A small masterpiece ...

Rating: 10/10 (23 June 2004)

Trilogies almost never work. Few franchises have enough steam to get to #3 without a misstep ... frankly, I can't think of any other examples.
But T3 breaks the trilogy curse. The smartest move the filmmakers made was deciding not to try to outdo T2. T2 is an epic masterpiece, and trying to take that to the next level would have been near impossible. Instead, that brought things down a notch, made a smaller story, added more humor.
The result is a small, wonderful film. Well, relatively small anyway. It still delivers on the action -- the big chase scene code be the greatest car chase ever committed to film. And the ending ... it's the most powerful conclusion of any film in the series.
Kudos to the mind behind T3 for taking a project that could have been a disaster and making a terrific piece of cinema out of it.