One of the best movies of all time

Rating: 10/10 (22 October 2003)

I'm really surprised at all the negative reviews T3 is receiving. It was as good as the previous two Terminator films, which makes this franchise the only title out there that's great, quality entertainment without any interruptions of garbage in the middle (ala Alien 3). Of the many positive aspects about this film that all the critics out there ignore because they're too busy on the Miss James Cameron bandwagon, here's some:
***********SPOILERS************
From the start we definitely missed Linda Hamilton's character from T2, as she was the best (though not only) asset from that film. But Nick Stahl did as good a job as her here in taking over as the human who was caught in the middle of a battle of titans. I had a bad feeling about this actor when I first saw that Edward Furlong wasn't coming back for T3, but my doubts were quickly put down when I saw how good an actor he was, playing an incredibly well-written character. Here we have a brooding, depressed John Connor who doesn't want the role of humanity's leader, feeling that way especially after his mother died and after having watched the only friend he had, the T800 from T2, leaving him at the end of the second film. He never thought that he was good enough to carry this huge responsibility, but he also suspected that he couldn't avoid it no matter how much he just wanted to disappear off the map, thus the nightmare of a chilling army of terminators who were seen approaching the screen as a dream to him after he dropped the bottle of beer into the lake whose ground was covered with skulls. But the fact that this guy was willing to put a gun to his own head to pressure the T800 to help them try to stop Skynet was proof that he was as good as his reputation said, as no one would be more qualified to lead the humans after the apocalypse as a person who showed that much heart and backbone at that scene.
Following that, we have action and special effects that are incredible to watch, surprises ala the coffin full of weapons and the fact that it was Kate who sent the T800 back instead of John being the one who did so, as well as humor like the sunglasses at the beginning and the `talk to the hand' comment as the T800 was taking food out of the store, which made the entire theater laugh where I was.
As a conclusion, we have a battle between machines, but not between the T800 and the TX, as expected, but between the T800 and the earliest terminator models that the TX reprogrammed, sending them out to massacre people. So we have the early terminators killing people and the only one who's fighting back against them is the T800, machine versus machine for the lives of the human survivors who were in the compound hanging in the balance. The T800 reached a level of humanity there that it never expected to have. And that was followed with it rebelling against the reprogram it then received from the TX to kill John and Kate, which made it into a much more sympathetic character than it ever was in T1 and T2. And this rebellion within the T800 was conceivable since the TX was used to ordering neutral machines to do its bidding (ie, cars). But the T800 already had an order to protect, thus the new orders to kill were coming into conflict with the previous ones, thus leading it to prefer to shut itself off rather than go against its original orders. Whether its interaction with John and Kate had any say in its decision is something that's debatable, of course, as it was fine with being reprogrammed to save Kate after its very first orders by Skynet were to kill humans. So in the future, it accepted its second orders to protect just fine, but not its third orders in the present time to return to killing. Begs the question as to why.
And lastly, there's the ending, which I'll just summarize as being one that was a jaw-dropping surprise. I won't say what it is here in case there's anyone out there who's waiting to see this film on tape or DVD, but suffice it to say that you won't see it coming and it'll leave you on the edge of your seat. With John and Kate totally exhausted and realizing that they did all they could and all there is to do now is watch their efforts unfold while waiting for the future.
So when all is said and done, I can say that James Cameron can return to doing Titanic 2 or another lousy show like Dark Angel if he wants, but if he doesn't wish to participate here, he's not needed as J. Mostow is doing just great. Anyone who wants to watch garbage can see Matrix Reloaded, a movie whose only premise is making as many marketing products from the once-great Matrix title as possible. But for those who demand quality for their money, it's clear what the best movie of this year is. My only question now is, where is T4?! It's time for John Connor to take charge.