Faster la Vista Baby

Rating: 8/10 (2 July 2003)

First of all you should see this film before reading any reviews, not because I'm going to give you any spoilers but simply because this is a very enjoyable movie and worth seeing before discussing.
This is a film that loves being a sequel and there are not many third outings that come anywhere close to the first two movies usually. In many respects T3 is more similar in tone to Alien 3 than any other sequel, in that you get the impression that Mostow has gone out of his way to not only include the jaw dropping action of T2: Judgment Day, but also the pure Tech-Noir quality of the 1984 original and although he can't top either of these classics he gets a pretty good combination effect. With a new Terminator we get new plays on favorite jokes (don't you remember Hasta la Vista?'), new twists on familiar routines (such as the naked Arnie appearing in time for ladies night) coupled with a sense of dread and uncertainty that fits with the current fears of an unstoppable military power. Nick Stahl (as John Conner) who looks like he wondered out of Detour' (US/1945) is a deadbeat on a motorbike eking an existence on the road from town to town, he feels that the apocalyptic future he was destined to be part of has been avoided, but has left him without a purpose. Then Arnie shows up and informs him that Judgment Day is round the corner. Can he stop it this time? Is he still the savior? With Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) as (surely more than love interest!) an initially unwilling accomplice, they try to avert the coming Armageddon and outrun the T-X (Kristanna Loken) an upgraded liquid metal Terminator in NEW ultra deadly Scandinavian female form! As many other critics have pointed out there is a lot more humor in this film and Mostow may not have the masterstroke quality of James Cameron BUT he knows what this franchise is all about: 1. Trading in on Arnies' one-dimensional UberMensch acting style for all it's worth. He still looks fantastic and you can really revel in his juggernaut bravado. 2. Countering his nonhuman persona with the more human characters through humor (of which there is plenty) but more importantly independent thinking (limited as that is for Arnie) 3.	The look, the style and the feel of a leather jacket (as epitomized by the choice of clothing of both Terminators) and cool dark shades.
There are a few misfires from this Uzi of a movie however but nothing that misses the central body mass. The main one being is why Claire Danes in this film? You can see that she's really struggling to get something more out of her character from every tragedy that hits her, but she just gets swept away by the next spectacular set piece. The music is dull but unobtrusive so loss there and some of the deeply meaningful dialogue moments feel like they were lifted from a daytime soap. Arnie gets in some good one liners, some of them on target but quite a few off center and that's something you feel Cameron would have left on the cutting room floor) All in all though this is the exemplary expensive summer movie you would expect with a lot of thrills and a lot of laughs. Mostow however has a put a devil of a knot in the tail of this movie and he may not be James Cameron but he deserves more credit for pulling it off with an elegiac grace.
(Vote: 8/10)