A sad money making effort

Rating: 3/10 (7 January 2012)

The third film in the franchise would be quickly forgettable if not for it's ability to depress and disappoint fans of the originals.
What feels like more of a spoof than a genuine addition to the previous films is full of genuinely unfunny "jokes", huge plot holes, and unimaginative scenes shamelessly recycled from James Cameron's previous work. Somehow the Director manages all of this while at the same time avoiding any thought provocation and emotional content, something viewers tend to overlook in the previous films, even despite the dark subject matter of impending nuclear holocaust, inevitable unchangeable fate (which in itself contradicts the message well delivered in the second film of free will and writing one's own future), soulless killing machines hell-bent on murdering individuals, etc. Indeed despite all these gripping themes (hijacked from the previous films and not the directors own work), the director only manages to present to us an uninspired ret-con of the story presented.
Where before we are told the terminator cannot learn in order to limit his free will, the terminator in this film shows clear signs of learning and imagined "wit" as he spouts one liners in a way unfitting of a killing machine. I don't see this as actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who clearly does his best to play his quintessential role in the face of terrible direction. This new terminator is presented as something to be laughed at in funny situations, as in the scene where he takes his clothes from the male stripper, and is somehow stripped of all that made him menacing even as the hero of the second film.
The female villain of this film was full of emotion, sexiness, and wit, which only serves to discredit her as a terminator. She clearly enjoys killing, and her only defining feature is turning her arm into an assortment of guns, one trick to an otherwise unimaginative pony.
John Connor neither resembles nor acts like he did in the previous film, and comes across as a loser. Despite this, he does somehow manage to expertly activate a particle collider in one bodged scene. His new romantic interest is of so little importance or character I won't waste your time writing about her.
All in all, Terminator fans should probably avoid this disappointing film.