Better than passing grade

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2003)

Spoilers
The Terminator is the only character that got into both the top 50 heroes and top 50 villains lists. Strictly speaking, there are two different characters, villain in T1 and hero in T2. By the same token, T3 comes back as yet a different character, as ¡§he¡¨ tells John Connor who has now grown up. Villain T-1000, ¡§the mercury man¡¨ (which actually is the name of a comic hero in the 60's, I believe) is now replaced by T-X (¡§x¡¨ as in the common female gender notation) played by beautiful Kristanna Loken.
Before I went to see T3, I knew I was going to miss Linda Hamilton, whose very human sense of urgency and determination was a perfect balance against the unreal, mechanical overtone of the movie. I am glad to find is that this role has been competently taken up by Claire Danes.
Struggling against drowning in the proliferation of action flicks, every movie in this genre will try to have something it can be remembered by. Loken serves much of that purpose. In the action department, without the wire-fu fights, eye-dazzling movements or imaginative supernatural/mutant powers, T3 labours hard at demolition and explosions. The wrecking crane of the truck and the crash landing of the two copters should bring out secret desires of even the most well behaved kids. I, for one, finally gratified, feel a little bit better for not having had the guts to smash all the toy trucks, cars and planes I once had, decades ago.
Good old Arnie is still in great shape, as one hell of a funny robot. Many of his five-word-average lines are really funny, and the more remarkable because spoken by a robot, they make perfect sense and shouldn't even be funny.
I'd give T3 higher than passing grade but at the same time, I can't help wondering where can T4 go? The fugitive formula has already been over-used. If the producers go for an all out epic war, they'll have to hope that people won't get tired after watching the defence of Zion and Star Wars Episode 3. But then, if it's going to take another 12 years, maybe it's ok. Let's wait and see.