Unimaginative Sequel Fails to Bring Anything New to Series...

Rating: 6/10 (14 December 2009)

One of my biggest pet peeves in modern film is the creation of completely unnecessary sequels to fantastic movies. Here, we have a prime example. In my opinion, the TERMINATOR franchise would've been better off if it'd ended with the conclusion of James Cameron's TERMINATOR 2; I really wish he'd gone with his original ending showing how Judgment Day had been avoided, thereby putting a halt to future installments. Sadly, this was not the case and in 2003 Jonathan Mostow brought us the third film in the saga. The plot is nothing we haven't seen before in two other films: the future finds the human race at war with the machines (run by Skynet) and again, an attempt is made to put an end to the human resistance movement before the war ever starts. Skynet sends a new, upgraded model of Terminator to 2003 to kill John Connor, Kate Brewster (his future wife and second-in-command), and his future lieutenants. In response, the future resistance sends back another T-800 Terminator to protect him until Judgment Day passes.
So, essentially what we have here is TERMINATOR 2 all over again, without some of the best aspects of what made the second film so great: James Cameron's writing/direction, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, etc). The new villain, the Terminatrix, is basically a higher-tech mash-up of the first two (a weaponized endo-skeleton and a morphing liquid metal alloy) except this time it's a woman. Too much of the film feels like a rehashing of everything we've seen that most of it is forgettable until the final 30 minutes. Once Skynet goes online and Judgment Day officially arrives, the movie becomes more entertaining as we see early Hunter-Killers and T-1's rampage through a military base. The battles between the Terminators are impressive and fun to watch, but the film wanders a little too far into camp for my tastes. Some scenes, particularly the T-800's arrival in a roadside bar for ladies' night, may elicit chuckles from some but had me groaning.
One element that fails to live up to the first films are the performances of the cast. With the exception of Arnold Schwarzeneggar as the T-800 Terminator (he invented the role and he really can't go wrong), the cast doesn't strike the same chord. Nick Stahl does a decent job as John Connor and seems to be a suitable replacement for Edward Furlong but Claire Danes (as Kate Brewster) spends the majority of the movie freaking out and Loken (as the Terminatrix) tries to invoke the cold, soulless killer that was Robert Patrick's T-1000 but never quite has the same effect. If a third Terminator film was really necessary, I wish Mostow and the writers had gone a little further and tried to create a unique story to grab the audience's attention, rather than feeding us the same old formula (especially with the utilization of Judgment Day as a plot point, there's so much potential there). You won't be bored by TERMINATOR 3, as it's a halfway decent action movie, but fans of the franchise who were hoping for an explosive follow-up to Cameron's T2 probably won't find what they were hoping for.