Worth Seeing - Could have been better.

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2003)

I'll try my best to keep this spoiler free:
THE GOOD: The two terminators - Arnold knows exactly how to play this character. He manages to make Terminator likeable, even amusing. (Why not? Everyone knows ahead of time that he's a hero.) Still, he never lets us forget that he's a super-badass killing machine. Pretty good trick for a guy in his mid 50s :)
Kristanna Loken, while not quite as menacing as Robert Patrick was in T2 (Who is?), nevertheless does a fine job. She is extremely sexy, and yet, I never took her lightly. Also, I enjoyed those little bits of emotion that the director allows her show. I've been waiting a long time for a Terminator that actually ENJOYS killing, and can get excited at the prospect of finding an unexpected target.
The T-X is a great concept... in theory. Combining both of the previous variants (T-1000-ish shapeshifting metal, covering an armed-to-the-teeth skeleton) is a logical extrapolation of the idea, and COULD have made her the most frightening Terminator yet.
The action scenes involving Terminator and/or T-X were outstanding. Terrific fight scenes, particularly the "bathroom" fight, and the end of the truck-vs.-mobile-crane chase scene.
There are a few parts of the movie that genuinely surprised me. I honestly didn't see the ending coming. (In hindsight, I should have.) Also, the explanation of how this particular Terminator came into the the human resistance's possession... Without spoiling anything, let's just say that it was quite chilling.
THE ADEQUATE: This may be a matter of opinion, but I thought the T-X died a little too quickly and too easily, particularly for such potent villain.
The human leads - John Connor (Nick Stahl), Kate Brewster (Claire Danes), General Brewster (David Andrews), etc. were OK, but that's all they were. None of them were able to dominate a scene like Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) and Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). These humans NEEDED Arnold on their side to make them interesting.
It's the script's fault, not Nick Stahl's, but I'd hoped for more, much much more, from John Connor. In T2, Sarah Connor was absolutely larger-than-life (albeit insane); I could easily imagine Skynet fearing her. In this movie, we only see faint glimpses of that from John Connor, and IMHO that wasn't enough.
The action scenes that didn't include either Terminator or T-X were relatively weak. Not horrible, but not particularly memorable either.
The film is generally lighter than the previous two, both literally and figuratively. Fewer critical scenes took place at night, and there was more humor. This is both good and bad. The jokes generally worked, thanks largely to Arnold's deadpan delivery, and this movie didn't look or feel like a carbon copy of the previous two, as it easily could have. Still, much of the sense of urgency was lost.
THE BAD: The T-X's capabilities, in practice, were inconsistently written, and sometimes distracted from the story. For example, how can she remotely drive four cars? Even if she is a super-whiz-bang computer, something in the cars has to physically push the pedals and turn the steering wheels.
How can she "infect" a computer system that doesn't have any modems or interfaces? I think Arnold says something about "nanotechnology" but that drifts a little too far into technobabble.
How does T-X mimic complex machines? Sure, I can imagine her having a blaster and a few critical power tools stored in her skeleton. However, I simply cannot accept her being able to turn her limbs into flame throwers, complicated gizmos, etc.
I'll usually overlook technical details (these are just movies), but not when those details make it difficult for me to suspend my disbelief. Furthermore, none of those capabilities helped to advance the plot in any meaningful way; all could easily have been been written out. The basic concept behind the T-X is more than adequate, without resorting to magic tricks.
Additionally, as other reviewers have mentioned, there are significant plot holes. I won't repeat or describe them here, since they'd be spoilers, but holes do exist. I'm anxious to see the deleted scenes when this movie comes out on DVD; It might help to explain things a bit better.
Finally, as others have said, Linda Hamilton is sorely missed. I don't know why she wasn't included in T3, but hope that the choice was hers, and hers alone. If the producers didn't want her, or if they decided that her asking price was too high, bad call.
CONCLUSION: I enjoyed T3, I'm glad I saw it, and I'll see it again. However I'll probably wait until it makes it's way to a second-run theater (ie. reduced ticket price). Once at full price is enough.
Bottom line - Terminator and T2 were two of the all-time great movies. T3 was a very good popcorn movie (particularly during this very disappointing year) but it lacked greatness.