From potential disaster to one of the BEST action movies ever!

Rating: 8/10 (12 July 2003)

This could easily have been a disaster. With James Cameron, Linda Hamilton, Brad Fiedel (composer) nowhere in sight for this movie and Arnie's career in the gutter for the past ten years, the whole project had a feel of "let's try to save Arnie's career one last time" and "let's try to make a quick buck off the Terminator franchise".
I had serious doubts the 56-year old Arnold could still command the screen like he used to. And I had grave doubts about the idea of a female villain - with T-1000 from T2 being one of the ultimate movie villains of all time in my opinion, throwing in a woman seemed like something the movie-makers were trying to do just to be "different". Plus her being robotic again seemed like a step down from T2's polymorphic terminator. Nick Stahl didn't seem like an appealing choice for John Connor either. And the idea of Claire Danes seemed like an artificial drag-along in order for our hero to "have a girlfriend".
The only sign of hope was the big budget. With an accepted budget of $170-$200 million, they HAD to make a movie which can rely on more than just the opening weekend box office. And I was relieved to find out that they DID!
Of course I realize that with such low expectations, it would have been easy for the movie to exceed them. But that is hardly the case here - T3 is not only the action movie of the year, it is without a doubt one of the BEST action movies of all time. I was happy to see Arnie back on top - even if it is for just this one movie. I was happy to see the female terminator was actually a step up from T-1000. I was happy to see Nick Stahl being just PERFECT for the role. The eerie atmosphere of T1 was back and the action (especially the fighting and car-chase sequences) absolutely DECIMATED Matrix Reloaded even without having to rely on either CGI slow-motion, bullet-time photography or dangling from wires. The movie was even able to handle the usual stumbling-place of all action movies - the ending - surprisingly well.
As far as action movies go - 10 out of 10.