Good continuation of the saga

Rating: Null/10 (27 July 2003)

I found Terminator 3 thoroughly entertaining. I was expecting a decent amount of action and suspense and the film delivered solidly. It was very easy to suspend disbelief and let myself get swept on the frenetically paced journey.
Arold looks excellent for 55. He appears to revel in this role and delivers his lines faultlessly. He probably won't be playing a Terminator again, so it's great to see him go out on a high.
Nick Stahl makes an interesting and sympathetic John Conner while Claire Danes is given a good strong female role definitely reminiscent of Linda Hamilton's Sarah Conner from the first Terminator. As for Kristanna Loken  she's cool, pretty and nasty.
There are heaps of excellent effects and stunts. Once street chase action sequence involving heavy commercial vehicles threatens to take focus away from the story, but ends just before it starts to outlast its welcome.
There's nothing brain challenging in T3, and there are a couple of scenes which just don't make perfect logical sense. But the central focus of T3 is not to create high art, it's to create good, slick entertainment. T3 moves at such a fast pace I didn't think about any faults or logic problems until after the final credits. Very smart direction.
The only flat bit for me occurred when a character from the previous Terminator films was discussed by Claire and Nick. Too saccharine for my tastes.
T3 leaves more than enough room for at least one more sequel (I only hope we don't have to wait another decade). But although the ending is very, very open, I left the cinema feeling greatly satisfied and exhilarated rather than ripped off, as I have felt after viewing some other episodic movies.
Best viewed whilst munching on a huge bucket of extra buttered popcorn. 8/10