A Fantastic Film.

Rating: 10/10 (4 January 2004)

No Cameron, Arnie being a tad older and the fact it was twelve years since T2, while I was looking forward to Terminator 3, I was also a bit of wary, but I shouldn't have been. Terminator 3:Rise of the Machines is fantastic, a spectacularly entertaining blockbuster ride that continues the story with respect, great action, a knowing sense of humor and with a seriousness that doesn't drag the film down. Mostow may have seemed like an unusual choice to direct (someone more along the lines of John McTiernan or Ridley Scott would have more accommodating I would have thought), but he does justice to the first two, continuing the saga of John Connor in a way that more than respects the fineness of the first two films.
Essentially the film is a mixture of the first two installments, more so the second one, in the execution of the action sequences (huge chase scene, cyborgs beating each other to a pulp), but like the first one, Mostow favors a more pessimistic tone to the film, giving the film a sense of approaching darkness, especially in the final minutes that is both shocking, touching and moving, in much the same way as Cameron did in the first Terminator film. Mostow does not just put Connor in danger again, have him stop judgment day again and have him live happily ever after again. No, he layers the film with twists and turns such as the fact that the machines' strike on humans was merely delayed and that Connor is now dead in the future, that it his future wife, Katherine (played by Claire Danes) who has sent the T-800 back to save John.
Nick Stahl replaces Edward Furlong and he is a good replacement, perfectly playing the part with a brooding intensity. Danes is charming and if there is a fourth film I hope she will be in it. Kristanna Loken is great at the T-X. Playing the part with a cold blooded humor that is fantastic to watch and lastly there's Arnie. Let's just say it's like watching someone ride a bike after having not done so for many years. He clearly hasn't forgotten (talk to the hand is right).
All in all Terminator 3 is terrific. A surprising joy from start to finish, one hopes that a forth film will be left alone because as it stands this is a perfect little trilogy.