fish_beauty's "My 1000 favorite films [WIP - 363 and counting]"

First off it’s a personal list and makes no claims about any objective greatness about these. I also have the first two X-Men movies on the list and you’ll find a few more oddball favorites sprinkled throughout the list. By and large, though, my taste matches up pretty tightly with typical critical wisdom.

As for Terminator 3 specifically, I think it’s a great entry in a series whose other two films also make my Top 1000. All three movies are very different in their approaches but each works equally well. The third installment didn’t even make a ripple when released but I think the execution of the concept elevates it to greatness. It’s pretty bold in looking back at the first two films through somewhat of a prism, generating a lot of humor from its comedic re-envisioning of Schwarzenegger Terminator character. There are comic gems in the film that only work because of the seriousness which his character toted in the first two films. Also, there are intelligent decisions made such as the knock-down drag-out fight between the female terminator and Arnold’s version. The decision to add a female terminator was a need to differentiate it from the prior movie just as the liquid terminator in the 2nd movie differentiated that film from its predecessor. The movie adds some intelligent comedic commentary on the choice of a female terminator by having the big battle take place in a men’s bathroom and going so far as to have Arnold’s T2 give the T3 a ‘swirly’. This is great stuff. There are many amusing moments in the film which commented to me just right on the previous movies and the current state of the franchise. But the movie succeeds beyond that – the plot line reaches a satisfactory conclusion: SPOILERS – the optimism in the prior film about changing the future is negated; the catastrophe happens anyway. I’d need to see the film again to write a better rationale. I hope this gives you some idea that I found elements to like in it which elevated beyond its peers.