Another beloved TradeMark has been exploited...

Rating: 4/10 (3 September 2003)

Does the following two statements apply to you?
Terminator - "I liked it alot".
Terminator 2 - "I loved it, it excelled in a superior manner."
If you answered "yes", then you will not like Terminator 3, and in truth you would be better off not seeing it. By not seeing it, you will preserve the memory of the two previous movies without tainting them. Should you despite this warning choose to view T3, then please note that you will never again be able to view the previous movies without conjuring up the ghosts of T3.
Are you thinking "it can't be that bad, this person just didn't understand it"?
I too thought along this line when prewarned about it, I imagined that it had to have some entertaining qualities given it being a Terminator movie. Movies like that just aren't all-out bad.
I was wrong, I should have listened to the person who warned me.
Right about now you are thinking "I refuse to be the only person on the planet to not have seen T3, simply because of a warning on IMDB."
Again, if the top two rows apply to you, then you will wish you had listened to this warning.
Are you thinking "this person is some kind of pro critic or really picky about movies, I just want to see what happened after T2"?
No, I am not a professional critic, and I'm probably not more picky about movies than you. And yes, I sure wanted to see what happened after T2. But you see, you do not get to see what happened after T2, because the people responsible for that excellent script did not touch a page of this movie. It is entirely different. The company which made T2, Corolco, didn't produce this movie. Cameron did not co-write nor produce this movie.
T3 is riddled with large caliber logic and story holes, many things don't add up and contradict the "Terminator world". The cast is really ill chosen, the T-X technology a bit too much for me, but the bottom line is that it doesn't have much of a story. Many movies don't actually need one, take "Deep Blue Sea" for instance, great entertainment without the need of a solid story. But the T movies already have a very cool story with, mostly, down-to-earth technology involved. Advanced, but mostly believable, and this goes for design also, the whole "make it look cool" clause from the first T2 book was very appealing to me as I enjoy things which look nice but also look practical enough to pass as a believable design. T3's tech and design is a bit different, clearly shown with both with the T-X and hardware in the 2029 scenes.
Let me make it blatantly clear what we are talking about here. This will be fully understood by fans of the Aliens saga. I rank T3 as marginally better than "Alien : Resurrection", a movie which corrupted and devastated the the beloved Aliens saga. This statement will allow you to make your own references. If you liked "Aliens : Resurrection" and thought it to be a worthy follow-up to the earlier movies, then you will most probably love T3. If you on the other hand wish it had never come to exist, then you get an idea of my views on T3.
I remember going to see "Alien 3" many years ago, I then expected something even better and more advanced than the prequel before it, I was utterly disappointed due to it not measuring up to my expectations. In retrospect, Alien 3 isn't really that bad, just different. I wish I could say the same for T3. I came to the theatre expecting something bad, due to numerous reviews, the intel of T3's budget problems and a script without Cameron. All of this negativity made me confident T3 would come out on top, seeing how I expected so little of it. But the disappointment was devastating. The worst part is that T3 has become a comedy, a quick action movie with dry jokes and one-liners accompanied with solid special effects. The movie mocks the previous two movies and tries to play the same jokes, whereas it comes out as a sad experience. Even the Terminators aren't really the same anymore, they are much more human, with facial expressions and logics that robots would never apply. The whole "machine syndrome" isn't apparent at all, which is one of the really nice things about T2, this "man beside machine, examining the differences and similarities of her creation."
While T2's story was excellent, it had something else, call it "storytelling"; the ability to tell a story in a flowing manner with scenes that logically follow eachother and keeps the viewer interested. This technique is one of the prime things that makes T2 excel and the prime thing that makes T3 crash and burn. The viewer is presented with scenes which appear to be cut together, where most are action scenes and the other scenes are dry humor. Humor will vary greatly between people, but as a preview of what to expect, I must say that a joke which was funny when Joe Pesci said it in Lethal Weapon 3, is certainly not funny 2003.
I do apologize for the constant comparisons with Terminator and T2, such references do not belong in a review, but I felt it was needed so everyone reading this can examine my views on the previous movies and compare it with their own views. Without references that one can relate to, a review or criticism is simply an incomprehendable description from which it is difficult to form an opinion on.
In truth, I do not want you to see T3. Yes, you will be one of the few on the planet who didn't see T3, but then again you will be one of the few people who has untainted, glorious memories of the first two movies. No one can change that.