Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (HD DVD)

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Audio:
The sonics in "T3" are the kind guaranteed to impress the neighbors, even if you've got a really big yard. Again, I did a side-by-side comparison of the HD and SD "T3" discs, this time of the sound, using the Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 and a Sony 7700 SD player and ordinary Dolby Digital 5.1. Both audio tracks are extremely dynamic, and I mean extremely so, featuring a lease-breaking bass response if you live in an apartment. But here's the thing: When switching into regular DD 5.1, the sound suddenly appears softer and more veiled. Bass and dynamics are not much changed, but clarity definitely improves. The surround effects are still on a par with the best action movies around, meaning you're enveloped in the sounds of explosions front, back, and sides, with bullets, bombs, cars, glass, airplanes, and helicopters flying by in all directions. If there's anything in the house the DD+ soundtrack won't rattle, I don't know what it is. This isn't very subtle audio, but neither is the movie very subtle.

Extras:
This single-disc HD-DVD edition contains most of the extras found on the standard-definition two-disc edition, plus an "In-Movie Experience." The "In-Movie" business is where the filmmakers, mostly director Jonathan Mostow in this case and a few others, talk to you about the movie from little picture insets, which are also used to move you behind the scenes of the filmmaking while you're watching the movie. This "In-Movie Experience" provides a few interesting insights, but after also listening to ten or fifteen minutes of each of the audio commentaries, I felt I was hearing a lot of material being repeated. For instance, Mostow tells us that anything that didn't move the action along he excised from the film, meaning, I guess, that he wanted nonstop action. The fact is, with the "In-Movie Experience," the disc's three separate audio commentaries, and the rest of the bonus materials, if you were view all them, you'd have to spend ten hours or more in front of your set. Frankly, I don't think the film is worth the trouble. But taken in small doses, as I took the extras, there is some entertainment as well as informational value in what of these folks have to say.

About those commentaries, the first one is with director Jonathan Mostow and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken; the second is with director Jonathan Mostow alone; and the third is with other members of the crew. In addition to all the talk, there is a widescreen theatrical trailer; a "T3" PC game trailer; and a ton of other stuff listed below.

I have to admit I didn't find any of these other extras particularly engrossing the first time around on the standard-edition set, and I found them no better here. They include a brief introduction by Arnold, followed by a silly bit of footage called the "Sgt. Candy Scene" that is, thankfully, not found in the film. Think of Arnold with a hick hillbilly accent. After that is an HBO First Look: "The Making of Terminator 3," lasting about thirteen minutes. Next is a gag reel, "Terminal Flaws," that lasts about three minutes. "Dressed to Kill" gives us info on costume design. About four minutes worth of storyboards-to-film comparisons come next, and "Toys in Action" is a six-minute chapter on "T3" action figures. Lastly, there's an eight-minute promo on "The Making of the Video Game"; thirty-three scene selections but no chapter insert; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles. As usual with Warner Bros.' HD-DVDs, there are pop-up menus, an indicator for the movie's elapsed time, a zoom-and-pan feature, and an Elite Red HD case.

Parting Thoughts:
My good friend and fellow movie critic Eddie Feng wrote in an earlier review of "T3" that it "is the closest thing I've seen to a perpetual motion machine when it comes to the movies. The incredibly powerful Terminators give the Energizer Bunny a run for its money when it comes to going and going and going. Audiences are left to their own devices when it comes to trying to catch a breath. Basically, from the time that John Conner, Kate Brewster, the T-800, and the T-X meet, the film becomes one extended fight. You thought "Black Hawk Down" was a gruelingly brutal sit? Well, now you'll have to deal with "T3," which arguably has more mayhem in less time than "Black Hawk Down." The action set pieces are astonishing in their total disregard for anything--just about everything that you see on the screen is totaled. It wouldn't be accurate to write that nothing really happens in "T3" despite its adherence to car chases, foot chases, and explosions. Still, watching the film isn't mentally taxing, though it is physically challenging. Halfway through the movie, I started developing a headache, and I still had it while writing this review."

I'd have to agree with Eddie's assessment. "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" was fun while I was watching it, but unlike the first two films in the series, it is not the kind of action movie I might want to watch again soon except, perhaps, to enjoy its new HD-DVD transfer. The characters are too flat and colorless and the plot is too predictable to make it worth one's additional time unless, as I say, you're simply looking for a stimulating audiovisual experience. It hasn't the heart or the soul of its illustrious progenitors, just a string of endless fights and chases, which, no matter how well executed, become redundant and tiring, and, yes, headache-inducing.

Nevertheless, "T3" is entertaining for the moment, exciting, even exhilarating in parts, if ultimately an empty exercise in fuss and bother that leaves one strangely dissatisfied. No dissatisfaction with the new picture and sound quality, though; they are first rate.

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