Action scenes with little plot

Rating: Null/10 (7 July 2003)

Ok, there is this movie called Terminator 3, but the only thing that resembles anything related to the Terminator franchise here is Arnold and, unfortunately, he alone doesn't convince me that this is the Terminator.
T3 is a not-bad summer action film, full of action and adventure, but not much in the way of a plot. I read a comment on imdb that says that the ending alone is worth the price of admission; that reviewer is apparently very easily amused.
Throughout the film, which does have some interesting action sequences, there was a noticeable lack of depth. T3 almost seemed like it was developed "by committee" with little bits that had a certain feel, and other bits that had another feel.
Kristanna Loken, who played the T-X, was fine as an actress. She performed her role well. But, what is the point of getting a supermodel to play John Connor's killer? Her beauty had nothing (at least not revealed in the film) to do with the role of the T-X, and there was no reason not to use a more sinister character. Casting her degraded the film to less-than-science-fiction, because good science fiction films avoid such fluff. Based on T3, I could see Kurt Russell, Steven Segal and maybe Jackie Chan getting involved in T4, almost to the point of slapstick
T3 actually hinted that the 'plot' was about to go somewhere, when the T-X began programming machines to help her. This was where it was getting interesting, and it happened pretty early on in the film. I could see where the "Rise of the Machines" subtitle was being utilized. Then it totally fell flat, with virtually no mention of the rise of any machines, except little bits that were touched on here and there, and that which was implied at the end of the film.
The special effects and action scenes were technically good, but my policy is that good special effects, by themselves, are useless.
Overall, the film is somewhat interesting, with a light plot and strong action sequences, although in the end it seems as if I was ripped off with hardly any payoff. Certainly not along the lines of T2 (James Cameron), which is one of the best films to ever come out of Hollywood, and one that I've seen dozens of times. T3 had none of that.