so-so

Rating: 5/10 (8 April 2009)

I'm a huge Arnold Schwarzenegger fan, or at least I was. Politics aside, I've enjoyed most of his films, even if many of them were basically no-brainer, popcorn action flicks.
By all accounts he WAS a huge action star back in the day, but even with all the bodybuilding he did to get ready for T3, I still wasn't buying him as The Terminator I enjoyed from the first installments anymore. Everybody ages and even after most of the budget seems to have gone to pancake make-up and Oil of Olay to cover his wrinkles, I'm still unconvinced. I really, really wanted to give him a chance to reprise the role he so superbly fit back in 1984 and again in T2, but it's 19 years later. In the end, he's a 60+ year-old guy with a great build for his age.
As for the story; it was OK. I've certainly seen better sci-fi and action films. Did it add much to The Terminator universe? Not really. It did accomplish the feat of tying up some lose ends as to how John Connor survived the nuclear attack that is necessary for there to even be a Terminator plot line. I'm not sure that the movie could have been made without Schwarzenegger somewhere in the mix, but I guess we'll all find out when T4 opens.
The characters themselves were fairly cardboard and underdeveloped. Thankfully the first two movies gave some background because this one really did not help it along. I can say the the addition of a female Terminator was an interesting twist and broadened the scope of the Terminator world.
If you loved the first two as I did (I've seen The Terminator at least 100 times), you'll need to see T3, just don't get your hopes too high.