Predictably flawed, but surprisingly not without merit. (SPOILERS)

Rating: Null/10 (28 August 2003)

I grew up on Terminator movies. Ts 1 and 2 were compulsive viewing for most of the pre-adolescent boys I knew. And, just as 30-year-old Star Wars geeks did when the Phantom Menace rolled around, I braced myself for the devestation that this installment would be a pile of moist slimy garbage.
And I watched the credits come up. And I waited. And I listened. Where was it? WHERE? WHERE IN THE NAME OF THE SWEET SISTER OF THE SHEEP WAS THE THEME MUSIC? In my opinion the undisputed greatest film theme tune of all time was missing, and Arnie's name appeared over near silence! I gently weeped into my Starburst.
Then the Terminators arrive, yadda yadda yadda, including a female one (ooh! Feel the controversy!), and then some stuff happens in a pet rescue centre that I can't remember, and then for some reason there is a car/lorry/whatever chase that was genuinley painful to watch in it's un-Terminator-ness, and then the Big T was driving in a desert with John Connor and Clare Danes.
Now it starts. A minor plot twist in the lorry and suddenly I'm awake again. Then the coffin set piece and the only genuinley funny moment in the film (in the gas station), and my suicidal urges have subsided for now.
Some average scenes in the Skynet factory and underground silo with the sketchy but not completely unappealing T-X and Arnie's line "We'll meet again" setting T4 up quite nicely, and then it's over.
As the camera pulls out, and the inevitable voiceover intervenes, I look at my watch. That was short. Surely that can't be it? Or maybe I just enjoyed it more than I realise.
As it fades to black and the familiar six notes kick in (der der der, der der dah!), a tear springs to my eye, and despite the disappointment of this installment, I can't help but hope he'll be back again soon.
6/10.