Talk to the hand! No, really...

Rating: 2/10 (11 October 2009)

Well, so much for "No fate but what we make." 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' proved that we're not up to our own destiny as 'T2' proved otherwise. Be prepared for all the events in the previous installment to be thrown out the window in 'T3.' The perfect comparison is the transition from 'Aliens' to 'Alien 3.' (By the way, I don't think there's much of a coincidence that both 'T3' and 'Alien 3' are bad movies that followed part 2's directed by James Cameron; apparently no one knows how to follow him up, or even if they should.) (Spoiler following) In 'Aliens' Ripley spends the entire movie protecting Newt, Hicks and Bishop and stopping once and for all the alien race only to have 'Alien 3' open with Newt & Hicks dead, Bishop to die later and the aliens breeding again like nothing happened. 'T2' taught us, we are in charge of our future, and 'T3' says, "nope, the set future is 'inevitable.'" And I haven't gotten to the worst aspect (even worse than the dialogue, 'Talk to the hand!'): this is one of the most pointless sequels of all time. It's almost a line-by-line, shot-by-shot remake of 'T2.' Schwarzenegger is a good T-101 sent back to protect Connor, and a liquid metal Terminator sent back to kill him. There's the daylight street chase. There's the gun round-up. The one-liners (only, in 'T3' they were extremely painful to listen to.) Etc, etc. I give it an extra ½ star for the special effects. Unfortunately everything else – the acting, dialogue, originality, inconsistencies, plot holes, laughable characters (that were supposed to be taken seriously), was so far under par, it was unbelievable Cameron even let this get green-lit. And trust me: you'll feel every bit of Hamilton's absence.