The Terminator featuring cartoon violence...

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 2003)

It's only natural for a franchise to progress in stile as it goes on. You had the original Terminator, which was a sort of sci-fi horror. Then there was Terminator 2, a thought-provoking actioner. And now we have Terminator 3, a teen-orientated, cartoon violence, no-brain popcorn muncher. It seems we have a Terminator for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer generation. Think 'Robocop: the Series' and you might get some idea.
Fans of the first two films, like myself, will be mortified. So stay well away. However, ignoring the film's heritage, it still isn't even that good on its own. As a special effects heavy action film, it scores a generous below average. As anything else, it's a non-event. It has bad acting, a bad script, bad direction, even bad editing. It is, to sum up, cack.
The only vaguely impressive performance is by Danes. Stahl is distinctly mediocre and Schwarzenegger doesn't appear to be even trying. And someone should have pointed out to Loken that the reason Schwarzenegger and Patrick were so intimidating in the previous films was because they deadpanned while they were busy killing people. She needed to show less emotion and definitely quit the pouting.
OK, it has its moments. The chase scene and the fight in the toilets are impressive, but will have you laughing out loud rather than on the edge of your seat. The action is more reminiscent of Tom and Jerry than anything else. As such, you can't take then ending seriously, not matter how hard it tries.
Oh yeah, and they use the 'f' word twice in a 12a-rated film. Ooh, how rebellious.