An unnecessary sequel

Rating: 6/10 (31 March 2008)

Everything that needed to be said and done was done so in Terminator 2. (Quite nicely, I might add.) There was absolutely no need to make enough another Terminator movie, proving that T3 was simply nostalgic masturbation on the studio's part.
Terminator 3 is basically one big homage to Terminator 2. There's nothing in T3 that wasn't done (and done better) in T2. Cameron clearly had a better handle on the story than Mostow, who spent the whole movie trying to convince the audience that he can throw down with the big boys. Reality, however, is against him, since T3 is nowhere near as entertaining as T2.
With the exception of Arnold, T3 has just about everything going against it. Claire Daines looks very out of place in this movie, Nick Stahl is a horrible John Conner, and the two have little to no chemistry together. The special effects are rather sloppy and the music is pretty mediocre. Even the action scenes aren't as good as T2. It's a twenty-first century Terminator film, but we can only have one expensive sequence (the fire truck)?! The one thing I do like about T3 is the notion that Judgment Day is inevitable. Fate is a time-honored and effective plot device, especially in stories involving time travel. While it doesn't even begin to fill in for the rest of what is lacking T3's plot, at least it provides a somewhat stable backbone.
On its own, Terminator 3 is an OK movie. It's flawed, but entertaining. In relation to its predecessors, however, it falls flat on its face. It's obvious that it was simply an effort to restart the franchise and keep the money-hose going.