Third installment holds its own

Rating: Null/10 (4 July 2003)

I have to admit going into T3:Rise of the Machines, I was skeptical as to whether or not this would be a serious attempt at continuing the storyline or a serious attempt at making money for the sake of money. My strongest compliment to this film is the fact that it doesn't take itself completely serious at all. It knows its not the original or even its blockbuster sequel. There are several places where the movie pokes fun at itself and its predessesors and hey, it makes it that much more fun. (Come on, you know it had to be a little cheesy.) For those who want a summary, basicly Judgment Day was only postponed in T2 and the machines, giving up on killing John Conner, have targeted several of his to-be leiutenants by sending back the Terminatrix whose exact model number escapes me at the moment. Of course, good old Arnie is sent back to stop her and the film gives a good explaination as to why the human resistance would keep sending back this inferior model of Terminator while the machines continue to upgrade. The end of T3 made the movie completely worthwhile for me. I don't want to give anything away, but it's not often I applaud a Hollywood film in its writing efforts these days. The only real problem I had with the movie is that John wasn't played by Ed Furlong, not that Im a huge Furlong fan, but I'm a big fan of continuity... yeah, nitpicky, I know. Overall, I was very pleased with T3 and look forward to the inevitable T4.