Amazingly much better than what I expected.

Rating: 9/10 (27 November 2003)

*spoilers*
Granted that originally I had suspicions as to why they really made a third Terminator, I must admit that I greatly regret waiting until this movie came out on DVD before seeing it. The comments made by MM-39 very much sum up the movie perfectly.
Although -like the first two- you have a terminator/terminatrix sent back to destroy the eventual leader of the resistance, that's about where the similarities end. Reality eventually sets in that the future is set for John, that war is unavoidable. There is no hope of change and John eventually understands the why of this and that there is no running from the responsibility/fate that's his. Though the movie is sci-fi due to time travel, it becomes more believable with the involvement of very modern issues, concerning the threat of a virus infecting the series of networks that connect and in essence control the world's welfare. Skynet, unaware that their creation is the cause of this world wide virus, unleashes it (ironically to destroy this virus). In this, you see the beginnings of the machine wars, with it leaving the dead weight of hopelessness in your stomach, and the final scenes leaving you with the major sense of dread that you felt in the first Terminator.
Arnold, reprising his protective role, isn't the fatherly type that he was in the 2nd. Sent back by John's wife/2nd in command of the resistance, he is the cold machine who's sole purpose is to get John and his future wife to safety from the initial attack, while revealing a nasty piece of information to John about his future. All around, I applaud Arnold for reprising this role, since it artfully filled in gaps left by the second movie. So, overall, I'm more than pleased with #3 and have learned my lesson about assuming before seeing.