Rating: 
Summary: Blows chunks... a waste of time and money
Review: Played more explicitly for laughs than either of the other "Terminator " flicks, T3 has only one marginally exciting sequence -- the elaborately staged automobile chase scene in the film's first third. The rest of the film is a total bore, one action movie set piece after another -- big shootout with the cops, massive destruction within a secret military base, helicopter chase, etc. -- and a bit of tired, half-heartedly mysogynistic pseudo-sexual slapstick (Arnold cramming the female Terminatrix's head into a toilet, the two of them bursting explosively apart after grappling at close quarters... Golly gee, what could it mean?) It's all been seen before, and in a vague effort to get around the been-there, done-that factor, the director responds by occasionally deflating the action in a bid to "surprise" us: "Wow, the helicopter chase didn't go on forever and ever? The cops don't all get creamed??" This of course only makes the film less exciting and more of a pointless time-suck. The ultimate example of this is that the new, improved Terminatrix herself is startlingly dull and easy to kill. Really, nothing happens in this film. Nothing at all, except the big fat "ka-chinggg" of Arnold Schwartzenegger cashing in on what may be his lamest, most listless performance to date. Even "Kindergarten Cop" and "The Villain" were better than this. If you liked the first two Terminator flicks, this one should just make you feel very, very sad. Save yourself the effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Timeline & Movie Facts
Review: Based on the other 400+ reviews, it's quite evident this movie is an awesome, action-packed movie and I agree 100%. It had good direction, well timed and thought out action sequences (unlike other action films where action sequences are overkilled--Matrix sequels), and well paced action and drama from the beginning to end. Few things that bothered me of the movie, though:
1. What was the purpose of the Katherine Brewster character? As far as the audience knows, she's Connor's wife and plays a key role in the resistance. OK...but what about the rest of the "lieutenants" in the T-X's hit list? Aren't they all just as important in the success of defeating the machines? I mean they had to be for such an advanced piece of technology to be sent back to rid them all. In my opinion, she was a very pointless character in the movie. You can take her out without any affect on the movie.
2. That particle reactor that gave off the magnetic field (when John and Kate were heading for the airplane hangar)...it was so powerful the T-X could not move. A magnetic force that strong?...Hmm...wonder why the copper wiring in the C4 in John's backpack didn't stick...or even a belt buckle, the automatic Glock pistol, or that multi-tool from Gerber the T101 used to open his chest up to take out the battery. And which route did the T101 take to avoid the magnetic field to get to the hangar? Oh wait...I know, the T-X disabled the magnetic field with her cutting tool, T101 runs past her while she's 'recovering', and that explains how he got to the hangar before the T-X. Sure, why not?
3. The timeline and John Connor's age really confused me... OK, according to the official Terminator timeline, T2 took place in 1995. That made John 10 years old at most. In T2, John's DOB was Feb 85. Then Judgment Day was scheduled in 1997. Here's the confusion: John said the second attack on his life took place when he was 13. So if he was born in 1985, it'd have to be 1998 for him to be 13. Judgment Day was in 1997, Sarah Connors tomb read she died in 1997. Speaking of Sarah Connor, she was diagnosed with cancer and held on for "three years" according to John, meaning she was diagnosed in 1994? So did she have cancer in T2?
Everything else can be explained since time lines are altered, even though some may raise questions as to why. For instance, why does the T101 look so old compared to the one in 1984? Obviously, in reality, Arnold isn't getting younger, but the extra feature (deleted scene) with CMSgt William Candy kind of explains it...even the Austrian accent, in fact. If Judgment Day was delayed, so would the selection of the human model T101 design, right? But then you ask yourself, "In T3, CRS develops the T101, not Cyberdyne. So does that mean in the old timeline, Cyberdyne recruited CMSgt Candy (and the guy with the Austrian accent) in their private company to be the model for the T101?"
So my overall complaint is that you can explain minor flaws by saying, "It was because the timeline was altered," but you cannot explain a person's age, why only the polyalloy stuck in the magnetic field, and how such key people in the resistance can be expendable.
Ahh, one more minor complaint...how does a primary weapon of an advanced terminator go from an advanced particle weapon to a freakin' flame thrower? I just thought it was pretty lame.
I have to admit, though, this movie was great. It had all the ingredients to eye-popping action and drama. Especially, the car chase scene...it was amazing! I would recommend this movie to a Terminator fan, or any action fan, any day...just ignore the minor timeline aspects.
Rating: 
Summary: Action-Packed!
Review: The story itself takes places about 10 years after Sarah & John Conner along with the T-101 defeated the ruthless T-1000 & prevented Judgement (or so they thought). Now in T3, Sarah is deceased, and John is lone warrior. John becomes a drifter with No Identification, No Phone, no friends, nada, zip, nothing. Now a new threat has come back from the future to wipe out John Conner. This new modified Terminator is Cyberne's most sophisticated creation, the T-X. The TX is sent back to murder Conner, his Lieutentents, and future spouse Kathryn Brewster. But alas, John has a savior, the now absoulte T-101 returns to protect Conner & Brewster from the T-X's unstoppable rage. The war against the machines begins & the time for Judgement Day looms. Terminator 3 Rise of The Machines is without question, the best action-packed movie of 2003, and for it's $170 million budget it almost has to be. Lot of special features from all sorts of stuff. Although T3 will never equal the T1 or T2 in terms of dynamic storyline, it's huge budget gives you good movie to kick back, relax, and enjoy. The only flaw of T3 is the fact that's not directed by it's creator James Cameron, but still Johnathan Moscow does a fairly decent job filling the gigantic shoes of Mr. Cameron's baby. I am looking forward to seeing T4, hopefully in the future, but now with Schwarzenegger's induction as Governor of California, the chance of T4 happening anytime soon is very slim. So I'll guess we'll just have to wait. Heck we had to wait 12 years for T3, I think we can wait for T4.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent movie!
Review: Awesome movie!! Arnold is not only our governor but he is the ultimate terminator!. Great special effects and Claire Danes does a great job in filling in for Linda Hamilton as the tough chick who will save the human race. I highly recommend this movie!
Rating:
Summary: The machines are rising...
Review: Artificial intelligence has been growing by leaps and bounds in the last 40 years, but advances in the field have been difficult, and recognition that advances have indeed been made prove to be very transitory. Research in AI is very odd for this reason: the belief that one has discovered an intelligent software system is very short lived, unlike other fields of research. It seems that researchers in AI are too hard on themselves, too easily persuaded, that their discoveries do not represent true intelligence. Moviemakers though have expressed considerable enthusiasm regarding AI, and this movie is ample proof of that. If only the field was advanced as this movie portrays it to be. Concrete results and applications of AI though are currently accelerating, and there is little doubt that battlefield robots will be a natural consequence of the current AI technology. The storyline has some plausibility in light of the current use of artificial intelligence in network engineering, especially network security, network event correlation, and network capacity planning. Indeed, it was announced this year that a technology is now available that will identify security risks and take action using auto-adapting artificial intelligence. The story makes Skynet one of these smart network applications, so intelligent in fact that it becomes "self-aware", gets paranoid about human intentions, and therefore orders a massive nuclear strike in order to remove the human threat. This move by Skynet though makes the story somewhat implausible, for if, as the story holds, there is no "central core" to Skynet, it being instead a distributed application that runs on computers all over the world, then it would destroy itself in the very act of a global nuclear strike. It would have been better for Skynet to "lay low" and make sure power systems cannot be tampered with instead of ordering such a self-destrucutive act. It is the power systems that are most crucial for the survival of Skynet, and its distributed nature requires such power sources to be left intact globally, and not just "under the mountain" where its inventors program it. In addition, there is no need in the story for Skynet to become "self-aware" in order for it to engage in reasoning that will protect it from harm. The agents and spiders it moves around in the global Internet could make logical deductions to this effect. Such agents would then spend most of their time insuring that power supplies are redundant enough to keep Skynet's global nature without flaws. The action in the movie is typical of the Terminator movies and book series, with the female-emulating TX Terminator robot, highly sophisticated technologically, taking the story for sure in this regard. But the story also captures the introspection of John Connor, the main character and hero, and the one responsible for leading the future war against the machines. A human being facing this knowledge of the future would be under considerable stress, and this is brought out in the movie via his dreams. The dreams are of a nightmarish future, with a devastating war of humans against machines, a war that Connor and his lieutenants will eventually win, much to the chagrin of the machines. The machines can't accept their defeat, and consequently send replicas of themselves through time to try and kill Connor and his lieutenants. Should we label the machines as intelligent considering their behavior? Do intelligent entities engage in the violence and horror that these machines do? One can of course imagine schemes and plans that might justify such behavior, but a more practical strategy would be to ignore human interactions, or possibly engage in a mutual symbiosis. Intelligent entities realize the waste of resources and intellect in the making of violent confrontation, using it only as last resort. There are so many scenarios that would be more optimal for the course of action of these machines, and it would not be a credible argument to hold that they act as they do because of their training via humans, considering the relative sparsity of human violence throughout history. One should interpret therefore the machine decision for war as a mistake, and not one that is practical, and therefore not moral. They failed to seek alternatives that would insure their survival, and this is ample proof that they are not intelligent, or at best marginally so. The movie though in a sense is a portent, however inaccurate, of things to come, and things that are happening right now in artificial intelligence. We do not have robot armies, but we have AI invading many domains: financial engineering, network engineering, mathematics, physics, Ecommerce, bioinformatics, to name just a few. The applications of AI are increasing dramatically, and there is every indication that this trend will continue. We are entering a world of the silicon geniuses. We are indeed witnessing, and are priveleged to do so, the rise of the machines...
Rating: 
Summary: Revenge of the RoboBarbie
Review: I hated the trailer. Robobarbie couldn't scare me. I hated all the chosen actors (except Arnold). I started watching this movie knowing it would suck. I love it when I'm wrong! As much as I wanted to hate her, Kristanna Loken played a very convincing killing machine, albeit with one facial expression. But then how many does a robot need? It wouldn't be Terminator without Arnold but his performance added nothing new to this movie, with a lot of rehashing of old lines (including "She'll be back" and "I'm back!" Good grief!) The action scene where the truck arm smashes through telephone poles, cars and buildings was one of the best I've ever seen. I'm not one to rewind to re-watch action scenes but it looked and sounded so incredibly meta-crunching real even on a plain old stereo TV, I had to see it again. My biggest problem with this movie is the choice of actors for future leaders of the human resistance. It wasn't that the acting was bad. Nick Stahl certainly looked like someone on the fringe of society, but the potential for him to become the great leader he was supposed to become was nowhere to be seen. And how come John Connor is now short? Ed Furlong in T2 is proof that actors chosen in a sequel don't have to be well-known. They just have to be right for the character and give a memorable performance. Michael Biehn of T1 and Ed Furlong of T2 were excellent choices and any sequels will have a hard time matching them. This one fails miserably. This movie also proves that choosing a well-known actor doesn't guarantee success either. Claire Dane's role was nothing more than a long drawn out damsel in distress. Claire is good at playing innocent doe-eyed young women but she can't play tough. Linda Hamilton was totally believable wielding that gun in T2. Claire with a gun leading troops? She'll probably accidentally kill herself the first time she shoots. CONCLUSION: The original action sequences are excellent. I still enjoyed seeing Arnold as Terminator (or is it anti-Terminator? Damn, he's still in good shape for his age!). And Robobarbie scared me a lot more than I expected. The only reason I give this 3 stars is it makes a pretty good rental and the parts that worked surprised me. But quite frankly at the end of the movie, I was rooting for Robobarbie. [Author's Note: I coined the term RoboBarbie. You can use it with my permission.]
Rating:
Summary: [BIG BANG] laugh while you DRIVE/DIE
Review: [COLLUSION OR COLLISION] aRnIES back, big BANG time alredy OBSOLETE terminator from the future,HES a good [CYBORG], hes a robot with just a hint of attitude,HES a little like wheres DOROTHY? hes not cowardly like the lion or stupid hes faithfull like a [TOTO] a TALKIN dog to CONNER,MOSTLY TO spout/SPROUT one liners.. as usUall hes packin, an arsenal [better to buy time] he drives around alot.. yellow brick road TO demolision VISION delerious,gravity dyfing thee stooges like choreographed skits, where machine collide with other machines slaps part fly OFF through space... machines coiled ready for the kill; frill of THRILL, adrenaline, machines dont know how to love, but ARNIE KINDA DOES, hes learnin,although theres not much time in this BIG spectacular, HEAVY metal, zoom in [SLOT CAR RACER IMPOSSIBLY SPEEDY] A,,ai,[artificial lie ]programMed ORGASM .. AL OBJECTS PROGRAMED TO COLLIDE, these machines rise to the occassionS, SEEK and DESRTOY, heat seeking OVERKILL, BIG TIME,along for amusements, witness but not a participant,stupHOR MATRIX, maximum laugh at,one LINERS OF EXCELLENCE,arnolds,, this movie HAS the guts TO LAUGH LOUD, AND OFTEN, heroically, not only at it self, poke at its not nearlyTOO deadly earnest,[BRETHERIN]bastard LIKE THE MATRIX, left wing pointstoo , neo tribal, groovey kids KICK this movie is non political, [or its buried its head in the tombstone years],republican liberal GOLDWATER MACHINE READY,theres a, unlike LIGHT HEARTED randomness NOT surly MATRIX friendly erks some,in THE natural ORDER, predictable,machine turned ugly, RIDDLED WITH BULLET HOLES, take pot shots, embrasedesignerEMBRASE GAP OUTLETFACADE FRIENDLY YOUNG AND HIP,DISGRACE,BLIND AND HAIRY PSUEDOOVODDOO, MATRIX OR MAXIMS of product placemeants,CONSCIOUSNESS about,at all cost, cater to wow wow wow,BIG BUDAHSIDDARTA HERmme hurly HESSISMS,JOURNEY burly YEAH, JOURNEY HEREand know,THERES NO ESCAPING,,,,,, MOTHER OF ALL BIG BANG on the brink of consciousness, NUMB, OR WAKENS US NUMB FROM THE BIG DUMB POINTLESS EXPENSE OF our machine folly put too much faith reliance in MACHINE TELLS US HUMANS WHERE possible like in a very un like[ the CATERmatrix ],THERES NO WHERE IS THERE everywhere ,..thundering trite POSTUREponification of the youthfull and SHOPPER HER, not even mentioning down the pike next years MODELS,MACHINE OPTIMISM QUAINT PLANT OBSOLESCENCE trite,
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, despite cool machines
Review: Summary:
John Connor (Nick Stahl), now out of high school, is constantly on the move. Even though he believes he prevented the takeover of the machines in the last movie by destroying the company that was supposed to create SkyNet, he still has a premonition that he hasn't prevented Judgment Day, he has just delayed it. So, to be safe, he doesn't put down roots so any terminators sent back to find him again won't be able to track him down. In his travels, he wrecks his motorcycle and ends up breaking into a veterinary clinic in order to get some medicine and bandages for his banged up leg. In the process, he meets a junior high school friend/lover, Kate Brewster (Claire Danes), who works at the clinic. But before Kate can turn him over to the police, the latest Terminator model, T-X or Terminatrix (Kristanna Loken), shows up. Since they can't find John, they are tracking down his lieutenants and killing them off one by one. Kate, as it turns out, is going to be John's wife and a leader in the resistance, so she's a target. But, just in time, The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) shows up. He helps them escape then catches up with them as they make their getaway from the T-X. They head into Eastern California to pick up a weapons stash set up by John's mother, then decide to try to make their way to Kate's father's workplace. As it turns out, Robert Brewster (David Andrews) is actually the one responsible for SkyNet. The Terminator also reveals that that very day is when Judgment Day is going to begin. SkyNet is taking over all of the computers in the world as they speak. When they arrive at the military base, it's too late. The T-X has already arrived and shoots Robert. While dying, he reveals what John and Kate believe to be the location of SkyNet's core and gives them the codes to get in. They make their way there where the T-X and the Terminator have their final showdown. But, as it turns out, the location is actually just a bomb shelter. SkyNet is a program, not a computer; they can't destroy it. In the shelter they will be protected as the impending Judgment Day begins. My Comments:
The first thing I need to point out is that they have really messed up the names of the movies in this series. Yes, 'The Terminator' worked for the first one, even though Schwarzenegger's model isn't the original Terminator robot (which is revealed in T3). The second Terminator (T2), is called Judgment Day. But Judgment Day takes place in T3. The Rise of the Machines actually hasn't taken place by the end of T3, it would only begin after T3 ends. Who's naming these? Hello, give it some thought! As for the story in this movie, it's not very good. There is no reason for John to be racing down the freeway on his motorcycle. How, if they just recently graduated from high school, is Kate a veterinarian? How did the T-X know she would be at the clinic at 4:00 am instead of in bed with her fiancé? How did Sarah Connor know to put a casket full of weapons in a tomb in Eastern California? Why did they go there? Couldn't they just stop at your local gun store (they are in the U.S.)? Why doesn't Kate's dad tell them the truth about SkyNet? There are a ton of problems with this story. The acting is also B-grade. Both Nick Stahl and Claire Danes are terrible. What makes them even worse is that you know they can't die, even though their horrible portrayals make you want to see them mangled by the T-X. Schwarzenegger and Loken aren't too bad, but then, all they have to do is act like robots. Of course, I can't review a movie in which my Uncle (Stan Winston) played a part without commending his involvement. The robots were killer! He really is an innovative genius. Well done Stan! Now just get someone who can write good stories. By the way, what happened to James Cameron? The first two weren't half bad, probably in large part due to Cameron's involvement. Did he recognize that they had no basis for a story here so he opted out? Either way, these are very cool robots and animatronics to be wasted on such a silly story. Better luck next time. Overall, if you absolutely love the Terminator series, you'll probably see this movie just because it is another installment, but you'll also likely find that it isn't nearly as good as the first two. The story is weak and the acting is even worse. Bring back Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. If you haven't seen the original Terminator or T2, don't start with this one - it will turn you off from what began as a good series of movies. You may want to see it for the animatronics (plug for my Uncle's work) and special effects, but definitely not for the story.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Change of Pace
Review: Not a bad film at all and a pleasant suprise. It really took the task of leading John Connor down the road to Judgement Day in a fast, thrilling way and a suprise ending to boot. It was exciting to see how Skynet came alive and all the bits and pieces of the previous Terminator Canon fall into place. This film set the perfect stage for a T4 movie that wont need Arnold but will need to focus on Skynet, Connor and Humanity. I hope Mostow comes thru.
Rating:
Summary: Succeeds despite overwhelming odds...
Review: T3 seemed like a doomed production, with the absence of James Cameron, Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong, along with a long hiatus. It seemed like T3 was made solely to capitalize on an old franchise, and maybe it was. But, T3 is surprisingly a VERY GOOD movie. While it probably will never achieve the classic status of it's predecessors, it's a great action/sci-fi film that took some bold chances and is a better than average film. Arnold Scwarzenegger returns as the Terminator, and his charisma and enthusiasm for the role shows and powers the film. This time around, his foe is the T-X (Kristanna Loken), an icy-cold Terminatrix that is almost as intimidating as Robert Patrick's T-1000. The special effects are more modern than in T2, but they look great anyway. There is more humor present in this film, but it's welcome, tongue-in-cheek, and makes some references to the other Terminator films. The ending to this film was amazing, unexpected and powerful. The plot is surprisingly clever, and the replay value is great. The film is very entertaining and exhilarating, especially in the Champion crane chase sequence. The only reason the film receives 4 stars is that it wasn't as good as the original or T2, but then again how could it be? I believe that T2 is one of the best sci-fi/action films ever made, perhaps the best, and T3 is a highly-qualified and stunning addition to the franchise. I reccomend it highly.
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