Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines UMD-Video For PSP Review

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Title: Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines

Region: One

Genre: Sci-Fi Action

Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken

Writers: John Brancato and Michael Ferris

Based On A Story By: John Brancato, Michael Ferris, and Ted Sarafian

Based On Characters Created By: James Cameron, William Wisher, and Gale Anne Hurd

Director: Jonathan Mostow

Feature length: 109 minutes

Languages: English and French Language Stereo Sound

Subtitles: French and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 33

Sound: Stereo Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2003/UMD Release: 2005

Theatrical Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

There are only two types of time travel stories. The kind where you can go back and forth and literally change the flow of future events and the kind where the time traveler’s presence in the future or the past is actually a part of the natural flow of time. Therefore you either can or cannot change time. The “Terminator” films have always professed a vision of “The future is not set” or “No fate, but what we make” and despite the events in the third film, it is obvious that the future can indeed be changed by altering the past. The problem is the results. Many people who saw “Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines” in theaters during the summer of 2003 walked out with the mistaken notion that “I guess you can’t change the future.” What I think is more appropriate is that the preemptive events in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” that our characters suffered and some died for did in fact alter the future, but they just did not alter it enough. As Schwarzenegger’s cyborg character states in the third film, “Judgment Day is inevitable.” So much like the characters in Greek mythology who attempt to avoid their fate by taking some form of drastic action filled with hubris only to cause the very thing to happen they were trying to avoid, the events of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” only shifted events in the timeline and now it seems things could even be worse then before.

If you follow the first film then you know that in the year 2029 John Connor and his resistance defeated Skynet and won the war against the machines. However since the artificial intelligence realized it was beaten, it sent the terminator from the first film to kill John Connor’s mother and then we learn in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” that it also sent a T-1000 prototype back in time to kill John Connor himself as an added precaution and after those events Connor still somehow had enough time to send the man who would be his father back to 1984 so that he can protect his mother and together they literally could conceive the man who will save humanity from the machine holocaust and of course he sent the kinder, gentler terminator back to 1995 when John was just ten years old to protect him.

Where the timeline begins to fall apart along with much of the film’s logic is that in delaying Judgment Day, we now learn that the set of terminators that have arrived in our present were sent from the year 2031. If this is the case then we can speculate that the war is still going on in 2031 and without giving too many spoilers away, it is possible that Connor’s role in saving humanity is no longer what he expects it to be. Another area where the timeline logic breaks down is in the numbers themselves. If Connor was born in 1985 than he could not be older that 18 years of age in the year 2003 instead of his early twenties as the film suggests. I pointed this out to a colleague at another website who reviews features when the film was still playing in theaters and he replied “He stopped nitpicking continuity and logic a long time ago,” but I guess I am not that jaded yet because it still matters to me.

Of course another mistake the film makes is in assuming all terminators in Schwarzenegger’s line must look like him. Granted we all want to see Arnold play his signature character on the big screen one more time, but the truth of the matter is that it would not be practical to send the same looking terminator over and over and over again through time let alone whatever linear plane of existence the characters from the future are operating under. In the first “Terminator” film we see that a terminator infiltrates a bunker in the future filled with survivors. That terminator was played by none other than Schwarzenegger’s friend and former Mr. Olympia Franco Colombo. One should also take into consideration that is simply would not be practical to keep sending the same guy out to kill others since eventually he is bound to be recognized. Another thing to consider are the future sequences that seem to suggest they are a product of John Connor’s imaginings in the third film or Sarah Connor’s nightmares in the first two film do not necessarily mean we are viewing the future, but rather a perceived future. The only true future sequences in the three films in my opinion are the opening prologues in the first two “Terminator” films and Kyle Reese’s own memories of the future war seen in the first film.

Other paradoxes that crop up in this new film are the facts behind the relationship Connor had with this particular terminator in the future and Connor’s fate. Can that be changed now that Connor knows what will become of him or would preserving his life in the future actually lead to his destruction in the past at the hands of the femme fatale T-X, played by Kristanna Loken. Much like the way “Alien 3” negated much of the characters’ suffering and adventures in “Aliens,” in many ways “Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines” practically negates the plight of our heroes in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and spoils the neat way James Cameron wrapped up the story satisfyingly and with our questions for the most part answered. Another point that comes to mind to is while the will to survive is strong in humanity, the odds are that they are all dead already between radiation exposure and an obvious nuclear winter that has blocked out the sun light. The only way these characters could survive would be to take up residence in bunkers and inhabit the machine centers they’ve shut down, but machines have nothing to fear from radiation so odds are it would be difficult at best to make these places safe for generations of humans to live in since it would take generations to wait out the fallout from a nuclear war. Practical concerns like medicine and food would also be a chief concern so in the end if John Connor brings down Skynet, is the victory empty in the long run?

As one can read I still have nothing but questions left over after watching “Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines” and short of bringing Cameron back to set things straight, I almost feel they should just end it here and not make anymore films with or without California’s Governor because I doubt they could cover everything that needs to be covered in one more film and I do not want to wait another ten or so years to find out what happens next. At this point I’m willing to take “Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines” for what it is and accept it for its good points and faults in all. There are still a lot of things that I could point out that do not exactly match up to the established “Terminator” cannon, but some of these arguments I have can also be argued away as simply the results of the changes to the flow of future events post “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

However there are a few elements I cannot resist on commenting on before I move on to my discussion of the UMD. First the idea of Skynet using the Internet or maybe the flow of information within the Internet developing into a form of consciousness has profound implications never fully explored in the film. It is also just a shame that Skynet can’t seem to come up with a better manner of terminating its enemies. I mean after the first two attempts failed, why not try something different? Also if Skynet is a self aware form of consciousness on the Internet, then how could you ever beat it since it has time travel technology that gives it chances to reset the game until it wins and in a post apocalyptic future. Any form of technology could be a place where Skynet could proliferate itself like an insect infestation. This idea has been used to make the Cylons a greater threat on the new “Battlestar Galactica” that airs on SCI FI. Has anyone ever asked why Skynet decided to kill all humans to begin with? The explanations given in the first two films no longer apply in the third film. Since it is obvious it planned the virus to be set free and set off the nuclear war then it has to have some kind of reason based on logic for the actions it takes. We do not have to understand the actions anymore than we truly understand all of the significance behind the ways intelligent mammals like whales interact, because we cannot expect human rationality from something that is not human, but we can expect to learn at least a bit about machine’s rationale even if it goes against all our beliefs in love and compassion. Personally the second and third films seem to suggest that the machines are indeed able to experience emotions based on their actions even if they claim not to understand them.

Finally I think the reason why “Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines” was successful in the theaters was because of the fact that Judgment Day does happen and given the structure of the previous entries, if it did not happen then there would be nothing in this film save for some spectacular action and effects sequences that we did not already see before and done better in the first two films.

Warner Home Video’s Region One UMD edition presents “Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines” in a widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio that preserves the nature in which the film was exhibited theatrically as close as possible for PSP users. I think the transfer is excellent with sharp colors that never bleed, no visible compression grain, and a solid film like digital reproduction on UMD-Video that just looks nothing short of great. The English Stereo Soundtrack is also terrific. There is also a French Language Stereo Soundtrack and French and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded onto the disc as options.

The interactive menus are fully animated with scenes from the film, including motion scene selections and are easy to navigate as well as among the best interactive menus I’ve seen on a UMD for PSP so far. If you have the first two films on UMD, then you might as well complete the collection and pick up Warner Home Video’s UMD for PSP version of “Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines” now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Warner Home Video.

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