Amy's Robot

Summer movies so far: The

Summer movies so far: The Matrix Reloaded. Everybody saw it the first week, everybody talked about it the first week, it was an hour too long, made no sense, and everybody has already forgotten all about it. The Hulk. Terrible. Bad word of mouth was probably responsible for the immediate and severe drop in attendance after the first weekend. Charlie's Angels. Hilariously fun and ridiculous; mixed performances; superb hairstyles and outfits; lead actresses plagued by skin problems.

And that brings us to T3. Which is arguably the best summer movie so far. Let me tell you about the apprehensions I had going into this movie: No James Cameron. Casting of serious actor Nick Stahl as John Connor--can he pull off action? Arnold: almost as old as my Dad. No Linda Hamilton, and Claire Danes is a sorry substitute for those biceps, woo!

Well I'll tell you. It was awesome. It turns out that James Cameron comes up with great story ideas, but kind of writes terrible movies (The Abyss, Titanic) that are mitigated by great effects and action sequences, and sometimes he gets lucky with actors' performances. But he can't write very good dialogue, and he doesn't know what to do with actors (like another franchise-movie maker I can think of.) So in this installment, we've got some great actors, very acceptable dialogue and writing, and really outstanding story development. And, as Whiskas says, Shit. Blows. Up. Plus an Arnold that smirks through his lines, fully understanding his talents as a comic actor.

Especially good is Nick Stahl. Now that John Connor is an adult, we've got to start seeing some real evidence that he is capable of leading humans in a victorious fight against the machines. Weedy little Nick Stahl, who everybody saw getting his head blown off in In the Bedroom, had a tough job. And while there's not much of John Connor blowing a lot of shit up or wiping out robots, we do see him use his cunning and powers of persuasion to great effect, with both people and machines. In times of crisis, he knows what to say to get people to act. It was an interesting way to develop the character, and a nice surprise.

Plus, it is under 2 hours. Hey Wachowski Brothers, are you listening?

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posted by amy at 2:00 PM | #