Tacky sequel

Rating: 6/10 (2 September 2008)

John Connor is now an adult, and this time around is played by an actor (Nick Stah) who bears not the slightest resemblance to the John Connor of the second film. Mama Connor is nowhere to be found, as actress Linda Hamilton did not appear in the film for one reason or another -- not that it really matters. Connor quickly crosses paths with an old classmate (Claire Danes, of all people) and soon enough they are running from a female Terminator (Kris Loken). A much smaller and older Arnold is back as yet another T-101 trying to save the young pair. The plot from this point is a virtual carbon copy of the second movie, only with louder explosions and longer chases. You can feel the script forcing and stretching this improbable scenario, especially since the whole Skylab issue was resolved at the end of T2. Director Mostow substitutes CGI-heavy action and chase sequences for any sense of forward plotting. T3 is strictly from hunger. Arnold is simply awful and has no presence. Loken is a joke as a "superior" cyborg, not half as effective as Robert Patrick's shape-shifting machine in T2. Stahl and Danes do what little they can with this ramshackle story. The ending is bizarre and unsatisfying, to say the least. There is one chase sequence involving some rather large vehicles that, at least on TV, should keep the viewer awake for a bit. In the theater, this same sequence had so much CGI in it that I thought I was watching a badly made cartoon. If you catch this on regular TV, you have nothing to lose -- but it would be better if you know nothing about the first two movies. T3 throws away all sense of logic and character development.