Terminator 3: The Coming Storm

I really love Terminator 1, even though it lacks the production values and budget of the sequel, it has that raw style and uncompromising thrills and an undeniable originality. The sequel maybe not as original and uncompromising as the original but it manages to add some layers of themes and depth and just as important it offers closure to the story, so that in the end it manages to be just as awesome as the first part.

When Terminator 3 came I thought: "Why?" The story was so perfectly wrapped up, so why open it up again? Of course it was done to make more cash with the franchise.

The justification given in the movie itself: "Armageddon wasn't prevented, just postponed" was lame beyond measure. Still, if the movie had been awesome, I would have just closed an eye and enjoyed the ride.

But as everyone knows T3 was pretty mediocre, not bad like T4, but a pale comparison to T1+2. It wasn't as interesting nor as tense or deep as the previous outings, and the female terminator added nothing to make it worthwhile.

One of the main-problems was also that the main-actor playing John Connor is a douchebag and not nearly as tough and clever as the kid-version in Terminator 2.

So there are things no fanedit can fix, but Uncanny Antman made the best of what was possible. He changed the soundtrack to reflect more the one in used in T1+2, improved the pacing, reduced lame humour and turned the female terminator into a ruthless killing machine, as it should be.

As vultural stated in his review, he turned a mediocre b-movie, into a thrilling b-movie.

I enjoyed it a lot. The only problem I had was that it is in SD, and so it looked pretty flat and lifeless on my HD-TV.

Terminator 1+2 I rate with 9/10.

Terminator 3 is a 6/10-movie for me, and Uncanny's edit turns it into a 7-8/10-movie.

Overview - Intriguing followup to T2 featured interesting plot twists to resurrect the narrative. The film was overlong, however, the characters unlikeable and unsympathetic, and humour elements mishandled and simply unfunny.
Uncanny Antman chopped almost 20% of the film, making it leaner, colder, and roaring like an out of control Mack truck.

Video - With over eighty cuts or trims, one expected to notice the stray jag or abrupt shift. No way. Slick, professional editing all around. Only thing I noticed - and I think this was in the film - was fade to black (commercial break?) about three quarters through that held a beat or two too long. Personal taste, I don’t like black screens.

Audio - Loud, aggressive 5.1 mix, though not necessarily discreet. Again, that was source material. Antman’s editing was smooth with no noticeable transitions.

Narrative - The problem with truncating 20% of a film is the risk of losing coherence. That does not occur in this edit. The story made logical sense and motivations were clear. In fact, except for the loss of the TX’s inflating orbs, I didn’t miss any of the cuts.

Enjoyment - With T3, the franchise had run out of gas. Bloat substituted for invention, with the main characters lacking chemistry and any sense of goals. Clueless reaction shots from both T-850 and TX only added to head scratching irritation.
Antman’s edit blasts like a bat out of Hell. The pace is so furious, so relentless, you don’t have time to consider directorial miscues, indifferent performances, muddled writing.
T3 remains, essentially, a B-film.
But Antman’s version is a sleek, kickass B-film. His has replaced my original.

Just finally got around to watching this last night & it goes without saying that this will replace the retail version on my DVD shelf. I always thought that at its core, this was a good flick, it just needed to trim away the mild attempts at humor & Antman did just that. Very well done. This truly feels like a film that belongs in the trilogy now. Yes, I said trilogy. Salvation was crap.

All of the technical aspects of this edit were actually really impressive, but I felt a tad disappointed with the narrative decisions made. While the new narrative choices weren't hard to follow, they just tended to not be as engaging as the original I felt.

The fact that we know less about what happens and/or has happened between John and Kate takes away from the level of engagement for these characters. On the whole, the decision to remove most of the cheesier elements was a good decision, but it leaves the film feeling a little sterile and bland. On the other hand I really liked some of the smaller inclusions such as the final shot, the new music during the stripper scene (which was a great callback I thought), and the editing of the television scene during the party.

Overall this edit was a little disappointing since I'd heard good things about it, and I'm a little torn over whether it's an improvement over the original and whether I would recommend this fanedit for Terminator fans. Having said that all of the technical aspects were near faultless and my only qualms were with the changes to the story and mythology of Terminator 3.

unbelievable what the editor did here.

you took a shitnugget and turned into an actual watchable movie, a terminator movie nontheless.

truth be told - something is still missing from this movie, what no fanedit can fix - heart.
but you fixed all the god aweful, stupid shit that was in the original.

i would have never called it, that T3 could be more then a flyswarmed turd, but i bow down to you.