A Unworthy and less than stellar "comedy"... Not The REAL Terminator.

Rating: 5/10 (6 July 2003)

You know in the last 10 years American film making has suffered horribly in the way that it plays up movie clichés, and things that are perceived as comic relief, this film serves as a prime example of how to take a no brainer and mock what you are actually trying to accomplish. The first problem comes in that Arnold is no longer just a caricature of himself in the publics minds, but now he's a caricature of that caricature in the movie itself if that makes any sense. Having him spout off one liners just for the sake of one liners is really sad, and unlike the typical "comic relief" that pollutes films now days its was way overdone in the first hour or so almost to the point I was feeling embarrassed as a fan of the series. It was almost like they were trying to make you forget they actually had a real struggle in the movie and that the t-850 was there to be a joke, hell if that was the case why didn't they just hire Rob Schneider as the threat? LISTEN UP HOLLYWOOD some of us LOVE these kinds of films, why "fix" what's not broken??? Comic relief is fine if used right, but as this film goes it was poorly wrote and badly placed. The TX or Terminatrix was pretty lame as well, but much of that had to do with the way she was shot, and not just how bad her acting was... simply put she did not come across as a cold blooded killer like Arnie or Robert Patrick did. The idea of exploiting her femininity to murder is one thing, but they way it was handled is another as the "Victoria's secret" scene was made for 10 year olds it would seem. Why the hell would a damn near invincible "pull over" for a cop anyway? That really made sense... To have a unproven like Jonathan Mostow direct in Cameron's leave is just ridiculous, the guys a damned hack pure and simple if he can ruin something so good, especially trimming the film down under 2 hours like a good "commercial" director. For all the negativity though I will say it had SOME redeeming things going for it, the first of which is Nick Stahl. Stahl was TREMENDOUS in the movie and in many ways the glue that held it together for the first hour, unlike the terrible actor (Edward Furlong) that portrayed him in T2, he had depth and appeal. The last 30 mins are pretty good (even if the Terminator battle was eh...) and the ending gave me chills... Too bad this film was so badly soiled by its directors hand and the poor script, it could have been great 5/10 (Mainly due to Stahl's outstanding performance)