REVIEW OF T3 - MINOR SPOILERS: Having just seen the sneak preview of Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines, I can say only that it is underwhelming. The first half, in which we are introduced to an older John Connor (played originally by Edward Furlong, but now by Nick Stahl), is largely derivative of Terminator 2 - Judgment Day. Indeed, we are treated to the familiar arrival of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the future as well as that of a newer-model liquid metal Terminator, this time in the form of Kristanna Loken. As before, Schwarzenegger is sent back to protect, while Loken shares the same mission as T2's Robert Patrick: kill John Connor. (However, Loken is also programmed to terminate the lives of another of young adults who are to become Connor's underlings in the future war against the machines.) We bear witness to the familiar chase scene in which the evil Terminator pursues victims in a large truck while Schwarzenegger follows and fights from a motorcycle. Of course, this being a sequel, the stakes are higher, the damage and body count is increased, and the villain wields far greater powers. It is not until the second half of the film that the narrative finds itself and provides new twists to the saga, and even those are not revolutionary spins on the formula.
Unfortunately, T3 also lacks the solemnity of its immediate predecessor, and possibly that is due to the absence of James Cameron, writer and director of the first two Terminator films. Predictably, Cameron has dismissed this sequel, which is perhaps unfair, since his first major success as a director was making a sequel to another director's sci-fi action film. (Cameron took Ridley Scott's psychological suspense thriller Alien and produced the action-packed adventure sequel, Aliens.) Whatever the case, T3 is overly self-aware and occasionally makes sly, and rather distracting, allusions to both itself and to T2. Particularly irksome in this respect is the cameo appearance of Earl Boen, who played the sinister Ratched-esque chief of the mental institution in which Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor resided at the beginning of T2. Boen's appearance is played for light self-referential comedy. Obviously, the narrative must make reference to the events which occurred in previous films, but the film suffers for doing so in a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, remember-this-part-from-the-last film manner.
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Hah, wow I never thought about the contradictory messages about fate till I read what you wrote. Nice. Definitely there. Sarah Conner's tomb was engraved with something like "Fate is what we make it" all the while she prepared her grave for Judgment Day. Lovely. But I enjoyed the film nevertheless. It was a good sequel if you ignore the loopholes of time travel (but don't all time travel movies have loopholes?--including T2).