Despite very recent history pointing out no less than three times that it isn’t something general audiences are interested in seeing again, there’s an air of inevitability to yet another Terminator reboot. There’s one small positive, though, and that it’s each failed reinvention of the franchise paints Jonathan Mostow’s underrated Rise of the Machines in a better light.
There was a hefty amount of pressure on the filmmaker heading into the project, which was of course completely understandable when he was tasked with not only following up James Cameron’s back-to-back classics, but doing so after a decade-long absence with the single most expensive production in the history of cinema at the time.
Rise of the Machines can’t be criticized for not making the most of its $187 million budget – with the jaw-dropping chase scene a particular standout – but it was never going to hold a candle to either of its immediate predecessors. Sure, the villain is underwhelming and Arnold Schwarzenegger flirts dangerously close to self-parody, but the ending is one of the boldest creative choices you’re ever likely to see in a mainstream blockbuster.
Salvation, Genisys, and Dark Fate all failed miserably at rebooting the property within the space of 10 years, which technically leaves Rise of the Machines as the only genuine successor to Cameron’s The Terminator and Judgement Day, seeing as the most recent rehabilitation picked up directly after T2, ignored everything in between, and then got swept under the rug.
It’s not a patch on the first two, but it remains an entertaining sci-fi spectacular, one that’s currently tearing it up on the Netflix charts worldwide, with FlixPatrol naming T3 as a certifiable global sensation.