Recommended, but with qualms

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2003)

SPOILER ALERT
After the slimy abortion that was Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, my wife had a dickens of a time convincing me to take in ANY more summer action sequels, including T3, even though we're both big fans of the first two films. Eventually, she won me over, and I'm glad she did. I enjoyed T3--even though it's merely good and not nearly as great as its predecessors.
There was a lot to like here. I liked the two young leads, and found both characters' development from what they are at the start of the film (John Connor's a mess; Kate Brewster's a mousy vet) to what they are at the end (future leaders of the anti-machine resistance and soon-to-be lovers) wholly believable and deftly accomplished. I especially liked the irony of how it took a machine--one of his future main enemies, a Terminator--to make Connor accept his destiny as leader of the resistance to those very machines.

I also thought the downer ending was incredibly gutsy for a summer action movie. The heroes don't win! Well, eventually they will, we're told, but that's not what we're SHOWN. And Arnie--how can you not love the Teutonic Titan in the role he was born to play? Favourite line: "I'll drive." --delivered to a group of shocked firefighters. And it's extremely well-paced, especially once the threat of Skynet's activation comes into play.
Nonetheless, the film has some serious problems, most of them revolving around the bad guy...uh, girl. The Terminatrix was the weakest element here. First, the obvious: as an actress, Kristanna Loken is a good model. She has nowhere near the screen presence of Arnold or Robert Patrick. When Loken flatly delivers the uninspiring "I like your car/gun" lines, you can't help but recall Robert Patrick's wonderfully creepy "Say...that's a nice bike...", not to mention Arnie's immortal "I'll be back."
Second, the concept is weak: she can form advanced weapons with her hands? So what? The previous villains in this series were viscerally terrifying: the unstoppable, scowling, hulking Arnie in T1, who got scarier as his skin came off and that metal skeleton got revealed; and creepily friendly Robert Patrick, shape-shifting his liquid metal body into those ugly, brutal "stabbing weapons".
Third, T3 showed some lazy, sloppy work on the part of the writers when it came to our villainess. It's a bad sign when I get those "What the f...?" moments DURING the movie. Here's a couple of examples of what I'm talking about:
1) Kate's hiding, terrified, breathing AUDIBLY, in her vet clinic, and Terminator Barbie CAN'T HEAR HER?!? Come on, she's gotta have some advanced auditory sensors, and infra-red to boot. My wife suggested the T-Barbie got distracted by John Connor's presence, and realized how ridiculous that was as soon as she said it. Hey, she's a super-advanced COMPUTER, I THINK she can MULTI-TASK. Simple solution: Kate just happens to hide behind a big, noisy fridge. You've got a technically savvy audience here, guys; don't insult our intelligence.
2) John, Kate, and Arnie are driving away at the end of the early, nearly-interminable chase scene. T-Barbie watches them go, the back end of their Toyota truck in her sights...uh...HELLO?!? I thought this chick could form advanced weaponry, but she can't pick off a TRUCK at 200 yards?!?
3) T-Barbie goes right through the super-accelerator control room without noticing it's turned on or figuring out (super-computer, remember? Advanced AI?) what its powerful magnetic field will do to anything METAL once it reaches full power. And Arnie says she's smarter than he is?

All in all, if I had a choice as to which of the three Terminators I'd rather go up against, I'd choose this ineffectual little minx any day. Fortunately, about half-way into the movie the nebulous Skynet becomes the true villain and its impending activation creates the real suspense.
T3 does end up being a largely intellectual exercise, which is remarkable for a summer action movie, granted. But it wasn't as emotionally compelling as I'd hoped. First, Sarah Connor/Linda Hamilton deserved a BIG death scene where she gave her life for John. (And the mother-in-law-to-be-with-biceps-of-steel-and-an-uzi stuff would have been fun!) Second, when John Connor accepts his destiny, you should want to stand up and cheer. Instead, I was left walking out going, "Well, that was interesting..." It's good, even satisfying, but not great. You can't help wondering how Cameron would have done it better. 7/10.