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Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 41 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 141 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
John D. Brancato (also story)
Michael Ferris (also story)
John D. Brancato (story)
James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd (characters)
Directed by: Jonathan Mostow
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 2, 2003
DVD: November 11, 2003
Running Time: 109 minutes, Color
Origin: USA / UK / Germany / Japan / Australia
Summary
RATING: R for strong sci-fi violence and action, and for language and brief nudity
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, Kristanna Loken, David Andrews, Mark Famiglietti, Earl Boen, and Moira Harris
The highly anticipated third installment in one of Hollywood's most innovative and celebrated franchises, which was originated with the 1984 release of "The Terminator." Melding riveting suspense, trademark humor and explosive action, Terminator 3 pays homage to its predecessors and adds an electrifying new chapter to the series' sophisticated mythology. (T3 Productions)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Terminator Terminator 2: Judgment Day Terminator Salvation
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
LA Weekly Scott Foundas
Here's a picture that you actually want to see a second time, not for the sake of further wrapping your head around its gnarly conceptual matrix, but because of the sheer visceral charge it provides. Here, at long last, is a summer movie -- like its precursors in the Terminator canon -- worth its weight in cybernetic organisms.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Kevin Carr
This movie doesnt cop out. It doesnt go for fake, feel-good warm fuzzies, and its not for the faint of heart. Terminator 3 has guts. It has a LOT of guts. And its a rare thing for any movie whether its a summer blockbuster or an indie arthouse flick to have guts.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
T3 delivers the goods. A hard-hitting, straight-ahead sci-fi actioner with none of the pretentions and ponderousness that have put at least a portion of the public off of "The Matrix Reloaded" and "Hulk."
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The effects in "T3" are spectacular, and the action sequences -- particularly the fights between the good and bad terminators -- are exhilarating.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
With him (Schwarzenegger), we return to a franchise we never knew we missed, surprisingly grateful for the star's generosity -- and evident pleasure -- in strapping on the old sunglasses and blasting adversaries to hell.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Tried hard to honor the spirit of the franchise, not exploit it, and take it to a new level and a surprising destination.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
An expertly paced and efficient sci-fi thrill machine, "T3" effectively marries impressive action sequences with persuasive storytelling and its star's uniquely appealing style of "No" drama -- as in no reaction, no expression, no emotion of any kind.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Reality has overtaken the movies here, which, I suppose, makes T3 all the more cathartically appealing. At least onscreen we have Arnold Schwarzenegger in our corner.
Read Full Review >Premiere Kelly Borgeson
It puts almost everything it has into its explosive set pieces, but manages to instill the audience with just enough emotional involvement. If, Ah-nold decides to come bach again, this installment should ensure he has an audience.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Though this film doesn't have the novelty value of the first or the complex plotting of the second, it boasts the most spectacular single sequence.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Gets the most bang for its buck by letting the camera linger on the spectacle, and allowing tension, not flashiness, to be its hallmark.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
May lack the mythic pow of the 1984 original and the visionary thrill of T2, but it's a potent popcorn movie that digs in its hooks and doesn't let go until an ending that ODs on apocalyptic hoo-ha.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
This is easily the funniest of the Terminator movies (although not, it should be stressed, the lightest). It is also the shortest and most compact.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
In a summer of comic book super-operas dense with psychological torment and sprawling well over two hours, the unpretentious efficiency of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is refreshing.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
Against all odds this "Terminator" deserves to be welcomed back.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
This third installment is the loudest, dopiest, and least inventive of the three. But what the movie...lacks in intelligence it makes up for in sheer doom.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The brute force of Terminator 3 is relieved, I'm happy to say, by Claire Danes's winning performance as John Connor's reluctant accomplice (whom the production notes describe, not inaccurately, as an "unsuspecting veterinarian"); by many of the special effects, which don't seem obsolete at all, and, yes, by the sinister trix of the Terminatrix.
The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
T3, while far from a classic, is an overachieving, mercenary sequel that's short on thrills, but surprisingly long on laughs and surprises.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
Overall it's reasonably thrilling anyway. If you're hoping for a brilliant revisionist take on the franchise, forget it.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
At its metallic heart, T3 is another chase movie -- one figure relentlessly tracking three others, mostly in cars, at high speed through implausibly underpopulated Los Angeles streets.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
As Mostow proved in Breakdown and U-571, he can churn out excitement at a steady pace; whether he can handle dread--altogether a more unstable material--is another matter. [14 & 21 July 2003, p. 85]
Newsweek David Ansen
At its screeching, wall-breaking best, T3 achieves heavy-metal slapstick.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Lacks the wonder, surprises and supercool attitude Cameron achieved. "T3" is no weak sister, though. With Arnold Schwarzenegger back as the iconic title character and an often witty, fast-paced script by John Brancato, Michael Ferris and Tedi Sarafian, audiences worldwide will embrace the new film.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
As an action film it roars forward with agreeable, transporting energy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Is Terminator 3 a skillful piece of work? Indeed. Will it entertain the Friday night action crowd? You bet. Does it tease and intrigue us like the earlier films did? Not really.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Terminator 3 moves at not-quite-breakneck speed, and the shape-shifting, metal-melting special effects aren't exactly spectacular.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The good news is that Schwarzenegger is more entertaining than ever as the Terminator T-101 cyborg.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
That's not to say Terminator 3 is terminally awful -- just banal, merely humdrum, more conventional horror flick than science-fiction myth, and a whole lot less than what came before.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
For all the hype and the inevitable box office bonanza, Terminator 3 is essentially a B movie, content to be loud, dumb and obvious.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Where Judgment Day exhibited the profligate sprawl of a military operation, the leaner, less grandiose Rise of the Machines has the feel of a single Hummer careening through an earthquake in downtown Burbank.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Picking up some 10 years after the previous film left off, this stripped-down, intelligently conceived follow-up is a respectable conclusion to the Terminator trilogy.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
I dont mind the movies retro-ness, but I wish Mostow didn't take pulp so seriously.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Less about the characters than about the first two movies, whose best scenes it congeals into ritual or parody.
Read Full Review >Film Threat David Grove
Unfolds as a thrilling piece of entertainment, but it has a third act and ending that dont work and shouldnt ever work.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
If none of this seems particularly fresh, you're right. "T3" is strikingly similar to "T2" and "T," reflecting Hollywood's reluctance to tamper with a hit series.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
The villain comes back more times than Wile E. Coyote. I found it tiresome and witless and numbingly repetitive, but action mavens won't feel cheated.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Has its moments, and Schwarzenegger is as buff and tough as ever. But there's a flat feeling about this effort that's unmistakable and inescapable.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Begins promisingly and entertains for a stretch because you think it's leading to something more than one of the movie year's flattest conclusions.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Wastes no time getting very loud and very silly and never really lets up.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 141 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Fun, but not as good as the first two.
Duxa C. gave it a9:
I just finished watching all 3 movies (T1, T2, and this T3) back to back in a marathon. And I must say that it is very good. I would say on par with T2. The plot twists keep you on the edge and action never lets go. Very enjoyable film, and I wish it would keep going.
Brian gave it an8:
This movie is very solid. If you dont understand the premise of why it's happening then explain how John Connor can exist if the future never happens the way it is supposed to. It's a paradox. The T3 story cant end until it's seen through to the future. Not sure what more of explanation you could need.
Mike C. gave it a0:
Sorry, but this is the worst movie of the trilogy. Casting is awful and actors don't look too well directed in this movie. 0/10 (BAD)
Zeno M. gave it a3:
The most unimaginative movie in years. Boring action in spite of an enormous budget. Special effects are dull and tiresome. It is simply unbelievable how they managed to clone the previous movie, in the worst manner possible. I didn't expect a masterpiece, but still this exceeded my worst pessimistic anticipation.
Tech gave it a7:
Movie was good but no the best. It has just become far too unrealistic, what the heck is the use for a robot to make their own boobs bigger? The talk to the hand and the sunglasses was funny but still doesn't fit into the movie. [***SPOILERS***] When does a robot care if he has good looking sunglasses or not? When the TX finds blood which belongs to John Connor she seems breathes out heavily and Robots don't have feelings! Else it was good.
David F. gave it a2:
I'll set the tone of this review right away, this movie is terrible! What was Jonathan Mostow thinking when he made this mess. There is no explanation of what the hell is going on, Arnie seems like he's playing a parody of the Terminator from the earlier films, it has no heart and the story line is laughably poor. I waited over 10 years to see this film and they give no explanation as to why any of this is happenening, only that it is 'inevitable'. T3 is basically a really poor version of T2, its dumbed down and badly written, the directing also sucked. I gave it a 2 out of 10 simply because some of the special effects are quite impressive. They should have set it all in the future and had an aliens-esque story about marines instead of basically remaking T2 and soiling the franchise.
