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Terminator 3: the Rise of Matrix
Not the Terminatrix! The Matrix. 2.
by Filip Stojanovski
Matrix II disappointed me, so I secretly hoped that
T III will offer something new. But, on top of its lack
of innovation, it seemed to copy Matrix elements: starting with
Schwarzenegger assuming a Keanu style-pose when putting on new
sunglasses, to flying cars and trucks in highway scenes (also present in
the Bad Boys 2 trailer – Matrix is truly an industry leader), the absurd
fist-fights. The worst was the promotion of the notion of destiny,
the unavoidable future and the victory of the powerful and evil
machines. (How
romantic!)
The T-series was far more optimistic even at the height of the
technophobia. T1 (1984) came out at the time when PCs started
"conquering" homes, but it still featured human ability capable of
finding solutions. T3 offered total black-out: there's no use fighting,
whatever you do, those who are most powerful than you will use it to
their ends. Consequently, you must fear and hide like a rat! Just like
in the Matrix.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall
Dumb part 1: Danta tipped me to a crucial detail that I'm sorry not to
have noticed myself. After the dumb fight scene in the public toilet,
the Terminatrix starts running after John and Cate, but stops for a
moment at the exit to take a look at the mirror.
 Women!
Even if you are a murderous robot made of "liquid metal," capable of
knowing the position of and adjusting every molecule of your body at
will (the embedded Victoria's Secret commercial), don't miss a chance to
pay even more attention to your looks. There's
never enough
cosmetics.
DP2: If the Skynet was in fact a software which "escaped" the Army
mainframe in order to "live" (in a decentralized manner) on the
computers around the world, why would it destroy those same computers by
causing a nuclear war? One of the less-known effects of a
nuclear explosion is the strong
electromagnetic
pulse, which would spell death to such electronic devices.
Better moments: unlike the M, there was no blatant promotion of
unnecessary affirmative action quotas. The
beautiful blonde was
cool, IMHO they could have made a whole better movie featuring her just
walking around (and save tons of money on FX). The cliché jokes
referring to the prequels (and the starry-eyed sunglasses), the subtle
irony – Matrix proved itself completely incapable of the later.
I was already fed up with the Matrix guys trying to blow their "concept"
out of proportion into some sort of "philosophy". They even have a
philosophy section on their official
web site (and use
comics, a powerful weapon ;-), to provide "background" stories). I still
think that the essence of their concept is the marketing survey of the
U.S.A. market (containing large proportion of
Christian fundamentalists) which resulted in embedding Biblical
"associations" in the "story."
PS
Ebert's
review.
[Originally published on
Razvigor blog, August 11, 2003.] |