Review of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) by Thorne W — 24 Aug 2011

Fails to grasp every aspect that made its predecessors so incredible. There is no theme, there is no real pacing. You feel no sense of danger in regards to the antagonist, and no connection to the heroes because every character is written as shallowly as possible, and the majority of the dialogue is John asking "hey, what's the plot of this movie?" and the T-800 responding in turn.

I could go on about the lack of heart and idiocy of relying on CGI to carry effects shots, but all of this has been mentioned time and time again. The bottom line: T3 is a parody of the series. It has to be, just look at the slapstick humor that's thrown in during some of the fight scenes and the out and out court-jester portrayal of the Terminator. At least it's a hell of a lot more enjoyable if viewed from that perspective, as the entire movie just seems to be pissing on James Cameron's work, and I really can't believe this was an earnest attempt to make something great.