Surprisingly enjoyable.

Rating: 6/10 (4 August 2003)

The Terminator and Terminator 2:Judgment Day are, respectively, a science fiction classic, and a worthy sequel to a science fiction classic. They are both brilliantly written and directed by James Cameron, the finest action director in the world. As well as being excellent action-packed stories, they have great emotional impact and contain an interesting message about the value of human life. They also manage to be simultaneously pessimistic and optimistic as the heroes of the story struggle to prevent a future apocalypse. Whether or not they succeed is left brilliantly ambiguous.

The close of Terminator 2 seemed like a fantastic ending. Continuing it, I always thought would be a truly terrible idea, especially with James Cameron not at the helm. Therefore, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines sounded like a cynical exercise in revitalising Arnold Schwarzenegger's flagging career. Unlike the first two films, it has not been made for any artistic or creative reason.
It comes as a great surprise then, that Terminator 3 is actually rather enjoyable. It's nowhere near as good as its illustrious predecessors, but its certainly more entertaining than, say, The Matrix Reloaded. Although director Jonathan Mostow lack's Cameron's flair, he's always solid and delivers some fine action set pieces. Unfortunately, that's all he does deliver. Terminator 3 is full of action, but it has precious little character development and lacks the emotional core of the earlier films. That is, until the last five minutes of the film which I won't spoil here.
The plot is the same as ever, with Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 terminator once more sent back in time to protect John Conner (Nick Stahl) from yet another terminator upgrade, the female T-X (Kristanna Loken). The T-X is a kind of cross between the liquid metal terminator of Terminator 2 and Arnie's mechanical version. However, this time it has other targets beside Conner, including his wife-to-be Kathryn Brewster (Claire Danes). It transpires the nuclear war Conner thought had been prevented in Terminator 2 has only been `postponed' (completely destroying the logic of previous instalments). This leads to a race against time, which fails to be anywhere near as suspenseful as it should be.
The cast are all good, if unremarkable. However, the script has an annoying habit of delivering the signature dialogue with a nod and a wink. Lines like `Come with me if you want to live' and `I'll be back' no longer have the resonance they had in the earlier films, and simply become irritating. As for Arnie, he's good, but no longer has the edge he had in the earlier films. I doubt this film will resurrect his career.