A disappointing sequel to a popular story

Rating: Null/10 (3 April 2004)

The first Terminator film to be made without the guidance and vision of James Cameron, and it certainly suffers as a result. Novice director Jonathan Mostow is way out of his depth and makes the classic mistake of all forgettable sci-fi films, he focuses on the special effects and action sequences and completely ignores the story.
Don't get me wrong, the special effects and action sequences are awesome to watch, but hardly compensate for a very sparse story line. As a result, the film is unbalanced and lacks the emotional core of T1 and T2. The heart of those films were the characters. You wanted them to survive, you wanted them to triumph and you cared about what happened to them. And that brings me to the other big problem with T3, Nick Stahl is appallingly miscast. His John Connor is a small, weedy looking guy with no on-screen presence, no charisma and a very limited acting ability. He was irritating to watch and only served to highlight the superficial nature of the story.
Such a pity, because there were some genuinely good ideas that with a skilled director and better writers could have made for a truly memorable film.