If you have ever watched Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and found yourself at odds with the movie’s use of comedy – something which can justifiably be described as verging on parody – you’re not alone.
Of the comedic aspects of the third film; be that the Elton John-esque sunglasses, the ‘ladies night’ stripper or the ‘Dat Funky Man‘ track (the song was also written by Mr. Mostow), the director of T3 has previously explained the humor as a means of ingratiating himself with the audience, and fanbase, at large.
Jonathan Mostow said:
“I thought that if I could make them laugh, they would unfold their arms a little bit“
Jonathan Mostow told THN
The Terminator 3 director sat down with Vulture to discuss a new 4K re-release of his movie Breakdown starring Kurt Russell, when, you guessed it, the topic of the third (?) Terminator movie came up, bringing with it the subject of T3’s ‘shticky’ humor (something most Terminator Fans have vocalised as being a hard pill to swallow).
The director stated:
“I felt that I had to disarm those people. So that’s why we made the choice to use humor, which is front-loaded earlier in the movie. Some of it’s too shticky, some of it has not aged well with time, I’ll be the first to confess. But if you went to the theater at the time, it worked with the audience.”
Jonathan Mostow told Vulture
Did that humor really land the first time around?
The use of comedy within the Terminator franchise has become an anathema to Terminator Fans, as studios, writers and directors seek to dilute the use of violence and action – which are intrinsic to the series – with misplaced humor.
Yes, there is a place for balance in movies which contain blood and gore and which carry a darker tone, but Terminator 3 failed to understand exactly how to strike that balance, instead hitting a string of bum-notes which only served to leave a bad impression upon viewing (even more so in retrospect).
The Terminator franchise needs to leave its clown shoes at the door.
Did Dat Funky Man get you up and dancing? Have you spent years searching Amazon for the perfect replica Elton John sunglasses? Let us know in the comments below…
5 Comments
The humor was cringe. It is just as cringe today as it was back when the movie was released in theaters. Talk to the hand? Really? This article captured it, it’s borderline parody. There’s a lot wrong with this film but if you remove all of the unnecessary “humor” it would be a decent Terminator film.
Agreed
If T3 had taken more time to show us how John’s life had become meaningless following T2 when they had stopped Skynet, and have him WAKE-Up to his destiny instead of being dragged to it. Made the TX more threatening w/o the expanding boobs and the cheap, “I like your gun” come-on line. No “talk to the hand” That phrase had died two years before the film made it theaters and it wasn’t all that popular to begin with. I hate that chase scene. That long idiotic chase. Why would the TX pick the largest slowest vehicle to chase John Connor instead of one of the two vehicles she sent after him which were smaller and faster. I could go on and on. There is just so much wrong with the film that could have been fixed with a little more editing of the script before going to filming, and some editing after filming. I’ve seen a fan-edit that cuts out much of the humor – especially that awful parody humor in the first act. Unfortunately it also cut out the only two times the humor worked. But even with the edits, what was lacking was the dark drama, the fear of an unstoppable threat, the fear of Skynet. I honestly can’t watch the movie anymore without skipping to either when they arrive at the cemetery or at the military base. (Someone please tell me how Kate John and the T-850 got past security?) From either of those two scenes to the end, T3 is more like a Terminator movie. I like Earl Boen’s cameo. I like the dark twist at the end where Skynet succeeds in launching. That ending scene of John Connor responding to amateur radio calls on the civil defense was just beautiful. The interior sets for Crystal Peak were fantastic! Frankly, I wish the movie was better, but T3 is like a cake batter with a little too much of some ingredients and not enough of some others. You have to take the good with the bad. This T3 cake is kind of blah. Got Milk?
Well, the movie seemed entertaining to me, the Terminator could not fall again in the same bar or where there were some punks looking through a telescope, times had changed, we had passed the year 2000. The TX I found a pretty good model . I liked the T-1s. If GALE ANN HURD and JONATHAN MOSTOW got together to make a TERMINATOR movie together I think it would be Pretty Good. Or someone who is up to the task like GUILLERMO DEL TORO (ALITA), NICK MATHEU (SPECTRAL), RUPERT SANDERS (GHOST IN THE SHELL), NICK MATHIEU (KILL COMMAND).
ça aurai été plus sage de s’arrêter après le bar