Worth it for the final reel

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2009)

The third film in the Terminator franchise sees Arnold Schwarzenegger return as a T-850 sent back to ensure John Connor and his future wife Kate Brewster survive the impending Judgment Day whilst a rival Terminator, the T-X, hunts down and kills people important to the future human resistance.
Jonathan Mostow steps into James Cameron's big directing boots and produces an enjoyable follow up to the previous instalments but also provides nothing outstanding either. The action scenes are directed competently but you really do feel as if some flair is missing that Cameron would've brought to the film, although the stand-out chase sequence involving a crane truck, two police cars, a fire engine and an ambulance features scenes of automobile destruction rivalled only by The Blues Brothers.
Nick Stahl does a good job of portraying a John Connor haunted by his impending legacy and struggling to come to terms with his destiny without the guidance of his now deceased mother (Sarah Connor having died of leukemia off screen between T2 & T3) but you can't help thinking that the film would've benefited hugely from the involvement of Edward Furlong who was originally lined up to return in the role but pulled out and/or let go by the producers as a result of his then current substance problems. Claire Danes does well with an under written role of Connor's future wife and Kristina Loken does a great Robert Patrick impression as the T-X, the latest in Terminator assassins from the future.
Essentially a remake of T2, what gives this film extra points is the unexpected twist ending (which I'll discuss without spoiler boxes as the film is 6 years old so if you haven't seen the film, look away now!) It's very rare these days in cinema that a summer blockbuster ends on a downbeat note but the makers of T3 deserve kudos for ending the film with the destruction of 3 billion human lives in the nuclear apocalypse and actually bringing about the event that even Cameron avoided, Judgment Day. The ending alone makes up for the slight feeling throughout the film that you've seen it all before. This film could've so easily been a standard run around with an obligatory happy ending but in bringing the franchise full circle, they take the films away from the now tired concept of Terminators being sent back to present day and give the franchise the opportunity to move the story forward instead of it remaining stagnant. It's just a shame that they didn't build on that promise with the fourth film. 8/10