It's Good To Be Back

Rating: 10/10 (30 July 2003)

Mostow has injected a lot of the same spirit from previous Terminator films into Terminator 3, cleverly causing you to undergo a bit of what weightlifters call `muscle memory.' Although wildly entertaining and pleasantly reminiscent of past films, Terminator 3 as a whole did not resonate like the first two films. That's not to say it didn't achieve greatness, just not the type of greatness Cameron achieved in the good old days. The key change from Cameron to Mostow proved too dissonant for some fans. Cameronistas resent Mostow's style as action over substance. Reading their remarks on the movie forums would have one believe the film represents more of a lowering of humans than rising of machines. T3 is not T2. Mostow is not Cameron. Let James Cameron be James Cameron, or at least Jim Cameron, and let everyone else be themselves.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines had to hold its ground and simply not be bad. It held. It did more than that. It succeeded. Humor, action, and preservation of the Terminator motifs gave the film life. The word `terminated' will continue to live as a great movie euphemism. Whether or not the Terminator series will rise again, only time will tell.

--Emory Rowland