GoldenJCJ

yep, I'd even go so far as to say the only reason T3 ended the way it did was because Studio execs saw $ signs with Terminator 4 - 6.

I really liked the ballsy ending to T3 but it definitely had a Mummy Returns vibe to it where I got the feeling the only reason it was made was to transition to the next series of Terminator films.

emachine

The first film is a dark, gritty, tech noir classic. No way does a goofy film like T3 come close, and neither does T2. T2 is where all the "comedy" started, like The Terminator learning how to smile, or shooting people in the legs, or the thumbs up in the end. T3 is even worse with the "talk to the hand!" bullshit.

jeffbase34

Also, the movie clearly and realistically showed how Skynet took control and started the whole war. Well written story.

OTOH, I hated The Sarah Conner Chronicles. The storylines were so ridiculous and pretended like T3 never happened.

Bluelitespecial

As an action film its solid, but as part of the Terminator series its unnecessary when the ending was perfect after T2.

mcnabb

T3 is a fun summer popcorn flick, T1 & T2 are much more then that, as they are one of those rare movies from this genre that don't rely on action and CGI. Cameron does a great job of establishing the characters, and really making you care about them, and in the process tells a very interesting story too.

This was the same with the Star Wars Original Trilogy compared to the Prequels. The Prequels were fun popcorn flicks, but lacked that depth with character development, where the Original Trilogy really did a great job of establishing the characters in Star Wars, and you actually cared about them for Empire and Jedi.

Hokeyboy

"Talk to the hand."

Studio Exec: "We need a catchphrase for Arnold... what did my 11 year old daughter used to say in 1994?? YES!!!" *high-5's nobody*

Labor

The humour was awful and overdone

The casting was terrible

The movie was just a cheap re-hash of Terminator 2 instead of bringing the franchise in a different direction while still having Arnold involved

Its an unecessary movie, and its woefully mediocre in its execution to boot.

Numanoid

I agree. And I think a lot of the haters had spent so much time hating on it that even when they saw it was a decent flick they couldn't admit it or they'd lose face. And some of them still won't admit it.

Boba Fett

Aside from the truck chase, it was too self-aware for its own good and ended up lacking the heart that T2 had.

wm lopez

I liked it. I just didn't the actor who played John Conner. After such a touching story between the kid & terminator in T2 we get no such thing in T3.
And the FX in T3 were not as good as T2.

mcnabb

I disagree, I was pumped for T3. I liked Mostows two previous movies: Breakdown, and U-571, so i thought he would be a great choice to continue the series.

The problem is the movie brings nothing new to the Terminator series, it is just a fun popcorn summer flick that has no replay value. T1 & T2 are classics, as I have seen them a zillion times.

Why do people always think the haters want to hate the movie going in? I wanted the Prequels to be great, I wanted Godfather III to be great, I wanted Rocky V to be great, saw them all opening weekend, all were a disappointment. That's just the way it is.

gmanca

QFT. Saw it in theaters and was eager to see it; when the future sequence began, I was very hopeful but it was just mediocre as a terminator film. What was the new direction that made it a memorable film like the first two? And the film had a small look to it; too many set/studio pieces and some terrible effects although the final shots were well done.

If they were going to negate the entire point of T2, (the time travel point is a bit misguided as if the war was still going to happen, you would just keep sending people back in perpetuity to stop it) then have the film focus a bit on trying to stop it and failing but leave the majority to how they try to start a resistance. I think the best parts of the film were the scenes of people fleeing from these flying or track-driven robots. How are you going to stop these things?

cactusoly

I actually liked T3 more than T2. " hated all the the paradoxed T2 created, T2 fixed that. Also the TX made more sense than the T1000 in that it was more like a machine rather than a blob of molten metal

Geddlo

My problem with T3 was it made itself irrelevent almost straight from the start.
The whole deal was you couldn't stop judgement day, you can only delay it. Fine.
The movie starts, only a few days before the new judgement day if I recall.
They send the female terminator back to kill John and his generals but where does she find them?

Conner was in jail, or a cage at an animal hospital and the other kids were partying at home. When judgement day happens in a few short days they would have been killed anyway. They were toast.

But by sending the female terminator back in time it caused Conner to survive instead of die.

That just bugs me to no end. The end was nice though and Terminator 4 certainly makes up for the crap that was part 3.

Daytripper

I remember when this first came out in the theaters, most said that this was much better than it should have been. And I agree. I had zero expectations going in. But ended up really enjoying it. It is an admirable and worthy film in the franchise. And I had no complaints about it.

lamphorn

Well, Terminator 2 managed to up the ante thematically rather than just rehash the first one. Terminator 3 brought nothing to the series except painfully bad attempts at humor. "Talk to the hand". Then it tries to be profound with Arnold gritting through his teeth "Desire is irrelevant... I ... am ... a ... MACHINE". For a moment I thought I was watching a Borg episode of Star Trek.

The ending was kind of cool, but it basically made the bulk of the movie pointless. Why not start with what happened at the end rather than "remake" T2 with horrible dialogue and acting?

T1 had a point, T2 had a point, T3 was a waste of time. I actually had some hope for T4 to be interesting, but early reviews are quickly dispelling that. I'm actually thinking about skipping opening weekend if only because I don't want that unbelievable prick(and insanely overrated actor) Christian Bale to keep doing good opening numbers.

Supermallet

I remember hearing about T3 without Cameron, and figured it was going to be a waste of time. But I actually quite enjoyed it. Mostow was an excellent choice for the director. He knows how to do action that isn't flashy and "look at me!" but rather suspenseful and full of tension. Sure, it was a step down from the first two movies, but what did you expect without James Cameron writing and directing?

As for the ending, I always saw it this way:

tylergfoster

I don't understand how you don't understand. Somehow, those people were going to survive the nuclear blasts. Doesn't matter how, but it was going to happen. If Terminator 3 occurred without Terminators, Kate and John would have talked, Kate would have let John out of the cage, John would likely have found out about Kate's father and Skynet and tried to stop it, and they would have still ended up in that base, while John's generals would have conveniently ended up in safe areas at the right place and time. The time travel logic dictates that without time travel, the people survive, they're destined, for whatever reason, to end up not "toast" even though everyone else does. If they didn't, nobody would be traveling back through time to kill them and prevent their survival.

Giantrobo

When it comes to Time travel films there is ALWAYS room for change simply due to multiple paths in the time stream. I accept this. All you guys pissed because it didn't follow a set path should lighten up a bit.

That said, I like T3 as much as any other T-Film or show.

LickTheABCs

I don't. It's my second favorite Terminator flick after T2.

RocShemp

That's James Cameron's fault really. In the special features of the Ultimate Edition DVD of T2, Cameron admits that he removed the future Sarah ending and stuck with the highway ending because the future Sarah ending concluded the series. He chose to leave it open for a sequel in case T2 was a success. Later on he gradually lost interest in making T3. However the fact that there was an opening for a third (and now fourth) film is in large part because of James Cameron.

stingermck

The ending is what made the movie for me. Ever since those brief shots of the war in the future, I wanted an entire movie of that. And with T3's ending that no matter what you do, war is inevitable, we now have TS.

Ronnie Dobbs

Whatever happened to the girl from T3? It was entertaining when I saw the movie I but I really don't remember what it was about.

Michael Corvin

She went on to star in a couple Uwe Boll films.

maingon

I liked it and thought the ending was great, but I still dont think its as good as the other two.