Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines director Jonathan Mostow was busy recently, promoting the new 4K re-release of his 1997 Kurt Russell starrer ‘Breakdown‘, when the subject of Terminator (and more specifically, T3) arose.
The original sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (in this multiverse, anyway) is both loved and hated by the Terminator fanbase, a feeling that has become a recurring theme over the course of the franchise; following the multiple failed trilogy attempts and ‘direct’ sequels.
Terminator 3’s use of humor was a big sticking point for many fans, with Mostow explaining his reasoning for its inclusion as:
“I made a conscious decision to use comedy as a method of disarming the audience. I thought that if I could make them laugh, they would unfold their arms a little bit.”
Jonathan Mostow told TheHollywoodNews
It appears that now Mr. Mostow has gained some insight as to why (he believes) the sequels to Terminator 2 always seem to be set to fail…
“It was the first time audiences had truly seen digital effects and rendered in a way that left their jaws on the floor. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. You can only really dazzle people like that once. It was very hard, whether it be Terminator or any other film for that matter, to come up with the visual effects that could equal the dazzling spectacle of Terminator 2. When I made mine, I made it as a fan of the first two films trying to make the film I would have wanted to see.
Jonathan Mostow told ComicbookNews
It’s been interesting to see subsequently different filmmakers, different producers, and even different casts coming along and reincarnating the film and extending the franchise.”
Yes, the movies that followed T2 spent an awful lot of time attempting to reimagine / rehash / regenerate / reboot / reuse / rehydrate and re-do, the second Terminator movie, whilst simultaneously imitating it – even those claiming to be a ‘sequel’; Terminator 3 does much the same. New names, new characters, new stunts, storylines, writers and directors, all chasing the nostalgia high of that technologically advanced big action money-maker of a sequel, and failing to understand exactly why it worked in the first place.
There was a Terminator movie before Terminator 2… The Terminator (1984) set the wheels in motion for T2 to exist, and flourish.
The Terminator created the story and characters that Terminator Fans really care about.
It’s okay though, big Hollywood, you keep chasing that easy money, let’s just see how far it gets you.
10 Comments
In other words Mostow is still generally clueless on what went wrong with T3 and all the post-T2JD projects, good riddance.
Out of all the sequels that came after T2, I think T3 is the best overall. The action scenes are top-notch, Arnold is still perfect as the T-800, and the ending packs an emotional whallop. Plus, unlike 5 and 6, T3 feels like it’s moving the story in the right direction; it may imitate several key moments that came before, but it has the guts to conclude with the bad guys winning the day while simultaneously taking us to the future war, the only logical place left for the series to go after T2. If we had gotten a ‘Salvation’ sequel that chronicled the end of the future war and ended with Kyle Reese and the T-800 going back in time, the series would have ended with a closed loop instead of sequel after sequel about stopping Judgement Day yet again.
Terminator movies which followed T2 fail because they just focus on action and effects.
Only James Cameron can do terminator movies because he knows how terminator movie should look like, what to show, when to show and what not to show in the movie, what is cool and what is not cool, and so on. James Cameron created something so special and others have no point in trying to make Terminator movies. They don´t know Terminator movie soul life.
Arnold´s character and look is the reason why terminator is so cool and iconic, and Arnold´s best terminator acting comes out only with James.
James Cameron please come back (when you are finished with Avatar sequels) and all crew members who lives and made T2 should get together one more time and make real Terminator 3 from where T2 ended.
Sorry my grammar. My first language is not english.
I personally think the ending saved this film from being terrible because it was setting us up for the future war. But apart from Terminator Salvation all we keep getting is a Terminator sent back in time to kill the leader of the future resistance (most likely because it’s cheaper to make) and that story can only work so many times before people gets bored of it.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a new film that follows on from either Terminator 3 or Salvation and give us more about the future war, they could even do a series set in the future war. But I guess it would be too costly to make.
TERMINATOR 3 is a GOOD FILM, since in it we see the t-850 in a more modern world, the TX is a definitive and innovative TERMINATOR since it activates SKYNET through the Internet network, I liked the IDEA, that It had logic, they could even make a liquid metal terminator that would travel the net. It’s a shame that the rest of the people have not seen it like that, I also liked TERMINATOR GENESYS, I had fun watching it. I think JOHNATHAN MOSTOW AND GALE ANN HURD should team up to produce a TERMINATOR 7 movie. Maybe they would do better than what we saw in Dark Fate.
The problem is we’ve had too much protector terminator!! Bring it back to the cold hard horror vibe of the first film and make arnold a villainous t800 again!!
Or make the next films scary like the first one or where its man vs machine! The terminator has been a protector for way too long!! Its time it was restored back to the first film. A ruthless cold blooded killer!! Make arnolds role the villainous t800 again!! And let us remember why theres no terminator 2 without the first one!! These next films need to go back to be about how evil the t800 is!! To restore the franchise!! Imagine an old evil t800 thats been around so long it can trick people into thinking its human and good! and maybe fragile etc!! But behind their backs hes plotting killing people mercilessly and always being one step ahead! This could be the best terminator yet!!
I assume that breast augmentation or beating the head t800 by a urinal is a scary example enough…
I like Nick Stahl, even though I couldn’t get used to him at first, or a few things in the script were great. Execution was not entirely good. But it was closer to Terminator than T4 to original, even that I liked T4 more. (because it was more focused on the T800 – to the Terminator!!!)
What T3 succeeded in doing that the other sequels didn’t do as well. It told the next chapter in the saga. In T3’s case, the only obvious next chapter after T2 is for Skynet to launch its attack on humans. How the story was told, not that great, but the ending was exactly what it should have been. Frankly, the final third of this movie makes it a win.
Terminator Salvation gave us a Terminator story set after Judgment Day but with only threads that linked us to the present day events of T1 thru T3, and it began to setup the events that would lead to the future events where Kyle would get sent back in time and start the ball rolling again. Anton Yelchin as the young Kyle Reese was excellent casting. Sad he passed away so young. The story didn’t follow the pattern of T2, which worked in its favor. TS was a visually great story. The CGI and practical effects looked awesome. Where the movie failed was its story. If you read the novelization, it makes more sense, but to see the movie not so much. Overall, A visually great movie in need of a better story. But after the next two sequels, it proves McG made the better movie.
Terminator Genisys: They couldn’t have made a worse movie if all the writers and production staff hated Terminator. The sad things is, this pile of dog sh-t has the best line I ever heard uttered in a Terminator movie. “Goddam time traveling robots always covering up their tracks.” I hope I got it right. And it was spoken by the great J K Simmons who deserved a better & bigger role. Glad we got to see the events that led up to Kyle Reese being sent back in time. But the acting was bland. Wish they had actors that looked more like the actors from T1 & T2 for those scenes. The rest of the movie is crap.
Terminator Dark Fate: Basically its T2 with an old bitter Sarah Connor and a young girl in the role of John Connor, a whole lot of F-bombs, a ridiculous air chase that makes the cranes chase in T3 look practical and normal in retrospect. I don’t buy they didn’t know what to do with John Connor so they killed him off. What they should have done was make him the father of the girl and have him die protecting his daughter. Why do the obvious? Just like TG, a lot of sequences were copied or parodied from previous Terminator productions including the TV series. If this movie was the only sequel to T2 and it had come out about 20 years after T2, it might have been better received by fans, but not liked any more than they do now.
Age may change the perceptions of these movies by fans. Over time new viewers will look at them differently than viewers of today and differently than the viewers when the each of the movies were released.
I don’t think we will ever have another official Terminator movie from Hollywood again. Should they do another movie, it will be a complete reboot with zero references to any of the productions that came before. The only thing in common will be the name.
ça reste le meilleur Terminator en terme d’histoire de suite des 2 premiers chef-d ‘œuvres la réalisation est bonne mais trop d’humour trop maladroitement fait et tuer une sarah connor sans raison.