Saving face...

Rating: 6/10 (4 September 2006)

Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as the T-800, this time sent back to take on a far superior model that is programmed to destroy other terminators, however also the fact remains that destroying the data and chips merely postponed judgment day and John Connor (Nick Stahl who replaces Edward Furlong) tries to follow in his mother's footsteps in preventing the war but finds his attempts are futile. Also there is Claire Danes who is also targeted with Connor for termination and who will also grow up to be his wife. Terminator 3 can be seen as somewhat of a comeback for Arnold after witnessing what could possibly be the longest slump of an actor's career. After True Lies, Arnold made what has to be some of the lamest action flicks of his career (And that isn't even counting his embarrassing ventures into comedy and the Batman franchise) Terminator 3 can be seen as a comeback as it is superior to everything he's made since Terminator 2 but generally inferior to everything before. (Let alone the first two of the series) One peak at the title and one is somewhat shocked at the negative emotions regarding this film, a glance at IMDb's forum labels this to come up every now and then as Arnold's worst flick. (Let's not even get into the fact The Terminator and Commando fall behind Eraser and End Of Days in the best category (Shudder)) but this is not the case and Terminator 3 holds up fairly well in the story department which is handled very well. The action sequences are also exciting and Arnold is in good form. The main flaw is the new villain who just isn't as imposing as Robert Patrick or Arnold Schwarzenegger from the original. The novel touch here is that the machine is a female but clearly she doesn't do anything the T-1000 didn't do and even though Loken is adequate, it becomes obvious that she couldn't really hold her own against Arnold. Also the return of Earl Boen (The holdover from the first two movies) is wasted and is basically forgotten soon. Indeed the whole movie feels rushed and seems to indicate that the pace is quick because the director is on a deadline. Indeed usually you want movies to be shortened but for once I would have liked to see it longer so I could have found out more about some key moments which aren't developed due to the main plot. In other words Cameron could make a movie compact and complex. Jonathan Mostow can only make the movie compact and although Terminator 3 is worth watching for the genre fan, it goes without saying that it doesn't hold up when compared to the first two. Which is of course a given.
* *1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)