So much better than expected

Rating: 9/10 (14 July 2003)

I was of the school of thought that this film was going to be terrible. Arnie was too old; Jim Cameron wasn't on board; Nick Stahl was in Disturbing Behaviour! These are the sorts of things an ordinary movie could not get over.
T3 is not ordinary.
The action sequences are spectacular, even more so because they are (take note Wachowski's and Lucas) REAL! Obviously some CG effects were used but it wasn't entirely CG (which might have worked for Neo) and that in itself was a treat.
The director builds a real sense of pressure and a real sense of style right up until the decidedly non-Hollywood ending, which even its predecessor did, the direction is just on the right side of post-modern irony and the performances (bar one) are great.
This leads us nicely onto the big man himself... Mr. (Governor?) Schwarzenegger is now 56 years old, he first played the T-100 in 1984 and he has progressed through the years into a different actor to when he started. All in all a tough assignment! He manages to just make us believe he is the T-100 again, it's amazing. I forgot he was Arnie; all I knew was that if he wanted to he could have snapped John Connor's neck like a twig (good thing if Edward Furlong was involved).
Just for fairness though I must point out what I thought the weak link was Kristanna Loken, now before anyone starts I have nothing against models-turned-actors but in this case Miss Loken should have kept her mouth shut and her legs waxed. She is just not Robert Patrick, she doesn't ever have the sense of malice that he managed to put into the T-1000 and for that she fails.
Anyways that's my quick review; I do recommend you go see the film when it comes out over here you really won't be disappointed