Dirtybird: Hey TheArnoldFans, Well, It is almost midnight, I have just gotten back from Saturday's events at the San Diego comic-con and boy oh boy was it worth the 4 hour drive. First of all, I got to meet Stan "The Man" Winston. But my pictures with him aren't developed yet, and that is small pickens compared to what happened about about 2 hours later.

Warner Brothers had their special presentation of Harry Potter (yawn) Dreamcatcher (which was pretty cool) and when listed in the program all it said was "And other surprises". The other surprises? Well, it turns out Jonathan Mostow was appearing of course to talk T3! But as soon as he stepped on stage after abour 30 seconds or so, he said "You know, there are a lot of cool machines in Terminator 3, but I would like to introduce my favorite, Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger! And then THE MAN himself stepped onstage to an instant standing ovation.

After talking excitedly (but not revealing too much we didn't already know) Arnold introduced THE FIRST FOOTAGE EVER SCREENED OF TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES.

By about this point, my heart was going to pop out of my chest and I began to sweat and prayed to Crom that the footage wouldn't be bad. It just COULDN'T BE. It COULDN'T. What would I do if I heard the terminator say, "Take a chill pill" or "The Iceman Cometh"? But before the paranoid side of my brain could completely take over, the footage started rolling and I was sucked into the first glimpses of the new installment of the Terminator movie series.

What I saw, blew me away. It blew my mind. Whatever doubts anyone has about this movie right now. Forget about them. The footage I saw, was simply more amazing then most of the stuff in T1 or T2. Let me describe it the best I can remember it for you. Here we go:

John Conner is doing a voice over while showing scenes of him riding on a motorcycle, there are about 2 different shots of him on his bike. He is conflicted on the inside. "If we changed the future, why am I still running?" It shows him sitting on the edge of a bridge, and he dropped a beer bottle into the river below. Then, we are treated to several quick VERY COOL shots of just plain flat out cool stuff.

One scene looked as if Evil Arnold has John hoisted up by his throat and throws him across the room, if this is what I thought it was. Very cool. We see the Terminator throw another miscellaneous person into a car, which was also AWESOME. I believe this upgraded model of the T-800 is enhanced strength, because he was not throwing people like this in T1 or T2!

We see bits of the famous casket carrying scene with Arnold blowing the hell out of cops with his rapid fire gun, VERY, VERY cool looking.

We see a new type of Robots that are out in an elevator looking thing when the doors open. They reminded me a bit of the destroyer droids in episodes 1 and 2 of star wars. Only they do not roll around, and they have that silver, terminator look to them, they are a bit more square, with guns mounted on each side of their "head". Pretty neat stuff there.

But the last scene was the scene that chilled me to the very bone. Every time I think about it it makes me yearn for this movie more than I have in YEARS. They are Arnold's only lines in the footage that I saw. Here ya go:

Schwarzenegger is limping forward, blood running down the left side of his face, looking at something off camera. The stone cold, Terminator look in his eyes, and he says. "Desire is irrelevant. I am a machine." Fade to title.

When I saw that, I wanted to fall to the floor and cry with happiness like a 12 year old girl at a Backstreet Boy concert. I wanted to reach to the person next to me, grab their heads and shout at them, "ARN IS BACK!!!!" This is not happened for me in a LONG time for an Arnold movie, as much as I like "Collateral Damage" and "6th Day", I just was not as excited for those 2 movies before they opened as I WANTED to be. I have not felt this much anticipation towards an Arnold move since "End of Days", even then that does not even BEGIN to compare with my expectations for this movie.

I believe Nick Stahl will be incredible as John in this movie. He is a tortured, conflicted soul who doesn't know why things haven't turned out better for him. When you see him, you will know he has nailed the role. This will be a breakthrough role for him. He will be a star after this picture. My only drawback was no TX. I figured most of the shots she was in were FX shots, may of which aren't done yet. They are still keeping her secret. But from what I saw today. It is going to be a LONG wait until next summer...

Until next time,
Dirty Bird is irrelevant. I am a machine.

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Randy Jennings