He should have considered not coming back

Rating: 6/10 (12 February 2020)

In the grand scheme of Terminator films, this is the poor relation. It's been panned on various reviewing websites, and to some extent I can see why too - but I don't hate it, in fact if you give it a chance it's actually alright. In this film a new Terminator (T-X) is sent back in time to the past (our present) to complete another mission which will change its present (our future) and bring machines the victory in a war waged against humanity which has been blazing for a long time. John Connor is all grown up and living off the grid so he can't be hunted. While he isn't the intended target this time, he still manages to find himself on the run from the new super advanced T-X Terminator. Teaming up with his future wife Katherine Brewster, he is on his own mission to survive the conflict with the T-X, and to try and prevent the future from happening thus saving humanity.
Some would argue this film raises more issues than it does solve them, but given the chance, and ignoring the numerous issues, this is a decent action film - not brilliant, just decent. The first Terminator film shows what imagination and storytelling, despite having a low budget , can do - a masterpiece. T2 shows what a big budget and a good imagination, despite only a decent story can achieve - another stroke of genius. T3 unfortunately, shows what a big budget but very little imagination and story can achieve - which ultimately doesn't get it to the heights of its two predecessors.
There are times were it tries to give nods to previous films in the franchise, but in doing it once to many throughout the film it becomes a bit of a parody of itself. The cast in the film is decent enough, Arnie looks a little over aged for his role, but who else can you put in that role. Nick Stahl and Claire Danes do alright as the central humans in the film, but poor scripting means there isn't a massive amount to write home about. Kristanna Loken is a bit cartoony as the new terminator, which I'm not sure if it's down to an overuse of CGI on her - but still she is decent enough.
Some of the issues I had included: T800's aren't supposed to be able to learn, yet Arnie's Terminator has learned plenty of new things. How is Skynet operational after John destroyed the core and every trace of previous Terminators. If Skynet can send Terminators back in time, as it has done plenty of times now (5 by my count), why not send an army of them back in time so that they can win this time? Why haven't the US Military got any security at its top secret facility, and more to the point, how can two young adults and their 6ft gun totting robot enter the facility without being accosted? I have plenty more issues, but I getting fed of myself whinging now.
I enjoyed the twist at the end of this film more than I did the journey to get to that point, I enjoyed looking at some of the version 1 killing machines, I enjoyed the nostalgia this film brought. The biggest issue I had though is that this lacked balls, it didn't have attitude, it didn't feel right. I felt like a film for films sake, rather than a film for a great concept. Perhaps this got panned so much because of the great Terminator films which came before it. At best, for me, this is a 6 out of 10.