Terminator 3: The Coming Storm

I've never seen Terminator 3. I've not avoided it, but the opportunity never came up and since it wasn't meant to be very good I didn't really seek it out. I'd heard a lot of good things about this edit though, so I decided to go out and buy a copy of the film just to check out The Coming Storm. So, Uncanny Antman's cut is my first experience of the film.

Visual editing - Almost perfect. There was only one cut that I noticed and that was when a conversation between John and the girl suddenly ends (having read the cut list afterwards, I'm assuming this is where they kiss or talk about kissing or something like that). It wasn't actually a bad cut. I wouldn't go as far as to describe it as jarring, but it just seemed fairly obvious that the scene was meant to play out longer. I watched this with four other people who had all seen the film before (although quite some time ago) and none of them found the cuts noticeable. One person spotted the convo cut at the same time as me.

Audio editing – fine. Nothing noticeable.

Narrative – here's where things fall apart. Obviously, I haven't seen the original movie (which I will be doing just to compare), but from reading the cut list and a couple of other reviews it sounds like there were scenes cut that would be responsible for hindering the narrative. One of the main issues is that characters just keep popping up out of nowhere without being properly introduced. The girl (I'm terrible with names), her father and her fiance could all have done with an earlier introduction. Maybe the scene that does this was cringy, I don't know, but regardless, if removing a scene is going to hinder the narrative then it's better to leave it in IMO. The whole Skynet thing seemed a bit out of the blue as well. The terminator clearly uploads something to the machines, but we don't know what. Things just seem to start going wrong and it's not exactly clear why. I'm assuming this probably has to do with the virus plotline which the editor chose to cut out a large chunk of.

Enjoyment – Never seen the original, but this certainly felt like it could have been a lot worse. Reading the cut list certainly made me cringe at what I potentially could have been exposed to. My chief concerns were with the narrative, but outside of that it was quite a fun ride. The film itself is pointless, but it has a good ending and it kind of fixes the plot holes created in T2 (if Skynet is stopped then John Connor never sends Kyle Reese back and therefore John is not born.).

So, why did I watch this before watching the original? Well, I had no interest in watching the original. But this edit was supposedly meant to make it good. So I thought, if I'm going to watch it, I may as well watch a version that I'm more likely to enjoy. I was also just generally curious to experience a fan edit of something I had no familiarity with; to see if I could tell that it had been tampered with and if I could spot cuts without having knowledge of what would have been removed. Turns out the narrative suffers quite a bit, and I'm not entirely sure this could have been given the go ahead as an official release - then again... fanedit.org exists for a reason :P . Despite apparent flaws though, I did enjoy it and it's sparked my interest in the theatrical release.

I imagine The Coming Storm is probably much better than the original movie, but after reading the cut list I'm also fairly certain stuff that shouldn't have been cut was taken out. I plan on watching the original for comparison, and then I will probably come back and update my review. Would I recommend this edit? That remains to be seen.

Let's get this straight, everything after Terminator 2 varies in disgusting quality from bad to absolute disgrace. Peg me in the camp that hates Terminator 3 with the passion that only Star Wars prequels haters have. Terminator 2 is one my favorite movies of all time. Absolutely stupendous story, ending, emotional attachment, and metaphors that T-3 just craps all over. I have been on an active stance of pretending that T3 and T4 never were made.

That's the mindset I came into this movie with. After hearing all the incredible reviews. I decided to give it a shot. The first shot I've given it after seeing it in theaters. It's been a long time.

In terms of editing, Uncanny Antman is an amazing talent. Visually most of the cuts were done quite well. The Audio changes fit the film. And everything is done expertly. There's a couple of visual cuts that were jarring that we noticed:
1. The cut from "Talk to the Hand" to the next scene was a little jarring, but maybe it's because I remember the goofy crap that happens afterwards.
2. The cut from "I like your gun," same thing.

Another thing UA achieves is fantastic break neck pacing, no more of the cartoon aspects that irked me so, and a more somber tone to the whole film (the ending is really more poignant because of it). What's also done well is John Connor's character, well, not arc, but moment at the end fits. He's a sissy boy that's been through all this crap, and now he needs to step up, and he realizes it, the whole movie is about him realizing it. UA did his job, he made a really bad movie BETTER.

But even with all that, UA could not overcome the absolutely fundamental crap, backwards ass flaws of this movie. The dialogue is awful, a lot of the more awful dialogue has been cut, but what's here is still not very good. The whole point of the story is ridiculous, the destiny is predetermined aspect pisses me off to no end. The arc of John Connor is STILL not done very well. And all of that, represents the biggest flaw of the entire movie, it's emotionless, there's no heart, no tension, no anything. The terminator isn't scary, she's supposed to be frightening, am I supposed to care about John, why, he's a disgrace, am I supposed to care about Arnold's T850, because I don't. And all it does is just try and recreate the setpieces and absolute MAGIC and THRILL of T-2. Instead it just comes off as empty and rushing me from one lame action sequence to the next.

The flaws are not UA's fault, not by a long shot, UA made a crappy movie watchable. It fits into the tone of the trilogy, Terminator 3 used to be a walking talking cartoon and now it's an action setpiece popcorn movie. Still doesn't have substance.

In the end, I realize that I'm not sure if any fanedit will make an awful movie, good. I think all it will make is watchable. No offense to UA, but I'm going to go back to pretending that Terminator ended with T-2.

Original Rating of Crap Ass Movie: 4
New Rating: 6

I am one of the few who actually enjoyed Terminator 3 in its original form. Definitely, it had some failings but realistically, so did the previous two films in their original form as well.

Removing the love story between Kate and John, to me, removes a key, integral component of the film. Removing things like Ahnold putting on the male stripper's sunglasses, getting keys from the viser, Terminatrix grabbing Ahnold's crotch in the bathroom fight, Terminatrix looking at herself in the mirror, and a couple one-liners: great. Removing Kate as the focus for John's future is a mistake in my opinion. Doing that, causes the story to fall flat. Both prior Terminators had humans finding or re-discovering love to make them remember their humanity.

Video and audio quality is superb but the story is just empty when Kate is stripped of her love interest for John, which includes the discussion about kissing for the first time and meeting at the party. These two things also drastically remove the idea of fate from the film, which was the largest appeal for me. All great mythologies--Terminator being no exception--have that aspect and it is necessary to make John Connor transform into a "great military leader."

Aside from that, the pacing is excellent as the action just keeps coming. I would recommend making another version with Kate re-integrated.

I'm sure many will disagree as evidenced by the numerous rave reviews but I find the movie very lacking without that key component.