Perfect Summer Movie (Minor Spoilers)

Rating: 9/10 (5 July 2003)

Minor Spoilers
Terminator 3 is exactly the type of movie that I like to see as part of the summer blockbuster season. It's loaded with incredible looking action, it's humorous , and it has a huge cheese factor. The storyline is only used just to get to the next explosion or the next joke. But even so, for the most part the story seemed right on par with the previous installments, and at the ending, it completely took off and a classic was born.
In a huge departure from the previous installments, director Jonathan Mostow has taken the James Cameron-abandoned franchise and made it his own with a very exciting and thrilling film. I thought the ending of T3 was simply amazing and such a welcome change from the 'happy' ending that follows so many of the summer movies. Very courageous of Mostow as well, I might add.
The films titanic budget is all up there on the screen and was used to great effect (minus Arnie's $30 million take of course).
The action in this movie is truly the show stopper here. The sequence with the upending crane truck was absolutely staggering and completely blew my mind. The best car chase scene I have ever scene (or at least the most destructive). The hearse sequence, is also very noteworthy. The action sequences never let up and really demonstrate just how far along the advances in CGI, animatronics, and even make-up have come. Kudos to the always excellent work by Stan Winston with his T-X design and fully-functioning T-1 robots.
I think that what many of the negative reviewers of this film take issue with is the lack of subtle humor that was so prevalent in the first two movies. The comedy was put into overdrive for this film, as Arnie delivers more one-liners than ever, some of them absolutely atrocious. But if you can just laugh them off, you'll still be in for a great ride. The humourous cameo by Dr. Silberman was a nice touch.
Schwarzenegger however to my surprise, is still very convincing as the cybernetic organism that he first played almost twenty years ago, and his physique for the most part is as it was back in 1984, although he does look a little smaller. Kristanna Loken did a great job too as the female T-X, but I still think that Robert Patrick as the merciless T-1000 is still the most ruthless of the villain Terminators.
Nick Stahl and Claire Danes as John Connor and Kate Brewster respectively, also put in decent performances. Connor does look like a grungy vagrant, but a liquid metal terminator coming through the future ten years ago solely to kill you, is bound to be somewhat traumatic for the guy, and might just cause him to live an alternate lifestyle.
All in all, a very entertaining popcorn flick. Highly recommended if you enjoy action movies, or the Terminator film franchise (if you can digest some minor plot holes). I can't wait for the DVD, and I hope that T4 gets the greenlight too, with Mostow once again at the helm.