A Good Three-quel

Rating: 7/10 (14 July 2018)

Terminator 3 (2003) Review
Follow up to T2 several years after they prevented Judgment Day John Connor is in his mid twenties and his mother Sarah Connor has passed away. Nick Stahl replaces Edward Furlong (most likely due to his recent drug hiatus) Stahl is actually quite good in the role. He plays him as a conflicted lost person who has nightmares about the apocalypse. Arnold is back and remarkably hasn't aged a day since the twelve year gap from last film. He once again plays the good terminator but this time to protect someone else too. Now of course Arnold is brilliant in the role, he was born to play this character and he always gives it 100%. The film elevates every time he's on screen.
The villain is female but this time is a step back from the last one. The T-X played by Kristina Loken isn't as terrifying as the other villains but is still very deadly. She seems like downgrade as she has an exo-skeleton with a liquid metal exterior but thankfully she can still imitate other people. We all know that exo-skeletons can be destroyed a lot easier than the T-1000 which was purely just liquid metal. But there are a few interesting things to her in that she can manipulate machines and vehicles to wreak havoc and she also has a built in gun which looks really cool.
Director Jonathan Mostow who previously helmed the Kurt Russell thriller Breakdown does a more than average job here. It's clear he wasn't in full control with so many producers breathing down his neck telling him how to make the film. He does his best with the often silly script by John Brancato and Michael Ferris. One thing he delivers well on is the action sequences.
T3 is full of great action scenes from two chase sequences, a police hold up which goes awry and an exciting bathroom fight. However some of these action scenes are exaggerated to the max with some of them going on for far too long like the bathroom fight and the first chase sequence. There is an awful lot of CGI - One scene where the terminator has to reconnect his head would have looked a lot better had it been done with animatronics. The bathroom confrontation between the two terminators also looks very cartoonish at times. There's a nice use of practical effects in parts but it ultimately relies on some often dated looking CG animations.
The majority of the time it delivers but there are too many self deprecating moments from the often cartoon like sound effects and the constant self referential gags to the first movies. There are a few dumb character moments, some annoying characters and it's peppered with one too many cheesy one liners like "Talk to the hand" and "I like your gun". But the film redeems itself running at a brisk pace of 100 minutes it has some good character interactions, effective action scenes, great cinematography and a surprisingly sombre ending. It's not a classic like the first two but it's far from terrible.