generally positive

Rating: Null/10 (4 July 2003)

I'll limit my comments so as not to reveal anything significant.

Overall, I liked this movie.
It is not as groundbreaking or thrilling as the original one was when it was first released 19 years ago. It is not as mindlessly entertaining or slickly crafted as the second installment. It is, however, a worthy sequel.
Here, in a nutshell, is why: Have you seen the first two? Do you remember how bleak the first movie was, and how brilliantly (for an action movie) it played with the logical paradox of time? Do you remember how the second movie blatantly violated the paradox, and how this caused a nagging feeling of -well...- intellectual disappointment which diminished the strength of the film? How it got just a tad too mushy (diminishing, most notably, the power of the performance delivered by Linda Hamilton)? Well, this third installment "fixes" those problems, answers a bunch of begging questions, and returns very solidly to the stark tone of the original. Thank God.
Arnold turned in the expected performance. Claire Danes was surprisingly authentic. The plot was solid. I cannot say more without spoiling.
Pacing was a little spotty, but I think that was actually a strength - some things happened which really needed a pause from the buildup-to-climax which drove the original and second movies. The effects were well conceived and solidly executed.
The only defects I can point to: They tried just a little too hard with the TX - I dunno, but it seems to me that they could have done better with a little less "oh, wow, look at THIS nifty feature" nonsense; The actor playing JC was not particularly impressive in that role - I know what the intent was, but there was not enough evidence of character development to make his reactions at the ending really believable; Lastly, I think the end was just a tad too clinically executed - *I* would have hammered the audience quite a bit harder with the enormity of the events in question, so that instead of leaving the theater a little sad they'd leave staggering in awe and horror, but that's just me.
I'd rate T3 a solid 4 of 5, sliding scale adjusted for genre.