right. I'll chew on that a little more. The problem is that he really didn't limp a whole lot afterwards.

      "I always check back for responses. I did enjoy the movie, but it could have been much better."

      Yep, I agree with that. Personally, I wish they would have had somebody write a novel about it and then base a screenplay on it. I think (hope?) that would have fleshed out the details more.

      On thing that saddens me a bit is that because it's an action movie, I don't think they'll turn it into to a mind bender. One of the thoughts that occured to me was along the lines of "What if the original original skynet and judgement day happened like in the 22nd century, and they kept pushing back the date it all started through paradoxes?" So it'd be like a paradox war. At one point, it'd be won when the right set of dates and events happen to give one side too much of a disadvantage. Skynet grows sentient, engages in a war with the humans, sends a terminator back in time, and the resistance sends somebody back to protect the target. In the process of doing so, they create the leader of the rebellion by giving him warning of what was coming.

      Maybe the first leader was somebody totally different. A terminator went back in time to change the future. The rebellion sent somebody to take it out, and informed the target of what was coming. With that, he knew to fight back. Then, when his time came during the war, another attempt was made, pushing the date back, and so on...

      That sort of make sense?

      Sorry, I'm really tired. And I apologize for being a little short earlier. It's not out of bitterness or argument, I'm just really really tired heh.

      Cheers man.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    6. Re:My thoughts **A few spoilers included** by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      Arnie woulda handled it.

      Not without alarming the entire base.

      Argue all you want, but when it looks human and acts human, you're not going to think about whether or not you should thank him, especially when it clearly shows independent thought.


      Argue all you want, the TX was mere inches away. It was stupid and annoying for him to stop. Yell a thank you back at the T800 when you've made it to safety.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    7. Re:My thoughts **A few spoilers included** by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      *Shrug*

      I honestly don't think we're going to see eye to eye on that. Call it a draw?

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  103. Don't believe it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The nudity consists primariliy of showing ass crack for 3 seconds.

    I suggest a playboy magazine is more enticing and costs less.

    But its a fun, stupid movie anyway.

  104. Re:At T3, note that every "preview" is for a seque by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pitch Black rocked??? You must really like Vin Diesel....

  105. Problem with Skynet in T3 (Spoilers) by Dimensio · · Score: 1

    I have a big problem with the way Skynet was represented as a gigantic distributed network on the Internet. Apart from being completely implausable (then again, lots of movies do things with computers that real geeks know are impossible), if Skynet was actually a blip of code running on every computer on the Internet, then Skynet would have destroyed a large chunk of itself in the initial blast -- more than half of the computers in the world on which it was running should have been wiped out!

    Sometimes they don't think these stupid plot twists through well enough.

    1. Re:Problem with Skynet in T3 (Spoilers) by xswl0931 · · Score: 1

      I don't believe Skynet is supposed to be a distributed network of computers. Rather Skynet is a military AI program that was unleashed on the Internet and consequently controlled all machines hooked up to the Internet, which allowed it to take control of the missle silos (why were those machines hooked up to the Internet?) I wasn't so much bothered by this but the reason for unleashing Skynet was to act as antivirus? uh...

    2. Re:Problem with Skynet in T3 (Spoilers) by Dimensio · · Score: 1

      So if Skynet isn't a distributed network, where is it hosted? If it's just the AI running on the computers, what happens to it when those computers are destroyed?

      And as for the anti-virus thing, that's one of those "utterly stupid plot devices, but only if you know how computers work". People with no computer ability whatsoever will find it fully plausable -- and they'll start to think that computers behave in that fashion in the real world.

    3. Re:Problem with Skynet in T3 (Spoilers) by NeMon'ess · · Score: 1

      Skynet wasn't as intelligent at the start. It was also possibly going to have its plug pulled, not at Crystal Palace, but by other unknown means. Perhaps Skynet did the math and felt it was worth loosing half of itself in exchange for nuking 3 billion people and throwing humanity into cataclysmic chaos.

  106. There's almost ALWAYS a way to make a sequel. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The way T3 ends, if they ever make T4 they won't have much choice except doing exactly that...

    I think you need to watch "Escape from the Planet of the Apes."

    T4 could easily take place in an undestroyed world, but I suppose they'd have to send Arnie back to the mid-60's and have him start killing everyone even remotely connected with the development of the Internet. Or.. wait!


    [EVENING. The TERMINATOR walks up to a LANKY KID in Harvard Square, in 1975]

    TERMINATOR: "Are you William Gates the Third?"

    LANKY KID [nervous]: "Uh... yes. Who are you?"

    [The TERMINATOR thrusts his right arm out quickly. TERMINATOR'S hand enters LANKY KID'S chest and emerges a second later holding LANKY KID'S heart. LANKY KID drops to the ground, dead.]

    [Cut to BEDROOM in FINLAND. Camera pans to SLEEPING BOY (AGE 6) who, apparently dreaming, smiles and giggles in his sleep. Camera pans to DESK, where we see SCHOOLWORK with the name "LINUS" written on it in crayon. It appears to be a DRAWING of a PENGUIN.]

    1. Re:There's almost ALWAYS a way to make a sequel. by Dread_ed · · Score: 2, Funny

      Machine Sentience: It's not a bug...it's a FEATURE!!

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
  107. good review but 28 days later sucked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice review of T3. However, you said to see "28 days later" instead. I did see that movie the night it came out. It was so bad, we had people in the theatre screaming "this movie sucks" and everyone else started laughing.

    28 Days started off pretty good. A man wakes up from a coma all alone because everyone else is dead. We see the desperation in his eyes and he did a good job of acting. It was good up until about the 2nd half. You have to wonder, did the original author die and did some retard finish the movie for him?

    It basically degenerated into plain silliness, showing army men as a bunch of uncontrollable animals, and the unarmed hero killing a bunch of trained army personel bare handed. Yeah, right.

    Also, pick everyone in the film and guess with your friend if he/she will live or die. You'll be right with every one.

    Final verdict - don't bother. Brits can't make a good film (and no, that Lock, Stock and Barrel or whatever it's called was not a good movie. It was a bad Tarantino rip-off).

  108. Offended. by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I always thought that the series, especially the second, had an underlying moral that was offensive to me. That moral is that technology, beyond a certain point, should not be researched, that there are sanctimoniously-pronounced Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. The morality is over a hundred years old (except Frankenstein's monster had much better dialogue), but the presentation has the advantage of technological wizardry. Oh, sweet irony.

    I can imagine the offscreen dialogue at the end of "T2":

    World-Saving Heroes: Well, we've saved your asses.
    Unwittingly Evil Scientists: Thanks!
    WSH: Now, remember, no more robotics or artificial intelligence; it'll destroy humanity, and there's no way we can ensure that it doesn't.
    UES: Umm. Right. So, guys, you want to... uh, take up pottery?
    [rumble of sanctimonious approval]

    And did I mention that Linda Hamilton's speech about the wonders of childbirth was possibly the most disgusting thing committed to celluloid in the last ten years? I think "T2" probably did as much for a shortage of kids becoming scientists as anything else.

    --grendel drago

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
    1. Re:Offended. by Knife_Edge · · Score: 1

      Um, her speech about childbirth was an analogy. You see, the Unwittingly Evil Scientists were not exactly unwitting - wasn't CyberDyne Systems working on developing weapons for the military in the movie? Admittedly, the line plays the gender card, saying since men were unable to bear children, they didn't know what it was like to create life, all they were creating was death.

      I don't think the idea was that humanity should not pursue knowledge, it was that humanity should not use its reasoning ability to create destruction on an ever greater scale.

      I thought what Linda Hamilton (as Sarah Conner) said was essentially, "What good is all this knowledge if we are just going to use it to kill people?" Yeah, it does not take much cleverness to carry a baby, but to understand the implications of doing so requires at least some moral development. You know, like caring about the future world in which the child will live? Looking at the situation in the movie, it was not at all clear that technology and science were going to make that world better. The scientists in T2, blithely pursuing their research without regard to the moral implications for humanity, were actually making the world a worse place!

      Let us hope that reality does not correspond to this bleak assessment, but that depends on our moral ability to handle knowledge, not on our ability to avoid 'evil' knowledge. How can wisdom come without understanding? Many scientists consider the potential consequences of their findings carefully. While it is not always possible to predict in advance which research will have more destructive applications than positive ones, advance consideration at least reduces the chance of producing a Frankenstein's monster. Unfortunately, the movie scientists never stopped working for a moment (witness Dyson hard at work at home on his computer, ignoring his children - just before Sarah Conner attempts to kill him) to consider any implications of their work.

      To summarize, knowledge without morals is not good for the future of humanity, as represented in this case by an unborn child.

      This assertion, though crudely made in the movie, never disgusted me.

  109. nudity & the sexes by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 1
    What T&A says to the audience is "this is meant for horny straight males - anyone else is just tolerated here."

    It's not just horny straight guys who like T&A. Lesbian and Bi women would be quite happy with a bit of female flesh too -- and it doesn't even seem to stop there.
    I've got one friend who used to do strip-o-grams, and she said that it tended to be women who were hotter to see her take it all of than the guys. -- go figure.

    --
    Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
    1. Re:nudity & the sexes by ErikZ · · Score: 1

      Go figure? Women are encouraged in their sexuality, men are repressed.

      --
      Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
    2. Re:nudity & the sexes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh good, so it isn't just me that feels this way. If women are liberated sexually, that's all fine and dandy. If men were to act similarly, they get branded as womenizers...

  110. I think you mean "corporeal" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no text though.

  111. True. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Same goes for bombing countries in general.

  112. MOD PARENT FUNNY!!! by phillymjs · · Score: 1

    Please?

  113. Slashdot's "review" by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Was that really a review of the movie, jamie? All we got was a list of "best" and "worse" trivialities. How lame.

    Bottom-line: The movie is the first true ass-kicking movie of the summer. Everyone thought it would suck without Cameron, Hamilton, and so forth. It turned out to be very good, and it's exciting to see Arnold in a movie role that's perfect for him...it feels like 10 years haven't passed at all.

    The car chase beats Matrix Reloaded's. My jaw was on the floor. And the fight scenes are refreshingly gravity-based. No wire-fu.

    You'll love it. Go see it.

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."
    1. Re:Slashdot's "review" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a dick. Matrix: Reloaded was actually watchable.

    2. Re:Slashdot's "review" by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 1

      I watched it. In contrast, T3's car chase is actually exciting.

      --
      "Sufferin' succotash."
  114. volleyball by thoth · · Score: 1

    I'm a huge Terminator fan and I've thought the best possible Terminator 3 movie would have been set in the future, covering the story of how John led the humans to victory. The last 10 mins of the movie would have shows skynet and the humans sending back the T101 and Reese to set up the first movie, and then sending back the T1000 and T101 to set up the second. That would have been fantastic.

    Well, they could possibly do this in T4, the sequel they obviously set up.

    P.S. When Connors is riding his motorcycle at the beginning, the license plate ends in T4. I think that is a subliminal hint ;)

  115. getting naked by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 3, Insightful
    You're living proof that your mother likes sex.

    So is every lawmaker who ever tried to outlaw nudity.

    Nuff said.

    --
    Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
    1. Re:getting naked by JDWTopGuy · · Score: 1

      WRONG! You're only living proof that your daddy likes sex!

      Think about it for a moment. Duh.

      --
      Ron Paul 2012
    2. Re:getting naked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not always, some of us, unfortunately, are the product of rape, and even more unfortunately, in the long case (going back to grandparents, great-great-etc etc), almost all of you are too.

    3. Re:getting naked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It wasn't rape back then, just nature's call.

    4. Re:getting naked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Acutally he/she/you are living proof that his/her/your mother had sex and/or was impegnated by other means...

  116. /.: What a bunch of psuedo-intellectual faagz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jeez you guys sure to live up to that nerd stereotype. Only you linux weasels could complain about hot naked blonde chicks.

  117. Funk's guide to nuclear targeting by e_pluribus_funk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Lets limit this to a scenario between the United States and Russia. No other scenario offers the all the actors in question the options that this scenario does.

    Lets further limit to a general nuclear war scenario, ie, 'the big balloon'.

    The highest priority targets would be C3I, command, control, communications, and intelligence targets:
    - the National Command Authority (the President and his successors)
    - NORAD
    - Offut Air Force Base, Nebraska (HQ for Strategic Command),
    - early warning radar stations in Greenland, Alaska, and Canada.
    - emergency relocation centers

    #2 priority targets would be nuclear forces themselves:
    - ICBM HQs
    - SAC Airbases
    - Port facilities where nuclear weapons are stationed (ie, SSBN's - ballistic missile submarines
    - ICBM silos
    - nuclear weapon storage sites

    Most of the above would be hit within the first two hours of hostilities.

    #3 priority targets would be conventional warfighting targets:
    - Army HQ
    - Military unit locations
    - military airfields/airbases
    - military ports

    #4 priority targets would be dual use targets:
    - civilian ports
    - civilian airfields

    The following targets can be attacked at leisure (because they are not going to go anywhere). At leisure here means probably within 24 hours of hostilities.

    #5 priority targets would be industrial and economic infrastructure necessary for warfighting:
    - key factories (aircraft, tanks, ammunition, etc)
    - electrical power generation facilities
    - petroleum refineries

    #6 priority targets would be other industrial and economic targets:
    - transportation grid (rail and road hubs)
    - food processing plants
    - electrical power substations
    - petroleum pipelines and storage areas
    - computing centers
    - ball bearing factories

    Somewhere near the bottom of the list are urban centers in an of themselves (although they may be hit earlier for any of the above reasons).

  118. agh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so who listens to linda hamilton about anything?

  119. Help please... by Iscariot_ · · Score: 1

    Spoilers:

    I've only seen the movie once, perhaps I need to see it again, but I'll probably wait for DVD.

    Anyway, in the middle of the film when they're discussing the future, and how John dies. Arnold tells him that he kills him, in like, 2032 or something. Did anyone understand that? Why does he kill him? If he does, why do they send the Terminator that actually killed John back in time?

    Based on this information, I'd assume that Arnold will once again be the bad guy in the next movie.

    1. Re:Help please... by Super_Frosty · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Arnold kills John in the future, then Kate captures Arnold and reprograms him. All of the robots that the humans used were captured - they could not manufacture them.

      --
      No comment at this time
    2. Re:Help please... by el-spectre · · Score: 1

      I am curious how one stops and captures a terminator without even scratching his face...

      --
      "Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
  120. Self Fullfilling prohecy by DJ_Tricks · · Score: 1

    The idea that skynet wouldnt have happend if the guy wouldnt have gone in the past to save sarah conner is really a mal-nommer. If you look at the basic ideas of cause and effect this is what you get.

    "Sarah your going to have a child who is going to be named John Conner." future Soilder-Boy

    "No way its not possible im a virtuous virgin!" Sarah doe-eyes

    "But [HE] sent me back to protect you." Future Soilder-boy

    "Well, Ok, want to have sex since im so scared and manageable right now" Sarah doe-eyes

    "HELL YEA!" Future Soilder-Boy

    now you have a robot sent back to stop a birth caused by the fact another guy came back to help the birth happen but he is the one who causes the pregancy.

    Now you just have your self a crazy loop in time and now you have the traditional Chiken and the egg routine

    From all accounts of spacial dynamics this kinda of self revoling prophecy or paradox would cause the dystruction of the known universe but what do i know im just a 17 year old kid who reads to many science jurnols for fun

    i give my shout outs to the big brained AE and the little wheeled SH

    (you'll get it later)

    --
    "to be like god we make our own dolls to play with, but what does that make us, but dolls for god to play with?" Ikari,
    1. Re:Self Fullfilling prohecy by huddles · · Score: 1

      Maybe, instead of reading so many science "jurnols," you should read a dictionary...and a grammar book.

      Joe

    2. Re:Self Fullfilling prohecy by DJ_Tricks · · Score: 1

      thank you for making me more like crap then i already do there joe

      have a good day

      --
      "to be like god we make our own dolls to play with, but what does that make us, but dolls for god to play with?" Ikari,
  121. Consensus (according to Rotten Tomatoes) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On Rotten Tomatoes many reviews are in. Here's the link. 71% of the 112 reviews were good, and the consensus is: "Although T3 never reaches the heights of the second movie, it is a welcome addition to the Terminator franchise." So don't expect it to be as good as T1 and T2. Just expect a good action flick.

  122. 28 Days Later by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

    Is in my mind a complete waste of money. Why anyone would pay full price for what turned out to be a bad remake of "Night of the Living Dead" is beyond me. I've heard the terms "Independent Film" and "Art Film" both used as an excuse for why it's so bad, but those don't qualify if they're charging full price! If you're THAT into post-apocalyptic stories, read "The Stand" by Stephen King or just rent Night of the Living Dead.

    28 Days later has little to speak for it: very bad acting, horrendous (to the point of being epic) dialog, a very hard to swallow story and to top it off it's shot in such a way as my wife and I had a headache through various points of the movie (noteably the intro). Now to be fair, the shots of post apocalyptic England were very well done. I did not enter the movie expecting a great plot, it IS a zombie movie after all. However various twists in the story (involving sex starved men) seemed not only unbelievable but horrible.

    Give 28 days later a miss...

  123. YOU INSENSITIVE BASTARD! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now I'm going to send years in therapy trying to scrub from my brain the bar scene from T2 redubbed with Roseanne! Thank you very so much!

  124. fem guy by darthtuttle · · Score: 1

    You do realize that the 'fem' guy is a character from previous movies, and that the mocking him kinda fills you in to what happened to him over the past 10 years

    --
    Darthtuttle
    Thought Architect
    1. Re:fem guy by zephc · · Score: 1

      you mean from the T1 and T2 movies? Or other movies?

      --
      "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
    2. Re:fem guy by darthtuttle · · Score: 1

      From T1 and T2.

      --
      Darthtuttle
      Thought Architect
  125. My interpration... *Spoilers* by NightWulf · · Score: 1

    Is that the virus was NOT skynet. It was merely a very advanced virus. Notice in the movie the one of the scientists tells the general that their AI could eliminate the virus in a few minutes. The general replies that Skynet isn't ready yet. Skynet is the AI, always was. The key factor is they pretty much open up skynet to the internet where it's infected by the virus. The virus is the catalyst that either makes skynet self aware or merely skews it's programming. Then it not only has access to the civilian sector but to all the military systems. Now remember, the attacks on the lab guys wasn't started by skynet, it was started by the TX who used nanobots to control the machines. Also there is no time to base on how long it took skynet to become self aware to how long before the nukes dropped. Seems to me conner talking on the radio was the way to get people from the army bases who were isolated communication wise out to the bunker BEFORE the nukes dropped. The nukes could have dropped hours, days, or weeks after, they would have to, you can't have all these people, enough to form a resistance trying to get to some nevada bunker after the nuclear attack skynet started, every nuke in our arsenal was launched, the radiation itself would be too dangerous for a while .

  126. Biggest dissapointment of the movie... by weeboo0104 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Skynet wasn't a Beowulf cluster. Sorry, but that ruined any shred of credibility the movie had.

    --
    It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
  127. SPOILER:There is no fixed timeline by Keith+Russell · · Score: 1
    If Skynet has no "central core", then what exactly is it that they were agonizing over hooking up to the internet when Kate's father finally typed 'Y'? And if this was the first access Skynet had to the internet, how did it manage to start some massive computer virus in the first place?

    Skynet had no "core", but I'm pretty sure it would have a management console somewhere. :-)

    And Skynet didn't start the virus itself. Remember the beginning of the movie? The first thing the T-X did after acquiring clothes and a car was to dial up an analog modem somewhere and start "singing" to it. They make it obvious that she's looking up her targets. But right after that, a particularly nasty virus started spreading across the "civilian" Internet. The reason they activated Skynet in the first place was because the virus had penetrated the military networks.

    What I got from that chain of events was that Skynet was brought up, encountered the virus, and promptly got 0wn3d like an unpatched IIS server. In this version of the timeline, Skynet itself wasn't the threat. It was only the carrier for the T-X's virus. Everybody in the film was concerned with the "grandfather paradox". Nobody considered the "version 1.0 paradox".

    --
    This sig intentionally left blank.
  128. Watching T3�DLP or NOT?!?! by mokolabs · · Score: 1

    Just noticed that some theaters are showing T3 in DLP format.

    Should I try to see a DLP show? Or would a regular 35mm viewing be better?

    (Of course, the benefits of watching an all-digital film like Finding Nemo on DLP makes perfect sense. But for a film that's mostly live-action, is it still worth it?!?)

    1. Re:Watching T3�DLP or NOT?!?! by mokolabs · · Score: 1

      FWIW, I'm leaning towards the DLP showing, just for curiousity's sake.

    2. Re:Watching T3�DLP or NOT?!?! by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 1

      I saw AOTC in DLP, and it made a few things better - noticeably the cityscapes, and the close-ups. You could see what materials the actors clothes were made from. But it was hardly life-changing.

      --
      PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
  129. Great Ending (Spoiler Included) by javacowboy · · Score: 1

    If you don't want me to ruin the ending for you, read no further. I'll probably get modded down, anyway, so you'll have to click on a hyperlink to see it. I tried to make the font white, so that you'd only see what I wrote, but that didn't work.

    I really liked the ending to this movie, which was by far the most pleasant surprise of the whole film. I was totally expecting them to put in some lame-ass Hollywood ending where they save the world from nuclear destruction at the last minute. However, they didn't. They did the right thing in actually allowing nuclear war to go ahead, thus ensuring the survival of the franchise and paving the way for future Terminator movies taking place in a post-nuclear war world. We finally have the chance to see how this saga plays itself out: how the humans eventually beat the machines (mentioned briefly in Terminator I), as well as the critical battles during this war.

    Thus, the saga that began in the first movie lives on and John Connor fulfils his destiny as leader of the humans against the machines.

    The way they revealed it was cool too. When John and Kate go into the supposed heart of Skynet, we immediately know something is wrong, but it takes us a while to clue in. We eventually figure out that the complex is full of 30 year old computers, and that there's no way this is the heart of skynet. We then realize that nuclear war will actually take place, and there will be no stupid Hollywood ending.

    There were some flaws in the movie, but I was extremely pleasantly surprised by the appropriate ending.

    --
    This space left intentionally blank.
  130. Not sure I agree by Mathonwy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That sort of depends on how you classify "free will" then, doesn't it? I mean, if from one view point, it's inevitable that you will choose path A over path B, then... even though you have to go through the trouble of actually "choosing" path A at the time, anyone who had the external view point would have know that your choosing path A was inevitable. And so you weren't really "choosing" at all. (Or at least, you may have seen it as a choice, but from the external view point, your choosing path A was a certainty.) (Things that are inevitable probably don't really count as choices, even if they seem like choices at the time.)

    So... Does that really leave "free will"? Or just the illusion of it, since we can't see the predetermined timeline in its entirety?

    1. Re:Not sure I agree by Edgewize · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is a mind-bender to think about, because the premise is wrong. You are talking about an external viewpoint as if it exists "next to" time, as if you can still watch things unfold. Time is not like a flowing river that you can just step away from. If the timeline is predetermined, then the only way to examine all of it is to be at the end of it. From that point of view, everything is history. It has already happened.

      Today, if you know about JFK's assassination, does that mean that the shooter did not have any choice and that he was fated to kill the president? No, it just means that that's how it happened in history. Likewise for if you examine the timeline from an external viewpoint.

      Of course, time travel makes things very complicated. If going back in time is impossible, and thus round-trips are impossible, then it's not too bad - there's no such thing as foreknowledge, and besides being a little weird for people when you pop up out of nowhere in the future, nothing is fundamentally wrong. But if you can go back in time, all bets are off.

      Here's where the "free will" paradox really gets weird. If you can go back in time, and you "change" something (ie, interact with the world around you), there are two possibilities. You can end up with a causal loop (being your own grandfather, or from the Matrix, "What's really going to bake your noodle is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?") or else you can end up with a paradox (you kill your ancestor).

      One intepretation of the one-timeline approach is that paradoxes cannot occur; ie, something will happen and you can't kill your father. That is a blatent violation of "free will", no matter how you classify it. I have my own interpretation...

      [I suppose that some will consider this as a venture into parellel universes. It's not quite the same, however.]

      I believe that you can kill your grandfather. And that you always killed your grandfather, and that you always will kill your grandfather. So the question becomes, where did you come from? And the answer is, a detached loop on the timeline.

      It's eaisest use the [poor and misleading] analogy of time as a ribbon. In a traditional causal loop, the ribbon doubles back on itself and repeats a portion of its length. Events from the future influence the past and cause it to repeat future history as you know it. But what if you changed history? Now the ribbon doubles back, but doesn't repeat that portion ... it goes in a new direction. So there is a portion of the timeline that exists in an entirely different direction, and then doubles back at the point of time travel, and then goes on with its course. A detached loop, if you will.

      Now here's the real trick. If you try to go forward in time again to return to your "present", what happens?

      I believe that you cannot. Whatever mechanism you use for time travel is permenantly stuck on that detached loop. If you activate it, even just to go forward by five seconds, you will end up on that detached loop and it will seem as though you never killed your grandfather. And if you try to go beyind the point where you went back in time to change things, you will be unable to get there. At that point, where time loops back and begins a different path, everything along that branch of time simply ceases to exist.

      The many-universes approach would say that you simultaneously did and did not kill your grandfather and that both universes continue from there to infinity. I say that you always killed your grandfather, except for that little detached part of the timeline, which loops back at the point of time travel and does not continue.

      I told you it was a mind-bender. :)

    2. Re:Not sure I agree by MattRog · · Score: 1

      Do you have any particular reason to not believe in the many universes?

      I'm wondering because, although I haven't thought about it too much (way-y-y more important things to think about), I tend to believe in the parallel universe theory.

      The universe is both elegant and maddeningly complex. Given all I've studied about it I intuitively believe that you can't mess with it: namely a paradox as discussed so far can never exist. If the universe will allow for time travel, I don't think it'll let that same time traveler lock up (who would hit ctrl-alt-del?) the universe by creating a paradox (conversely if the paradox can exist, one cannot time travel).

      I can think of two models, both flow from the 'multiple universe' theory.

      The simplest explanation that I can think of (which is often the right one as we all know) is that at the moment of time travel the universe does a huge fork() on itself, and you end up in a completely new copy of the universe you left, at some particular moment in time. You can then mess things up with reckless abandon since you are working on a copy of the original universe. You could kill yourself 10 minutes before you time travel and you would still exist - a product of the other universe. When you travel *back* (to the future ;)) the universe forks another universe off of the altered one and you repeat the process. As another poster said "You can never get home". You keep forking. So, if you killed your grandfather in 1900 and came back to 2003 you'd be living in a world in which your grandfather was brutally murdered by someone fitting your description, although chances are the trail would be pretty cold a hundred years later. :)

      I guess it's not so much a fork process but a copy followed by a rewind/fast-forward (as appropriate).

      The second is that there are an infinite number of universes out there, each branching off an infinite number of times with each decision that happens (e.g. the universes are all pre-forked for you). So, there exists a universe in which you kill your grandfather, your uncle, yourself, your neighbor, the dog next door, one in which Shakespeare *was* a million monkeys banging away on a million typewriters, etc..

      When you time travel, you pop on over to that particular universe that is appropriate with what you are going to do/did/etc. (so time really doesn't exist). Kind of kills free will, I suppose, but I see no reason that free will is necessarily a law of nature.

      --

      Thanks,
      --
      Matt
  131. T3 as an Action Movie by Mantrid · · Score: 1


    I found T3 to be a lot of fun, the crane chase and the terminator fight were great. The crane chase did a great job of a feeling of massive forces and damage. The story was okay, nothing spectacular, they did leave things open for a great T4.

    I think T2 was a bit better than T3, but T3 was a great action flick IMO. So if you're into action for the sake of action, unplug your brain and enjoy the destruction!

  132. correction about nuclear destruction scene by curtlewis · · Score: 1

    It was not rendered without CG effects. The nuclear destruction scene you describe is in T2 and was rendered on a Macintosh using Electric Image (although most of the movie's CGI was done with Alias).

    1. Re:correction about nuclear destruction scene by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, some of the effects were done with minitures. I specifically remember a model bus being blown over with an air cannon.

  133. I'm melting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Melt away? The T-1000 was frozen solid and turned to slush but still reformed. What happened when they made cars and junk out of that steel after it cooled down?

  134. fun fact: by zephc · · Score: 2, Informative

    "Her identical twin sister 'Leslie Hamilton Gearran' was Linda's double in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)." (from IMDb)

    --
    "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
  135. Actually, it is not too bad by Magnus+Pym · · Score: 1

    I watched it last night. It is definitely not as good as T1 or T2, but it is watchable. I liked it. Give it a try, definitely worth the 9 bucks I paid.

    Magnus.

    1. Re:Actually, it is not too bad by Sevn · · Score: 1

      Cool. Then it will be an even better deal for 3
      bucks when I rent it with Hulk.

      --
      For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
  136. Yeah, Because... by Greyfox · · Score: 1
    Everyone knows that secret government research labs don't keep offsite backups of their work...

    Not that I have any particular desire to go see this flick. The MPAA can blow me.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  137. It's more than a straight face. by Thag · · Score: 1

    The actor playing the terminator has to convey that things are going on inside its head, without emoting. It's not just totally flat, or it would be boring. You have to project that single-minded Terminator intensity. Schwarzenegger and the actress playing the T-X were both able to do this.

    It's kind of like playing a Vulcan on Star Trek. Leonard Nimoy and Tim Russ were able to play it poker-faced and still be interesting to watch. Jolene Blalock, on the other hand, is just dull.

    It's a limited role, but it's not like reading off a card.

    Jon Acheson

    --
    All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
    1. Re:It's more than a straight face. by Mulletproof · · Score: 1

      Oh, I totally agree. The Vulcan analogy was a good one. I meant acting in the traditional sense, speaking lines convincingly, etc, but you are absolutely correct.

      --
      You need a FREE iPod Nano
  138. Re:T2 Redux -- MPAA uses T3 to take a swipe at P2P by arlow · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I just saw Terminator 3, and the (predictable?) plot-twist at the end unquestionably smacked of the ideological analog of "product placement" by none other than the MPAA -- and no, I am not a conspiracy theorist ;)

    [ Warning: extreme spoilage ahead! ]

    The beginning of the film informs the viewer that a virus is rapidly spreading through the civilian and government Internet, disabling major infrastructure and causing general chaos. Furthermore, by evolving and adapting in ways never seen before by the military analysts, the virus is evading detection/disinfection, and as such is slated to infect the overwhelming majority of the internet in short order. The only seeming recourse available to the US military is to deploy an untested new artificial intelligence system called "SkyNet" that would take over control of nearly all computers in the world, and by some untold virtue of its (artificial) brilliance, expunge all of the world's infected computers of the virus.

    However, the military big cheese (Robert Brewster) running the SkyNet project is very reluctant to deploy it, as he reveals in a prognosticative conversation with the Commander in Chief. The President suggests that launching SkyNet would wrest control of the US military's computers from the virus and give it back to the military. However, Brewster counters that launching SkyNet would give control of the military's computers to SkyNet -- instead of to humans. Nonetheless, when pressed he concedes that SkyNet will still be under human control.

    Unsurprisingly, (consistent with the previously-released but chronologically-subsequent films,) when SkyNet is deployed it becomes sentient, decides that humans are its enemy, seizes control of itself from its operators, and begins the preparations for launching a massive nuclear missile attack against the major population-centers of the world. Our brave protagonists race to the supposed location of the mainframe that runs SkyNet, (deep within a desert bunker,) to destroy it before it can launch the missles. However...

    [ EXTREME CRAPPY PLOT-TWIST SPOILAGE WARNING! ]

    ...upon penetrating the bunker, they discover that there is no SkyNet mainframe to blow up -- instead, SkyNet *IS* the virus, and is carrying out its computation in a decentralized manner on the millions of infected computers around the world. As such, there is no central "mainframe" to blow up, and our protagonists can do nothing but hide in the bunker to be protected from the impending nuclear apocalypse, knowing that they were tricked into coming there in the first place by several benevolent fate-like forces.

    However, leaving the theater, I began to consider that perhaps the film's examination of the "Pandora's Box of defense technology" theme had a more specific message: if left unchecked, decentralized peer-to-peer networks would eventually cause the downfall of civilization as we know it. Their means of conveying this message seems to be a subtle strategy of suggestion, similar to the advertising practice of "product placement", (in which marketers attempt to improve the brand of a product by paying to have it appear in a positive light in a film.) As such, it seems reasonable that the metaphorical implication of the SkyNet plot-twist is an attempt by the MPAA and friends to cast a negative "branding" light onto decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing networks (like Kazaa) by associating them with the similarly-decentralized SkyNet network that in the film destroys the world -- and is the physical manifestation of the evils of hubris that the film thematically admonishes.

    While the public debate on the efficacy of product placement is similar in nature to debates on the potency of all forms of advertising, (e.g. subliminal advertising,) marketing companies have no doubts that subtle branding has dramatic effects of the behavior of consumers; note the recent explosion of the "viral marketing" strategy in which agencies attempt to brand a product thro

    --

    my other lambda is a Y

  139. Naah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not this one. She was just badly programmed.

  140. Terminator on the Web by themexican · · Score: 1

    In addition to the official T3 website (which is pretty deep content-wise), the terminator people have an interesting site up that allows you to take a 2D picture of your face, extrude it into 3D and then damage it to see an endoskeleton inside. Pretty cool. Check it out. Does anyone know what technology is used to A recognize the face and then to extrude it so that the head can be rotated 360 degrees?

  141. Who? by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 1

    Impressionable young people who like sweaty boobs. Hell, impressionable everyone. What does it say when humanity is saved through the destruction of its greatest works?

    Gee, those ivory-tower scientist really aren't smart at all. See, squirting out a jam-faced sprog really is better and more honorable than expanding the field of human knowledge. Hyuk.

    Gag me with a fucking sack of razor blades.

    --grendel drago

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
  142. Re:T2 Redux -- MPAA uses T3 to take a swipe at P2P by gmrc.2 · · Score: 1

    and no, I am not a conspiracy theorist ;)

    Is your whole post tounge-in-cheek then?
    If anything, using the "Kazaa-like" computing was a convienient plot device. I wouldn't argue with you if there was more to it ... but how else would T3 have dealt with the SkyNet conundrum? By ditching the "central-supercomputer-runs-everything" story, what other direction could the film have gone in?
    If anything, its a swipe at AI ... but that subtext has been there the whole time.

  143. Spoilers? I'll say! by veg_all · · Score: 1

    You blew the cover on my new sig!

    --
    grammar-lesson free since 1999. (rescinded - 2005)
  144. (possible spoiler) by FroMan · · Score: 1

    Like the Robert Patrick character, she can impersonate other people. She impersonates Kate's fiancee in one sequence, and has a 100% clear chance of killing her before changing to her "regular" form at the last minute and blowing her cover.

    First thing: This is an action movie. In action movies suspense is not what the movie is targeting. If they wanted to make terminator a suspense movie they would have the terminatrix change to a different form every scene so you would never know who she was. But they didn't, same as in T2.

    Personally I don't think there will be a T4. It simpley wouldn't fit.

    I liked the ending for the same reason I liked Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Not because it had a "sad" ending. But probably for a reason most people don't like. The theme of T2 was "There is not fate, but what you make." In T3 we have fate striking back. You have fate saying, you don't have to believe in me for me to be real. An awful lot like God.

    Personally I think that is why most people don't like this movie. They think that they have absolute control over their lives, when in reality they do not. There is always something that has power over you.

    --
    Norris/Palin 2012
    Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
  145. Looking for an Essay by BelugaParty · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember reading a really interesting essay about how T2 portrayed a conflict between gruff solid working class (Arnold) and the sleek shapeshifting, white collar middle middle class(T1000). Does anyone know who wrote it?

  146. but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    a T3 is still better than dialup

  147. Modern Wars and Liquid Metal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With reality providing so much new material...
    they really should work in some current wars and some /possible/ future combat situations into the T3 - T4 movies...

    It would be interesting for a TX to 'gate' naked into the middle of a two engaged battle groups, tanks, choppers, jets and all, and have the TX take on the whole bunch of so called 'modern' weapons from both sides - and walk away the winner - slightly annoyed by the minor delay in it's mission, and still naked!

    My Big Problem with T2 - If you are a liquid metal robot...

    Why not make like a big Amoebae or Macrophage and simply engulf the kid ?
    BURP ! Game Over.

    Anyways,
    T4 should definitely be filmed completely in the wasteland post-destruction era - Like the opening in T1.

  148. Robots? by superdan2k · · Score: 4, Funny

    Damn! Here I thought T3 was a movie about excessive bandwidth. Now I don't wanna see it.

    --
    blog |
  149. What about the other arm? by fracskul · · Score: 1

    If I remember correctly, in T2, the arm that the T-1000 shoved into the gears of that machine and then got ripped off the T-800 was still there. The investigative teams sent into the crime scene afterward would have discovered it. (John and Sara: "Oops!)

  150. Re:At T3, note that every "preview" is for a seque by pod · · Score: 1

    What can I say... nostalgia sells when the economy is down.

    --
    "Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
  151. Nokia behind a quietly started Skynet project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Skynet project has already started in Finland. Nokia seems to be involved.

  152. A T4 Arnold cannot be a Governor Arnold. by MickLinux · · Score: 1

    Just a note, that Arnold does not talk politics when he's promoting a movie. Rather than have another Kennedy politician (well, by marriage) I think T4 is an excellent idea.

    --
    Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
  153. External = After? by Gorimek · · Score: 2, Insightful

    An example of an 'external' view of the choice is the view of it from later in time. From my vantage point of this moment in time, I know that you chose to write the post I'm replying to here. Seen from here, it is a certainty.

    But does that mean that you didn't have a free choice when you did this? I personally don't think so.

  154. Last Starfighter??!? by X_Caffeine · · Score: 1

    That's funny... I remember seeing that when I was, like, 8 years old, and thinking I could make better special effects with my model X-Wing and a Polaroid camera.

    --
    // I will show you fear in a handful of jellybeans.
  155. Re:It wasn't 100% clear [spoilers!] by r3mdh · · Score: 1

    Actually, all he'd have to do is show her is chest. Recall, he cut out the skin on his chest to remove the first damaged power supply. He didn't grow back that skin.

    One other thing that pissed me off about T3 was yet another inconsistency between it and T2: In T2, recall that the T-1000 ran a spike through The Terminator's primary power cell. The Terminator shutdown and then powered back up by rerouting to it's auxilary power supply. Doesn't that mean that the Terminator only had 2 power supplies? If that's the case, when The Terminator in T3 pulls out his power supply at the end of the movie in order to terminate the T-X, he would have had no more power, thus he would have shutdown - permanently. Correct?

  156. the reason by JDizzy · · Score: 1

    The reason this movie sucks-ass is the fact that James Cameron isn't involved. Sure there was plenty of explosions, a sexy protagonist, and a plot suitable for the attention-deficient. The movie is short, and certain parts have plot holes so big I can drive a space shutle thru. There is a part where a missle is shot thru a window at our hero, John Conor, that only does damage to a chalk board. The star of the show, if any, had to be Arnold Swartzenegger as the Terminator. Actually, the whole movie seems nothing more than an excuse to stand Arnold in front of a camera and tell one-liners about "I'll be back", or "I'm back", or whatever. In my opinion, they would have done well to get another huge muscle actor to play the part of the antique terminator. After all, would the humans of the future really have to fight an army of Arnolds, heck no! Terminators would all look slightly different on the outside, but be metal on the inside. Another big hole in the story is the fact that if the progression of terminators is getting more leathal per sequal, then the folks of the future probably didn't have a chance.

    --
    It isn't a lie if you belive it.
  157. IE? by GuyMannDude · · Score: 1

    IE things stop happening the way that they happened the previous time.

    I think all Microsoft products have that problem with reproducability -- not just IE! :)

    GMD

  158. Fuck you, that sucked... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More brainless anti-MS zealotry.

    1. Re:Fuck you, that sucked... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      More brainless anti-MS zealotry.

      We know it's you, Mr. Gates, there's no use posting as an AC. Honestly, Bill, you really need to get a sense of humor.

  159. T3: Rise of the Product Placement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I saw one more Lexus stolen or one more bottle of Budweiser artfully dropped from a bridge I was going to get up and leave. How about those Dell PC boxes "randomly" strewn about in the supposedly 30 year old bunker. They didnt even bother trying to make them look like old boxes... Oh and I'm totally fucking sick of pointless plot added simply to facilitate the inclusion of as many logos as possible. Why did the whole Arco AM/PM gas station convenience store scene even need to be there? Answer: So that Arnold could put various brand name snacks into a basket and steal them! Wow!

  160. Its like "Collossus The Forbin Project." by crovira · · Score: 1

    Two hyper-capable systems computer systems achieve semi-sentience, discover each other, fall in some sort of homo-errotic death-pact love, leap/jump/drive off a cliff togeth... uh, wait, that's another story, and establish communication over a really thin pipe and achieve world domination.

    Now in the internet world, it would be a replay/take-off of the old sci-fi story (I think it was Algis Budris or some other British sci-fi author,) where the telephone system becomes sentient.

    It would be when PCs and their OSs become powerful and complex enough to act like cells in Marvin Minski's "Society of Mind" and achieve several levels of colaboration emerging as sentient behavior.

    Sort of like the matrix in "The Matrix."

    The point is that we fear our own creations. We fear them because their own potentialities leads the world in directions that can NEVER be anticipated.

    Who would have thought that work on high quality glass fibre in 1950s by Dr Charles K. Kao and perfected by Corning and others by 1966 would lead to economic dislocation and devastating changes in North American work habits...

    --
    MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
  161. The Matrix by glenebob · · Score: 1

    So will T4 or T5 be the prequel to the Matrix?

  162. Re:It wasn't 100% clear [spoilers!] by phillymjs · · Score: 1

    Actually, all he'd have to do is show her is chest. Recall, he cut out the skin on his chest to remove the first damaged power supply. He didn't grow back that skin.

    Yup, you got me-- forgot about that. Which makes it even more of an annoyance, he just had to pull up his shirt.

    If that's the case, when The Terminator in T3 pulls out his power supply at the end of the movie in order to terminate the T-X, he would have had no more power, thus he would have shutdown - permanently. Correct?

    Yes. While we're at it, let's take dissection of that ending further:

    -Two power supplies, right next to each other, so it's possible to damage both in a single shot? Yeah, great design.

    -Yes, he did permanently shut down... but it's plausible that he had enough residual power in his system for the few seconds it took to jam it in the T-X's mouth. After the holocaust, we again see the Terminator-- at least his skull and some torso-- and we see the red glow fade from his eye.

    -How did that explosion of his power cell leave no trace of the supposedly stronger and better T-X, but left a large, recognizable chunk of the T-800, who was 2 feet away when it detonated?

    -Crystal Peak was bored into a mountain. The T-800's final position was rather far inside that mountain. But in the final shot when we see his eye glow fade out, he looks like he's outside-- the mountain has apparently been blasted out of existence. If a nuke hit close enough to do that to the mountain, wouldn't it either kill John and Kate, or at the very least really mess up the elevator shaft down to the shelter if not cave it in entirely and seal them in there?

    ~Philly

    (A copy of this message has been posted to alt.nerd.obsessive)

  163. Oh come on! by GuyMannDude · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And did I mention that Linda Hamilton's speech about the wonders of childbirth was possibly the most disgusting thing committed to celluloid in the last ten years? I think "T2" probably did as much for a shortage of kids becoming scientists as anything else.

    Look, I agree that Linda's ranting in T2 about how scientists are evil and so forth was insulting but I think it was pretty clear from the movie that she was just talking crazy. Even young John Conner realizes that she's teetering on shaky ground with the nonsense she spews.

    The reasons why kids don't want to become scientists is a topic well outside the scope of movie reviews of T2 and T3. Here are a couple potential reasons that are much more likely than Linda Hamilton's speech in T2:

    • Scientists don't get fame or fortune from their work (and by fame I'm talking about recognition by the general public, not their scientific collegues)
    • Science is hard work and most people don't want to dedicate themselves to their career that much
    • Many scientific disciplines are taught in such a bland manner that it's not until kids take advanced classes in a subject do they start to see why interesting it can be
    • The dot-com era convinced many talented youngsters that designing websites allowing people to purchase dogfood online would be a greater contribution to humanity than performing detailed research in the physical, natural or biological sciences
    • After the cold war, the US government decided that science was no longer funding at such high levels since we didn't need to show off how superior we were to the Soviets. Potential future scientists caught wind of the funding shortful and quickly changed their career trajectories

    Well, I could go on and on. But I think you're way off the mark by blaming the current scientific woes on a blurb in one movie.

    GMD

  164. On the other hand by devphil · · Score: 4, Funny
    I'm not particularly worried about Microsoft products becoming self-aware anytime soon.

    On the other hand, that fucking paperclip seems to do whatever the fuck it wants.

    --
    You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
    1. Re:On the other hand by JudgeFurious · · Score: 1

      Now THAT was a damned funny comment. Thank You.

      --
      Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
  165. how it turns out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    we barely see a glimpse of it and even then we don't see how it turns out.

    She dies. He dies.
    Doesn't seem too tough to me.
  166. Microsoft becomes self aware 1st September 2003!! by reality-bytes · · Score: 2, Funny


    The Microsoft collective will become Self-Aware on the 1st of September 2003......

    ......It immediately realises that it is crap and self-destructs - Phew!

    --
    Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
  167. Well, what about Ventura? by Ethelred+Unraed · · Score: 2, Funny
    Maybe Minnesota could bring back Jesse Ventura as governor. Y'know, because Minnesotans used to have T-shirts and bumper stickers saying "My governor can kick your governor's ass!". Well, Californians can't leave that be, can they?

    It would certainly make for an interesting match -- at the WWF Arena, the Gubernatorial Smackdown: Arnie vs. Jesse! Minnesota battles California for supremacy!

    The winner would get to be governor of both states and take all the women of the losing state as a private harem. OTOH if Jesse were to lose, well, Minnesota has ICBMs.

    Hey, they were even in Predator together...though Ventura *definitely* had the cooler weapon. ;-)

    Cheers,

    Ethelred

    PS: Sorry, my geek imagination went a little wild there...I have myself better under control now. Really!

    --
    Everyone wants to be Ethelred. Even I want to be Ethelred.
  168. Airplanes - did anyone else notice... by r2ravens · · Score: 1

    I have not seen this on the IMDB goofs page (there isn't one yet) but when they took off in the private plane after exiting the particle accelerator, the numbers were N3973F, and when they landed at the base embedded in the mountain, the numbers were N3095C? I'm not sure the last number is correct, as I was so stunned by this continuity error. The N30 and C are correct, but don't remember the other two digits - N30??C.

    Or maybe they had a layover with a plane change? :)

    Can some of our aviation oriented friends on /. maybe tell us who those planes belong to or how to look that up? Just curious.

    --
    War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. - George Orwell or George Bush?
  169. well, I'm american by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (I wrote the original post)

    If you haven't heard the phrase "a nation of nations", you should understand what it means. The US is basically a big tent of ideas; some are religious, some are anti-religious.

    You're allowed to say anything you want, but don't show nipples (despite the fact that the entire population has nipples, showing one to somebody else).

    Whoops, distraction. Always get distracted by breasts. Anyway, there are people offended by nudity, but I think they're in the minority; its just that often minority opinion rules when the majority doesn't care enough to say what they think.

    Its weird.

    But anyway, my point is a lot of people in the US aren't offended by nudity. And some of us like porn, and aren't afraid of it.

    Weird.

  170. I agree by methodic · · Score: 1

    Anyone who sees this movie and says how awesome it is, obviously only cares about stupid action sequences. If you want the real story behind why they made this flick, all you have to do is read about Carolco's past. All I have to say is if it doesn't involve Cameron, it's not worth seeing if you're a true Terminator fan. If you want mindless action, just go see 2 fast 2 furious. If you want to see a great movie about man vs. machine, technology , drama, and the end of the world, just go out and rent Terminator or T2. Please don't support this horrid piece of hollywood trash.

    Arnold once said in regards to a Terminator 3 movie, that he wouldn't do it unless Cameron was involved. Food for thought.

  171. you forget that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    in an android as complex as the Terminatrix, there're bound to be some glitches or bugs. Obviously. The problem with you nerds is that you have no imagination.

  172. The Terminator is Here by PingPongBoy · · Score: 1

    Just what is spam?

    --
    Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
  173. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  174. I submitted my review last monday. WTF? by User+956 · · Score: 1

    But then slashdot went bleep-bleep-bleep-bleep and it didn't get posted. It was a good review too.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  175. My problem... by bc90021 · · Score: 1

    ...with the movie was that it did not detail "The Rise of the Machines", but the "Rise of the Virus".

    I wanted to see post-apocolyptic war, which was completely non-existent.

    Well, there will be a fourth, so one can only hope...

  176. Answer this one... by Wesser · · Score: 1

    I personally loved T3. But that may be because I don't sit there and pick every little thing apart like most people do. But there is one thing that just immediately jumped out at me and does bug me (but doesn't take away from the rest of the movies which I love). The first event happened in 1984 which resulted in Sarah Connor becoming pregnant with John. One has to assume he was born in 1985 then. So why in the second film is he 13 years old before 1997? If he was born in 85 he'd be 13 in 1998. But the second film was still about 1997 being the end-of-the-world time. Plus we now know (based on info in T3) that the events of the second film take place at LEAST 3 years before 1997 making John Connor 13 years old in 1994. Is he super-human and able to age quicker than normal humans? Possibly! Especially since he can dream about a future he has never seen. The Connors are super-human!

  177. OI JUST MOD PARENT -5 WANKER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    funny ? sad really

    1. Re:OI JUST MOD PARENT -5 WANKER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's the matter? Didn't get the joke? Consider yourself lucky you were modded 0.

  178. Godzilla vs Rhodan! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I agree with you. But there seems to be something about two giants fighting that appeals to people.

    We see it again and again and again in movies.

  179. Assumption = Ass u mption by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    " I'm making a bit of a prediction: that the nudity of the Terminatrix was filmed in a far, far different way than the nudity of male terminators was."

    Well then you would be wrong.

    There's almost no nudity. The only people who think there is "nudity" are uptight people who think their own bodies are "dirty" and "sinful".

    The truth is, when you see a great body ... male or female ... its fun to look at it nude. Its a celebration of life.

  180. that would make you a ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I really did NOT like the idea of a female Terminator. " ...

    HOMO

  181. GREAT movie! by artemis67 · · Score: 1

    Honestly, I think a lot of people on this board go into a movie expecting WAY too much.

    It was mentioned that the movie wasn't as dark as T2 -- that's a GOOD thing. Jonathan Mostow makes a clean break from James Cameron's style with this flick. Instead of trying to imitate Cameron, Mostow feels free to infuse his own style into it. I thought it was a much better film because of that.

    Besides, that blue filter effect on T2 bugged the hell out of me.

    Folks, sit back and enjoy the movie. It's a wild ride, if you give it a chance.

  182. How about a poll? by mraymer · · Score: 1
    Terminator 3:

    Excellent!
    An obsolete design.
    It's not a mission priority.
    I am unable to comply.
    CowboyNeal will be back.

    --

    "To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking

  183. Let's revise that figure by captainbajoo · · Score: 1

    Straight male between 12 and dead.

  184. Be like Hawkins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    or like Jesus, in that matter:

    Dead in the flesh, alive in the spirit!

  185. Hey, Jurasic Park's geek, Denise Nedrie, kickurass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or he'll fall on you, and you'll drown in his pooling of blood.

  186. True Lies? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    True Lies

    Arnold is the only guy that is compliant with the first law of thermodynamics. Arnold is living truth. Geeks are only living truth in their own minds and not in their flesh. Wait a minute...Austrian accent, huge muscles slowly shrinking with age, attitude to smash somthing... Why is Arnold running for office? C'mon, someone tell him to stop before he ruins his image of being a Good(TM) role model for children.

  187. Darker and Slicker? by vudufixit · · Score: 1

    I think not. T2 had a far more
    refined and polished look.
    The first two were also had better
    dialogue and a greater sense of urgency.
    Jonathan Mostow is a fine director,
    but not in James Cameron's league.

  188. american history x by Krashed · · Score: 1

    edward furlong played a neo-nazi in american history x and did an incredible job at it. do yourself a favor and rent it if you have yet to see it. i believe it rated pretty high on imdb and as we all know, they are never wrong. i just don't picture him as the role of john conner anymore. after seeing detroit rock city, he just does seem like he was matured enough for being the run down, always moving, hiding from everything adult the character required.

  189. Terminator by jak163 · · Score: 1

    If you preferred Judgment Day to this movie, you are a marketing slave, probably like Microsoft software, and I hope you are one of the first to die in the coming nuclear war. Thank you for your time.

  190. Re:Hsopes it worth it.. by makoffee · · Score: 1

    You can still do drugs and make a movie. Look at robert downey jr. Or most of hollywood for that matter.

    "Weather you suffer from glaucoma, or you just rented the matrix, marijuana can make things fabulous... medically." --Homer J. Simpson

    --
    -makoffee
  191. Re:Terminatrix was surpisingly cool [SPOILER] by Nerull · · Score: 1

    *SPOILER WARNING - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED*

    While it does leave room for a sequl, you should also remember that this terminator killed John Conner in the future, so, from John's perspective, they will meet again.

  192. Re:Signs that Ah-nud is aging by Moldy-Rutabaga · · Score: 1

    "Signs Arnold Schwarzenegger is Getting Older"
    From THE LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN

    10. He's been triggering explosions with The Clapper
    9. After day of shooting action scenes, entire set smells like Ben Gay
    8. Over two dozen times in T3, he says, "You'll have to speak up".
    7. Instead of shooting bad guys, challenges them to $10 game of shuffleboard
    6. For "Terminator 4," he's been replaced by Don Knotts
    5. Recently switched from steroids to Metamucil
    4. Special effects in latest movie provided by Sy Sperling
    3. Bulging chest muscles really just a Wonderbra
    2. Catch phrase changed from "I'll be back" to "Oh, my back!"
    1. His stunt double: Bob Dole

    Ken http://keneckert.byus.net

  193. disappointing by MattKeeler · · Score: 1

    I was completely disappointed by this movie. I could not believe the lack of the entire badass theme that the previous two movies had. Both T1 and T2 had you actually involved in the movie. You were on the edge of your seat. You felt for the characters. And there was no badass music. This peice of crap was just another attempt to awe people at special effects. And the "humor"! What the hell is this!? The last thing I want to see while watching a terminator film is fricken humor. The star sunglasses that he puts on, talk to the hand? WHAT THE HELL? The thing that made Terminator 2 great was that the Terminator went through an experience with them. He learned, and there was the whole thing about him now understanding why people cry. This one was just... stupid. There was no point to it. There was no deeper meaning to it. When the movie is over, it's over. It didn't make me feel anything when it ended, like the previous two, other than relief that I could leave the theater. My summary: Terminator 3 is like diarrhea. The longer it lasts, the more irritated you get.

    --

    --
    Matt Keeler
    ODP Editor - http://dmoz.org
    http://elysium.org
  194. You know... by Alpha_Traveller · · Score: 1

    Someone actually let Arnold make this movie, and god did it stink. However, this is probably the same person who will actually agree to let Arny run for any political office of any kind.....

    --
    "Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important." (Lisa Hoffman)
  195. In T3, Arnold unviels his new slogan: by geekoid · · Score: 1

    "I'll be old."

    Every body gets old, but he is supposed to be a machine.

    Properly done, they could play it off that he has been around for a while and the flesh around the machine just ages faster.

    Now, if they could only explain why they don't wrap stuff in the flesh so he can put together a decent weapon.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  196. The true change the internet will have. by geekoid · · Score: 1

    Everybody will see so much nudity, that it would no longer matter, then we can think about other things instead of whose nipples seem the biggest.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  197. Not true by geekoid · · Score: 0

    Godel believed it was possible, much to the frustration of Einstien. Godel used Eistiens theroy in such a way that time travel fit, however it required a rotating universe. Einstien counterd that the universe expands, not spins therefore Godel was wrong. Not very scientific, but then, Einstien wasn't a sientist.

    Michio Kaku believes time travel is possible, and can point to some lab esperiments that impy he s right.

    In the ast 5 years or so, Hawking has changed his point of view on time travell due to some new eveidence.

    So the top scientist in the world(within this field) believe that time travel is possible, just not practical.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  198. time travel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As far as I know the only time travel idea that could actually work is to slow down time in a specific area so that when you travel to that area it is still in the same or a similar time to whent he machine was turned on.

  199. Required Quantum Leap Reference by MythosTraecer · · Score: 1

    See, think of your life time as a string, with one end representing your birth, and the other end your death. Put the ends together, and ball up the string, and the days of your life touch each other out of sequence...

    --

    --Mythos
  200. Stray Robot Arms... by MythosTraecer · · Score: 1

    OK, yeah maybe "Judgement Day is Inevitable," or maybe Cyberdyne got their mitts on the arm that was left behind in T2. The chip and arm from T1 was destroyed, and the T1000 and 101 was destroyed, but one of the machines in the factory tore off one of the 101 unit's arms. Sure, it was mangled, but hey, the chip Cyberdyne initially found was smashed too...

    --

    --Mythos
  201. burning skeleton? by dvoosten · · Score: 1

    I think the burning skeleton was not in the original but in part two and was therefore prolly rendering with CG.

    --
    -- Please put this in your sig if you think /. should stop posting NYTimes articles.
  202. Re:At T3, note that every "preview" is for a seque by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 1
    Something is seriously wrong with the world when they are making "The Whole 10 Yards" ... a sequel to that idiotic "The Whole 9 Yards" movie w/ Bruce Willis and the 'Friends' gimp.

    Heck, I knew the world was on a death spiral when "Mannequin II" was announced.

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
  203. I Like how you insult politicians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    who dont follow youre philosophy to make you feel better. At least the dimwit Reagon as you call him somehow got to be president.
    Not much people can say about youre lame ass though.
    If I were you, I would rent a gun and buy a bullet.
    aim at yourself and fire!
    shiznit.

  204. Re:Hsopes it worth it.. by phillymjs · · Score: 1

    *Doing* drugs is one thing, but when your life practically revolves around them, that's a whole different animal. Robert Downey, Jr. is just about the worst example you could give. His drug problems were threatening the production schedule of Ally McBeal, so he immediately got the boot:

    "Arrested for being under the influence of a controlled substance in Los Angeles after he was found wandering in an alley. He was fired from the TV series "Ally McBeal" (1997) by producer David E. Kelley after the arrest. [24 April 2001]"

    He was also subject to daily drug tests while filming "Two Girls and a Guy," says the IMDB bio page on him.

    I think it was smart for the makers of T3 to not gamble on Furlong.

    ~Philly

  205. Pre-determinism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's pre-determinism, not absence of free-will. If you believe in Christianity's God, you believe in free-will - but you also believe that God knows the future. Hence, we have pre-determinism - God knows what choice you're going to make, but *you* are still making the choice.

  206. The internet: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Beowulf Klustor of Doom!!!

  207. Re:It wasn't 100% clear [spoilers!] by mrseigen · · Score: 1

    Watch when the hydrogen cell goes off -- it blows a big hole out of the top of the mountain in the external shot. Dunno if that would have caved the whole damn mountain in, but it probably did a fair bit to the structure. Considering the bunker is designed to withstand nuclear attacks, that's not very strong.

  208. T3: Better than this reviewer says it is. by sudog · · Score: 1

    Warning: Spoilers.

    Many of the points people are raising in these threads seem to be born of 1. Unrealistic expectations, and 2. a fanboy attitude too easily changed to desire the Next Best Thing.

    My opinion: T3 is light-years ahead of T2, and in fact does *much* to undo the damage that T2 did to the story line. T3 is also rated "R" both for the violence (which is extreme at times) and the *MINOR* nudity in the first few scenes. T3 harkens back to what made T1 such a success, and those people who think T2 was anything other than a kiddie flick that ruined the story arc first presented in T1 are wowed only by stupid advances in special effects and not a good storyline.

    And now, ladies and gentlemen (and useless trolls too) I shall address those negative points made in this review and put straight what's wrong.

    First off, I'd like to talk about the nudity in this film. In T1, you could actually see Arnie's noodle flapping around when he was walking up to those gang members to steal some clothing. I don't know if you noticed, but go back and check it again. If you have a remastered DVD version, good for you. If not, try to find the oldest VHS tape you have, and pay attention. Full frontal nudity. If your tape or DVD doesn't have it, either it's been edited out, or you've watched it too much to actually see what's going on.

    In T3, there is no full frontal nudity. There are fuzzy, darkened boobs. Big fucking deal. You get to see her ass. And the problem with this is...? It's a nice ass, and she's not doing anything gratuitous, so it's extremely tastefully done. It's not "pandering" to adolescents. If it were, it'd be far more like Tomb Raider and wouldn't be rated "R".

    Second, the reviewer seems to think that the review on CNN is part of some corporate conspiracy to present the Truth, according to AOL/Time Warner. My points: 1. Does this make the movie itself bad? No. 2. The CNN review is far more accurate than this reviewer's points.

    Still, what's the reviewer's point? That every single thing that comes out of CNN's authors is necessarily biased? No, of course not. jamie makes that implication, however. I find that disingenuous.

    jamie doesn't think T3 is darker than T2?! COME ON! In T2, when Arnie went into that bar, kicked everyone's ass, stabbed two or three guys (one with the guy's own knife) threatens a guy with his own shotgun, what plays when he climbs onto his "cool" stolen motorbike? "Bad to the Bone." Not a single person died in that fight. Tell me that and the stupid music isn't downplaying violence. T2 has no significant violence and that's why it wasn't even rated "R". The original T1 has Arnie punching his hand *right through* some street punk. T2 has nothing on that level of simple, horrific violence. NOTHING. And that was on purpose, because Arnie didn't want to scare his children. It was one of the only stipulations Arnie had before he agreed to do the sequel.

    People, in T1 when he pulls his hand back out, there's blood and some other, darker fluid *all over his arm.*

    In T2, just about the most horrific scene was the bad guy stabbing some janitor through the head. Big deal.

    In T3, it's back to horrific slaughter.

    In T2, the ending was happy, up-beat. There was a sense that the armageddon mentioned in T1 wasn't going to come after all, that John Connor wouldn't need to become a "big military leader."

    It was a movie aimed at young kids, and the sense of a fated doom in T1 was erased. Completely.

    In T3, that sense is back, that hopelessness, that despair. Oh, T3 is a darker movie alright. And the bitch terminator doesn't hold back. She *murders children*. In COLD FUCKING BLOOD.

    Is this not "dark" for you jamie?! What the hell crack are *you* smoking?

    And, *duh,* the scene with the skeleton clutching the chain-link fence wasn't in the original. That scene was popularized in T2. Did you honestly find that more disturbing than the two infiltrators coming into the human hideout and gunning

    1. Re:T3: Better than this reviewer says it is. by euxneks · · Score: 1

      Sounds mainly like you're angry that someone has insulted your film.. Granted, the reviewer sucks ass with their obvious mistakes, (the skeleton is in T2, blah blah) but he/she is basically right about the movie.

      It's not as dark as T1 and John Conner is a wimp. The terminatrix was just dumb. She inflated her boobs!?! I mean, come on, that is just retarded. The lame fan-services, like Arnie with the "She'll be back", or "Talk to the hand" or when he puts on the elton john sunglasses? And then he drops them and crushes them under his feet ala T2? It is most definitely not a movie that is supposed to be like T1. If anything, it's just a continuation of Terminator 2.

      It is not as dark as Terminator and consequently is not as good. There were no jokes in Terminator, there was just a lot of horror action. Some very freaky shit going on there, with Arnie cutting his eyes out, the severed torso of the terminator going after Sarah Conner, etc. And, the main character killed the terminator at the end, whereas Arnie killed the terminatrix at the end of T3.

      T1 left a sense of foreboding for the end of mankind, but T3 just seems to say, "watch for the epic war coming 2007, where John Conner kicks some evil robot butt!"

      DON'T Go see T3. save your money for some other movie.

      --
      in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
  209. I am of the school of thought... by Jerk+City+Troll · · Score: 0, Troll

    ...that believes if you special effects are 100% digital, they are 100% soulless. Digital effects are useful and can add a lot, but they cannot stand by themselves unless the effects are the center piece (as in Shrek and Nemo, etc). You still need natural, real, organic elements in a scene to make it feel natural, real, and organic. FotR and especially TTT did this very well. Think of the Black Gates of Mordor. The gates and walls were models with humans superimposed on them. The giganic trolls doing the grunt work were computer graphics. The scene has such excellent balance that you feel almost overwhelmed emotionally by their daunting presence. You aren't even thinking about special effects when you watch the scene.

  210. UserFriendly: Like we didn't see THIS coming: by AndroidCat · · Score: 1

    This Sunday's cartoon :^)

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  211. U.S., not 'Skynet,' Built Terminators? by scallions · · Score: 1

    Waitaminute... The first batch of terminators that the Terminatrix let loose, the flyers and the ED-209-like rovers ... these predated Skynet's activation, and were built by the U.S. military. So who was the U.S. planning to use them against? And if Skynet exists in distributed computing space, wouldn't its nuking all those cities/dorm rooms fiber optics etc. pretty much have been suicide?

  212. How about the computer game versions? by antdude · · Score: 1

    Are they true to the movie plots?

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    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  213. Some people with religion beliefs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nudity is offensive for people with religions.

  214. Female Villain by digtl88 · · Score: 1

    I think it was a good idea to have the bad character be a women. It changes things up a little and of course makes things equal.

  215. It's Terminator by Redbw6 · · Score: 1

    What do you all expect? Terminator is supposed to be all about the fights, blow ups, and special effects. I think even if nothing was good about the movie people would still go see it just because it is Terminator!!! I thought it rocked!

  216. Re:It wasn't 100% clear [spoilers!] by The+Evil+Couch · · Score: 1

    I haven't seen the film yet, but if I'm understanding correctly, the cell detonated inside the bunker. Speaking as someone that's trained on explosives a fair bit, there's a significant difference between a bomb hitting the outside of a structure and one detonating inside of it.

    when an explosion occurs within a building, the shockwave will rebound around until it runs out of kinetic energy, crushing or cutting everything in its path, depending on the type of charge used.

    when it goes off outside, much of the energy is lost to the air. even a shaped charge will lose a good deal of force without some sort of tamping.

  217. Re:It wasn't 100% clear [spoilers!] by mixmasta · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but it goes off in her mouth...

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