One of the worst action movies of the decade!

Rating: 5/10 (15 January 2007)

My first question in regards to reviewing this movie is 'why'. Why did they decide to continue a story that had been finished? Why did they not get James Cameron to direct? Why, why, why? Obviously the answer is money. They wanted to use a formula which generated big box office, which it did. Unfortunately this movie completely shattered the point of the previous movies, which is very hard to do. Usually when I talk about the terminator series I casually ignore this third installment about which is hard to say anything flattering.
First of all following in the footsteps of James Cameron is a hard thing to do. After all Cameron wrote and directed the first two installments in the franchise and did a wonderful job. He created two of the best action movies I have ever seen. In comes Jonathan Mostow who has but a fraction of Cameron's talent. To be fair there isn't a lot Mostow can do with the material he is given. The script seems rushed and casually ignores what made the previous movies so successful. Why the heck wasn't Linda Hamilton brought back. Her character should be treated with more respect than this. Once again the movie never should have left the drawing board.
Acting wise the film has taken a huge step down. Schwarzenegger received an enormous pay check to return in this second sequel and you feel the lack of interest from his part. His performance is the least of my concerns regarding the acting, however, and Schwarzenegger gives a decent performance as he still has the stiffness and commanding presence required to be the terminator. Nick Stahl is brought in to play John Connor and while not my primary point of critique he is still frightfully dull. I don't understand why they didn't just let Edward Furlong reprise the role. Claire Danes is equally dull and much of her acting seems forced and unbelievable. Stahl's and Danes' chemistry in the scenes where they bond is pretty stale and lifeless. You don't feel the tension there was between Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. My primary point of critique is in the choice of villain. Kristianna Loken's villain, T-X, has none of the menace that T-1000 had or that Arnold had in the first film. It's hard to get too excited in the showdowns between her and the protagonists, sadly.
Effects wise the movie has also taken a step down. Obviously the effects are more complex but they have lost their edge. While the effects were impressive they were outmatched this year (2003) by The Matrix sequels and The Return of the King. Terminator has in one stroke been reduced to second fiddle and provides only adequate CGI. One misses the ingenuity of the effects revolving around the T-1000. Once again, what a shame.
All in all Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a massive disappointment and the series really deserved more respect than this piece of garbage. One of the worst movies of the year and definitely one of the worst action movies of the decade.
3/10