Unhelpful

I would say there’s some minor spoilage, but there’s damned little plot to spoil anyway. Not all of the plot is given away below.

Pull all of the plot advancement and retitle it “Very Long Chase Scene”. Like Reloaded, the plot is merely a vehicle to present chase scene after chase scene after chase scene, all of which starts early in the movie, contrasting with T2 which also has more than one major chase scene, but the viewer at least has a break between them. T3’schase scenes come as fast as the mini guns Arnold keeps carrying. T3’s chases, also like Reloaded, go on and on leaving you wondering when it’s going to end.

Cast-wise, Linda Hamilton was wise to turn down reprising Sarah Conner. Nick Stahl as John Conner and Claire Danes as Kate Brewster are unremarkable in their roles, even as thin as their roles are to begin with.

The storyline behind the previous two films is badly abused: there is suddenly a long list of targets for the T-X to hit instead of just John, the reasoning for which is weak, and the exploration of that sub-plot is merely a vehicle to occupy time. What little what added there could easily have been better served by removing the entire list of “Secondary Targets” and focusing more on Kate. Finally there’s a potentially massive abuse of paradox when the Terminator leads John and Kate to what is supposedly Sarah Conner’s grave. From where did the knowledge of the location come from? Not from John, as he admits to not knowing. Kate certainly wouldn’t know. Future-Kate tells the Terminator? Possible, but then that leads into causality paradox. Furthermore the scene in which that paradox is created is mostly unnecessary, the arming of the Terminator could have easily been accomplished another way.

The dialogue is peppered with one-liners to the extent that it should have “comedy”added onto its genre list of “sci-fi / action / thriller”. It’s not great comedy, but it provides a few groans. I was actually more amused by this movie waiting in line to buy a ticket: several high-school-aged boys trying to take their dates to see it were refused admission due to the theater’s 17-and-up policy for “R” movies, and all of said boys just happened to forget their ids.

Rating: 1/2 Pope. Overly-long chase scenes interest me about as much as overly-long fight scenes. The sole score is given for Claire Danes, who despite a bad role, is still doable.

IMDB for Terminator 3.