THE MOVIE

The first instalment of the popular Terminator franchise introduced the world to Arnold Schwarzenegger as an unstoppable killing machine, sent back through time to hunt and kill regular American gal Sarah Connor. The sequel focused on Sarah's son, John, as Arnie switched camps to become protector. The third is another beast altogether.

As told by the two previous films, Judgment Day - the day that the machines rise up to wipe humans off the planet - was destined to occur on August 29, 1997. That date has long since passed and the apocalyptic attack hasn't happened. Instead, a mysterious super virus is wreaking havoc through the internet and related computer systems. Electronic equipment across the globe is beginning to malfunction. SkyNet, a system fully able to control the entire military, is in the final stages of preparation and is about to be launched to eliminate the problem.

Suffering through years of constant indoctrination about his destiny, John Connor's (Stahl) life has faded. He hasn't become the great military leader as was prophesised and his life has turned into a mess. He's a shadow, living "off the grid", without contact to all of the systems we take for granted every day: no credit cards, no internet, no mobile phones.

This time around, as well as the impending total annihilation, there is a new threat against the future of humankind. A Terminatrix (Loken), a female terminator, has been sent back through time to eliminate the potential lieutenants in Connors future army. Once again, Arnie has been sent back with a benign mission, but with the newer T-X model's arsenal, Arnie's status as protector is further complicated. A chance meeting with old friend Kate Brewster (Danes) forces them on the run together, trying once again to divert the course of history and avoid Judgment Day.

Jonathon Mostow's involvement in a project that was devised and guided by self-professed "king of the world" James Cameron, was originally a dicey proposition. Initially the buzz was that the results could be decidedly average; Mostow reportedly announced his intention to deliver a cut of the film families could enjoy. This might have meant a dilution of what had been up to then a dark science fiction staple.

Another blow to the campaign was the lack of involvement by the supporting cast, with Linda Hamilton weary after her breakup with Cameron, and Edward Furlong - the original John Connor - being seen by the studio as a risk due to substance abuse issues. Nick Stahl becomes almost an instant replacement for Furlong and instead of Hamilton as the powerful female lead, we have Claire Danes, who seems just as at home wielding a gun as she is handling the drama. Even Arnie put himself on an intensive training regime to sculpt his body back into the familiar 'sack of walnuts' shape. Globally fans were cautious, thankful that Arnie made good on his promise to "be back", but reluctant at the lack of involvement of the original creative team. Considering the style of the sequel, Mostow has probably succeeded in his original claim - it's a film that the whole family can enjoy.

Mostow more than proved his ability to sustain tension in the chase film Breakdown and to a lesser degree in his major previous outing, U-571. Although unevenly received by critics and the public alike, it exposed him to a bigger budget. Both of those films paled in comparison to this project, with its spiralling budget making this the biggest greenlight budget to date. That brings about an enormous amount of pressure. With the cards against him, the result acquits him in true blockbuster style, blending copious amounts of CGI and live action.

As a narrative, it manages to skilfully fuse established plotlines and characters with new back story, something that laces this film nicely into Terminator mythology. All in all it's an effective way of bringing together the trilogy of films, tying up all the loose ends.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

The video presentation is 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen format.

T3 claws back some ground visually in some ways from Terminator 2, which transformed from the gritty, grungy environment of the first film to a clean and well lit presentation. Rise of the machines is a hybrid, with a more textured, rough and ready feel to it. There is a wide range of flashy colours, but night scenes seem to have a certain distance from what we expect as "movie" night scenes. Skin tones are very natural, and you get the customary feast of flesh early in the film.

The transfer has startling contrast and there is excellent shadow detail in all conditions. A good deal of this film occurs during the day, but it's good to know that it holds up well at all times. The incredibly widescreen frame is used to full effect by the director of photography. Several scenes (the scenes on the way to the cemetery particularly) show off the entire frame and generally speaking depth of field is gorgeous. The image practically leaps off the screen.

The action set piece of the beginning of the first chase scene is huge, one of the pay offs for the enormous budget. There are a few well-integrated CGI moments that augment the mechanical or actual stunts. They integrate a lot better than most on DVD, a hallmark of the terminator films. T2 was always going to be a hard act to follow. The CGI was revolutionary, and took an arguably lesser sequel and gave it wide appeal. Although there are no huge apparent jumps in technology, the result is nonetheless impressive.

Film grain is almost nonexistent, but there are some minor interlacing issues, causing aliasing problems in a few small, short moments (on a gun butt at 8:48 and again on a floor grate 69:22). In spite of these petty imperfections, there should be no hesitations in using this as a home theatre show piece.

Audio:

From the huge spatial effect and explosion (1:58), you're in for an audio treat. Viewers can choose between a 384kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 and 768kbps dts soundtracks.

The sound mixes are aggressive surround tracks, perfect for the home theatre environment. They have a massive dynamic range, going from a quiet, expositional scene to a booming collection of explosions is par for the course. Big budget action films HAVE to have truckloads of explosions, and this doesn't fail to deliver. There is also almost no end of vehicles, aeroplanes and other cool flying objects. The groaning of twisted metal as the crane chase comes to an abrupt end is a small example of how full on this surround mix gets.

The music track is a much of a muchness when you get past the original theme by Brad Fiedel, for which we have to wait until the end of the film (not using it in the opening credits is almost criminal!). The dialogue track settles in against the multitude of effects (explosions, gunfire, vehicle engines) and music and is never overwhelmed. Both feature soundtracks are clean and noise-free.

Overall, this collection of soundtracks is complex with a lot to offer. With such disparate poles, either track would make ideal demo material as well.

THE EXTRAS

It's not often that menus deserve attention, but the themed anamorphic widescreen motion menus on both discs are incredibly intricate and are particularly noteworthy. Once you choose to play the film, you will hear a short introduction from the man himself.

The first of 'two audio commentaries' is somewhat different to the group commentaries that are so common. This has been edited together from interviews and separately recorded commentary tracks. It has Jonathon Mostow and the four main castmembers, recorded at various times. It's a curious mixture of scene specific anecdotes and general factoids. The second is a more straightforward, scene specific commentary in which Mostow discusses his personal experience in making the film.

You get 'trailers' not only for this movie, but also for the PC and video games, not to mention a few other upcoming Columbia Tristar properties (Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and S.W.A.T.). The second disc holds the remainder of the extras.

As far as this sort of thing tends to go, the 'documentary (13:02)' is short, but it has lots of flashy editing and doesn't stop to take a breath. It doesn't get into a lot of technical details about the creation of C.G.I., the sort of thing you might get in something like a Lord of the Rings DVD set, but it has interviews with castmembers as well as director Mostow and mechanical effects creator Stan Winston, himself a veteran of the franchise. This did well with a little on-set footage and a smattering of (cropped to 1.85:1) footage from the film.

The 'Sgt. Candy deleted scene (1:51)', eventually used in the video game (see below), has a SkyNet propaganda advert screened for C.R.S., the responsible (or irresponsible) company. It plays out like something from Total Recall and doesn't really fit the tone of the final film. Sure, it's funny, but it was wisely excised. The single funniest part is the origin of the trademark accent.

The short featurette 'Terminal Flaws (3:02)' consists of footage of the cast hamming it up for the cameras. It's good to see Arnie seems to have a sense of humour about his foibles. The 'T3 Visual Effects Lab (45+ minutes)' has quite a cool little gimmick whereby it takes you from the certain part of the film into the computers that created them digitally. In each featurette, there is the decent enough amount of detail about the C.G.I. components to compensate for the previous documentary. They are segmented into 6 separately selectable vignettes, all with a similar theme. Together they give a comprehensive picture of the interplay between live action stunts, visual, mechanical and CG effects needed to complete the movie.

'Create Your own Visual Effects' is an interesting part of this section. It has two scenes that the viewer can choose to animate using various components that have been added digitally. The scenes will play out at varying degrees of completion depending on the elements you wish to animate. A nifty digital feature indeed.

Jonathon Mostow and the folks from Industrial Light & Magic (the company that created the Academy Award Winning effects for T2) go through the process of creating visual effects. They deconstruct various key scenes, such as the crane chase, the cemetery scene and the climactic Crystal Peak scene.

You need only answer a fairly easy question, and you will be granted access to the 'SkyNet Database'. 'Human central archive' is a showy version of character files for the human characters and 'Artificial Intelligence Interface' is the same for the cyborgs. 'The Terminator Timeline' is just that, a chronological sequence of the events from all three films in the series.

You can select to watch 'storyboards' of the Crystal Peak scene and 'Dressed to Kill (2:12)' is a short costume design featurette. Getting towards the end of the bonus features, in 'Toys in Action', action figure guru Todd McFarlane does his fanboy best to talk the sculpting of the figures.

The 'making of the video game (8:57)' is fairly self-explanatory. In the era of the imbedded cross promotion of Enter the Matrix, this game also had involvement from actors, including the first time Arnold's likeness and voice has been used.

Contrary to initial assessments, it's a surprisingly heavy set of extras.

SUMMARY

As a popcorn movie, T3 is among the best of this year. As a sequel, it's a mixture both in texture and in execution of both previous films. Making it onto DVD just in time for Christmas (Dec 3), this 2-disc set will be in stockings across the nation. It's a ramming, jamming, exploding powerhouse of a film that fits neatly into the Terminator universe.

The DVD is as technically proficient as they come: a vivid, crisp video transfer and both major sound formats (at decent bit rates) on the same disc without compromising quality in any way. The extra materials go that extra mile in helping this film become a part of the franchise. They are co-ordinated to synch well with the existing products without disrupting the entrenched lore.