Not worthy of the heritage

Rating: Null/10 (26 January 2004)

This film should never have been made; James Cameron knew this, so did Linda Hamilton, unfortunately for the movie-going public Jonathan Mostow did not. The plot is referential to the vastly superior T2, to the point that the premise is almost exactly the same, aside from the gender of the villain. Arnie saves John Connor, check. Morphing bad guy, check. And so on. The major problem with this approach, apart from the fact that it makes for an unoriginal movie, is that Mostow does not have the justification to do it. He had no active involvement in the production of T2, therefore never earned the right to exploit the ideas of those who were involved.
Another problem with Mostow's approach to T3 is his unwitting insistence that more must mean better; a perspective undoubtedly conduced by the $170m budget. Witness the over-exuberant time machine bubbles that the Terminators arrive in - retaining similar effect to the first two films would have enhanced continuity and proved less of an irritating visual distraction. Obviously Mostow has not learnt when it is right to borrow.
All the blame for the flaws of this film cannot be lumped on Mostow's shoulders - the scriptwriter should take his weight. Admittedly, there were sporadic witty one-liners, but the major fault was a lack of attempt to capture audience involvement. The whole beauty of T2 was the subtext of the father-son relationship between the robot and the boy; executed so well that what could easily have been a tacky ending really worked. All that the death of Arnie elicited in T3 was a sigh of relief that the film must be reaching the end.
A do not consider this film a sequel. Period. 1 out of 4