Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as The Terminator in "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."When I was 13 back in 2003, I first saw this and was quite blown away by it. I had to a least see it twice, but a couple of years later I started to sour from it. Even my mom said it wasn't as good as the first two films, and I had to respectfully agree it's not.However, recently a couple of yeas ago I have found myself starting to like this film again.This may contain some spoilers.The year is 2003. The newest nemesis from the future arrives in the form of a woman this time, The TX.She is here to eliminate John Connor's Lieutenants to ensure the machines victory.Later the Terminator arrives and teams up with a now adult John, he informs him about the TX and how he is not sure if he can defeat her, along the way they find a young woman that is a veterinarian and that her fate is linked to john's.With time running out, they quickly learn the young woman's military father is unknowingly about to activate Sky-net it's self. Which actives the rise of the machines.A weak entry in the franchise but usually third parts are, let me into the positives here.First I would like to say Arnold Schwarzenegger was great in his return to his famous roll. Even though this version of the character is a little less friendly form his T2 counterpart. Arnold was still cool as always.The action scenes were very good here, lots of expositions and gun battles. The vehicle stunt work is amazing and quite impressive with very little CG. Even the CG work is still good even by today's standers.Now for some of the negatives, now this dose not apply to everything else in the movie, just some things.Kristana Loken is OK as the TX character, however I mostly blame the writers for this. They just made her a sexy character that's all brawn and no brains. Not that I don't like her being sexy because I do, It would have worked out better if she was more scary and intimidating.Nick Stahl is OK as John Connor, but I feel ether he wasn't written well enough or if it was the actor I can't tell.Claire Danes is pretty good as Kate Brewster, but she wasn't given enough to work with.It has it's flaws but, I still think I does the job, it's still entertaining. I know some people sort of hate it like I did for a time, but It's a cupcake. It's a nice frothy cupcake and if you look at it as that it can be a wonderful piece of froth.I give it a 5.3/10 it's not bad more of a so-so action thriller, but it can be a real good time in the right mind set. If your a fan of the franchise give it a look.

There was a period of time between when I was at university and when I started writing reviews for films again that I had become somewhat distracted. In fact there was a period of time when I didn't see all that many films at all, with the exception of some really big name ones that I absolutely had to see – Terminator 3 was one of them. I guess the reason was because ever since Terminator 2 I wanted to see a version set in the future where they are fighting the robots, and a part of me was expecting the third installment to be that movie. Unfortunately, as it turned out, this wasn't to be the case. In fact it seems, in many aspects, simply a remake of the second film – pretty much more of the same.This time we are ten years in the future and John Conner is now in his early twenties. He is a drifter, his mother is dead, and it seems as if the world has been freed from Skynet. Well, the problem is that John still seems to be having these nightmares, so he is wandering whether he can actually relax. It is clear that he can't because he is simply drifting, off the grid, simply trying to survive while hoping that the world doesn't blow itself up. Unfortunately that isn't going to be the case because two more terminators come back from the future, one to protect him and one to not only attempt to kill him, but to also kill his lieutenants.As I suggested, this film is basically just a rehash of the plot of the second film, which boils down to the simple line of two robots slugging it out. Sure, we have Arnie returning to reprise his role as the T800 (actually it is the T850 now, which is somewhat better than the previous two), but we also have another terminator come back, this one being a more advanced version that can now create energy weapons as opposed to simply knives and stabbing weapons. Mind you, it felt a little contrived since it seemed that the T-1000, that was pure living metal, was somewhat more advanced than this new one that happened to have an endo-skeleton.I have since discovered that the second movie was supposed to be the end of the franchise, but obviously the demand for sequels was just that little too high, which is why we have had it resurrected in this third, forth, and fifth movie. However, the idea behind the film, in that while Cyberdyne was destroyed, the idea of Skynet wasn't, does hold a lot of water. For instance, the suggestion is that Miles wasn't the only person that worked at home. The other thing is that the movement of technology was inevitable. All we need to do is look about us today to see how the movement towards AI is progressing, and more so, despite the warnings that are given to us in not only movies like Terminator, but also Isaac Asimov, we seem to be blindly charging into the future once again. Who knows, one day we may wake up under the rule of our robot overlords.

I enjoyed this movie, it was a fun ride the whole way, it was engaging and get me interested and suspicious of what was to happen next. However, I couldn't help but feel the whole way through that it was just an updated version of Terminator 2 but with better effects. The actors were great, Arnold I loved again, but I feel it was too similar to T2 to gain a higher rating from me.

... if logic or integrity meant anything that is. When it comes to The Terminator franchise, it's like this: No James Cameron = No Good..... and one of them doesn't even have Arnold!Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the third chapter in the Terminator saga (which should have NEVER been made in the first place) hit the theaters in the summer of 2003, a whole twelve years after Terminator 2: Judgement Day (the best Terminator movie) and not surprisingly it proved to be a profoundly disappointing sequel. But why? First of all the whole premise of the movie seems forced and illogical, if you're at all familiar with the ending of the second film, the very existence of a third Terminator film is absolutely nonsensical. But at the time (the 2000's) most of Arnie's movies were bombing, so in a forced and desperate effort to reverse his sagging box-office appeal, he decided to play his last remaining ace card: The Terminator franchise. And why not, it had always reaped glowing results in the past, however, James Cameron wisely and with clear-headed logic wanted nothing to do with a third Termintor movie. Evidently the director of the first two films hadn't forgotten how the second film ended, but it's star obviously had. And I must say for a physically demanding role like The Terminator time is not an ally; yet Arnold took twelve years off between T2 and T3 and another 12 years between T3 and Genisys..... rust is forming on the Terminator.Let's briefly recap the events of the end of Terminator 2, in the films finale through the actions of John and Sarah Conner, Miles Bennett Dyson and a certain re-programmed T-101, every existing scrap of technology that the franchise is based upon (i.e. Terminators of various models and Skynet) was utterly destroyed when the Cyberdine Building was blown up in a massive explosion; and thus effectively erasing the cause of Judgement Day from existence thereby preventing - The War Against The Machines. Which also at the same time should have logically ruled out any possibility of another sequel. BUT, according to this movies logic, none of that happened... and the best reasoning they could come up with was "You only postponed it, Judgement Day is inevitable" and then Arnie proceeds to back up his illogical reasoning with some additional drivel about more Terminators being sent back in time, that are programmed to seek out and terminate certain people who would eventually go on to become military officers in the future, during The War Against The Machines..... but we... in the second one.... oh never the hell mind!To be fair about it and seeing as how this is a Terminator movie there are a few great action scenes, but the films poor casting (in the roles of John Conner and Katherine Brewster) and it's aforementioned ludicrous plot doom it from the get go; and as a result T3 is nothing more than huge, disappointing, illogical mess of a movie - which should never had been made. Another of T3's failing's is the films pathetically lame attempts at humour of which almost all fall flat. On the other hand one of the few bright spots about T3 would have to be Kristanna Loken, she is simply terrific in her role as the "T-X" (the bad Terminator), I find her overall design to be absolutely stellar. You'd certainly never suspect such a lovely looking lady would be so fiendishly deadly. And there's another thing about our deadly little Terminatrix, does any else think that Kristanna Loken bares a striking resemblance to 90's porn queen Jenna Jameson? In the end Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a poorly conceptualized sequel and it represents the first (of several) blemish's to a once great franchise. At the heart of the matter, I can easily conclude that T3 and it's other more recent sequels are the products of illogical thought, that is powered by nothing other then greed - and perhaps a faulty long-term memory. Why else would they keep making these utterly disgraceful sequels.It takes Arnold AND James Cameron BOTH for this to work, the Terminator series ended with the second film, 26 years ago - anything and everything to do with The Terminator beyond that point is nothing but cyber-trash.Stick to the first two films, they're more memorable and "more better".