He's back...

Rating: 9/10 (15 July 2003)

When I first heard they were making 'Terminator 3' without James Cameron (the first two's co-writer and director) I immediately knew that this movie wouldn't come close to the the perfection that was 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day', a movie that in my mind is one of the greatest films ever made. So I put that out of my mind. But as the film neared release, I gained an excitement I didn't think would generate from the film. I became excited about it. It looked good. And while I didn't really think about it as the movie was being made, I had suddenly felt that this movie would be good enough to be recognized as a true edition to the franchise. Even with new writers and a new director. And my feeling paid off. While not as good as 'T2', the film is very impressive in its own right. Questions about the sequel were being answered. Like, why would more Terminators come back? Haven't we seen all there is to see? It even put new insight into the story of John Conner. I honestly didn't care what he was up to since the second movie, but now I did. Most importantly, it doesn't dwell on what the first two flicks did, which was 'Terminator chases heroes, heroes run away'. It propelled the story forward. The action was top notch and had one kick ass chase scene (every summer movie does nowadays, so it's a task to produce an exciting one). My favorite part was the T-X. The new Terminator in town, played by the beautiful Kristanna Loken, who's powers are far more advanced then previous Terminators. She played a big part in me enjoying the movie. While I'd like to highlight why, that would be spoiling it. Nick Stahl does a very convincing job at taking over the role of John Conner that was vacated by Ed Furlong. And the new addition to the pack, Kate Brewster (Clarie Danes) holds her own to make her character likeable and interesting. To be frank, I didn't think she'd have anything to bring to the table, but she proved me wrong. Overall, I was very pleased with all involved for making a worthwhile sequel, 12 years after the last movie was released! Keeping audiences interested, with such a gap in the story was a daunting task. But they delivered in spades. Even James Cameron was pleased with the result (and he hated Alien 3, he made Alien 2). So he isn't just saying that. The movie leaves open for a Terminator 4. As long as they continue to move forward with the story and not just repeat past gimmicks, I'm sure it will be good. To conclude, I love this film, and like it better than the first but not the second. I hope to see more of Kristanna in other movies...if you know what I mean
RATING: *** out of ****