How such a right movie can become so wrong

Rating: 6/10 (21 April 2009)

When I first read that Terminator 3 was being developed in mid February 2002 I jumped off my chair and cheered loudly. I remember the anticipation for the movie being huge. I was watching trailers, following updates here and on other sites on a weekly basis up until the release of the film. So I entered the cinema, only to see that someone in production didn't share my opinion on what a Terminator film is all about.
A Terminator movie to me is all about the frightening, unbelievable, yet realistic story about men creating it's own doom by making smarter and smarter computers and machines. It's about the story and adventures of Sarah Connor and John Connor. It's also about having the most hardcore villains ever in firstly Arnold Schwarzenegger and secondly Robert Patrick. In the same way that Keith Richards playing guitar in the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie the casting of a Terminatrix beating up Arnold Schwarzenegger sinks a landmine into the heart of the movie. Now, Kristanna Loken is a beautiful woman, and also good at what she's doing in this film. It's only that the role she's playing doesn't work for me. I know that her role is a superior model to Arnold's and I have to think deeper than this, but there is just no way that it looks right to me when a beautiful woman kicks Arnold Schwarzeneggers but. It's a totally wrong decision in my opinion. That was the saddest part of the movie to me.
And while we're at it. There's about one or two jokes in some scenes in the first two movies that never ever makes the film cross the line to being a comedic film. At parts, this movie truly is comedic and even silly. It doesn't feel like it has the right tone for a Terminator movie.
The casting of Nick Stahl as John Connor isn't a perfect choice either in my opinion... He's not that good of an actor and doesn't even look like Edward Furlong a few years into the future from Terminator 2. That's why I'm so glad they cast Christian Bale as Connor for the new Terminator Salvation film since he's a much better actor and looks way more like Furlong than Stahl does.
Now to the good parts of the movie. Apart from the to me obvious flaws of the movie that I presented it does have glimpses of classic Terminator quality. The core story, Terminatrix aside, is actually good. The Directing is good. Claire Danes is brilliant as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kristanna Loken is good at playing a Terminatrix, it's just that her role is hopeless to succeed in my opinion. So that's a really double-edged sword. I don't think there's any woman that could have done it any better. The music arrangements are good and feel like a Terminator movie and so are some of the action scenes. I recommend this movie to those who likes to see big explosions and high speed chases, without thinking too much about what's really going on.