On April 1st Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines comes to NETFLIX- and in the words of the T-850 no, we are not shitting you and no it isn’t an April’s fools prank.
The NETFLIX release of T3: ROTM might be somewhat counter productive in regard to the new Terminator movie and confusing for audiences that are not hardcore fans. How is the NETFLIX release of RISE OF THE MACHINES counter productive? Well, current studios and Executive producer of the new Terminator movie James Cameron have removed Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys from the theatrical canon sagas story/mythos with T3: Rise of the Machines widely considered as a failure/parody of a Terminator movie; a wider audience who have never seen this movie before might be streaming this movie and taking a journey that could leave them even more confused about the next Terminator movie.
James Cameron and the owner of Skydance (the studio behind Terminator (2019) – state that the upcoming Terminator film is aiming to be a true sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day) and have insisted to Arnold Schwarzenegger that they don’t even want the movie to be referred to as Terminator 6 as even that can lead to potential confusion, so a full on T3: Rise of the Machines debut could cause even more confusion.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys now lay as separate entities/offshoots of non-canon stories in the Terminator franchise; you can accept them or you can ignore them, that choice is now totally up to you as a fan.
Do we recommend you watch Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines on NETFLIX?
If you already own T3: Rise of the Machines then there is little point in seeing it but if you have not seen T3: Rise of the Machines then yes, actually we do recommend you see it but ONLY if you have seen the first two Terminator movies. The first and biggest notable difference is that Linda Hamilton and the iconic character of Sarah Connor are not in the movie and that is the reason we recommend watching the first two- know that they are canon and know that this movie (T3) has nothing to do with the first two or the new Terminator 2 sequel you will watch in 2019. The actor swap of John Connor from Edward furlong to Nick Stahl was also disjointing to say the least.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is an extremely flawed movie, there is such a shift in tone that it is hard not to notice but it does have a few redeeming features…
Kristanna Loken,- T3: Rise of the Machines was the first Terminator movie to give us a female Terminator- although sadly it was not the feminist tour de force fans may have hoped for. Kristanna Loken did the strongest acting performance in the movie and took inspiration from Robert Patrick’s T-1000 in the second movie but her character is over-sexualized in story and script and in moments it does come across as misogyny at no fault of Loken who was just playing the role as it was asked of her.
However when not being sexually exploited by the script Loken is a great Terminator who even out-performs Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in the movie and has more of a presence as the movies villain than the rest of the cast put together.
Practical FX: The late and great Practical Effects master Stan Winston had a solid involvement with the movie and the real effects created by him and his team shine in the movie and show us how cool and believable the machines of the Termintor world can be given more time on screen and more budget to play with.
A dark ending- The tone totally shifts at the end of the movie and is widely considered the strongest part of the story of T3. For those fans that love or hate Rise of the Machines its ending is always applauded as a risky and surprising ending that pretty much comes out of left field to the viewer.
So, there we have it- if you venture into Terminator territory on NETFLIX this April don’t take it all too seriously but if you want to order a takeaway and kill a few hours with some throwaway popcorn fun… then feel free to to watch Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines but make sure you remind yourself when you go to watch 2019’s Terminator movie that it was all a “bad dream” because this is not the future James Cameron warned you about or wanted you to see.