*NO SPOILERS, GUARANTEED*

Then, after months of speculation, came the bombshell news that James Cameron, writer and director of the first two movies, would have nothing to do with T3 and that Arnie & Co would have to find someone else to wield the megaphone. Well, that whipped up the geek squad into a right old frenzy - replace James Cameron? Who on earth could possibly be up to that monumental task? Who would have the balls?
In true rumour mill style the list of potential helmers grew longer on a weekly basis - John McTiernan, Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven (that would have been fun!), David Fincher, Roland Emmerich - until it finally fell onto the desk of Jonathan Mostow (U-571, Breakdown).
As the production progressed and the armies of Cameron worshipers discussed among themselves how it wouldn't, shouldn't and couldn't possibly be as good as the first two films ever more feverishly, I became more and more certain of two things. One: this was going to be the most highly anticipated and closely scrutinised movie since 'The Phantom Menace' and two: everyone will hate it.

And anyway, I like U-571, it's a great film and in it's own little way so is Breakdown, so personally I thought Mostow was an ideal man for the job. No matter what the 'nerd herd' were saying, as long as T3 had Arnold in shades and a leather jacket, shotguns, cool motorbikes and stuff blowing up real good then I was going to love this movie with all my heart. (Go ahead...)

Is it just me, or is Terminator 2: Judgment Day just a teensie weensie bit over-rated? Sure, it's a great film, not denying that but come on, that kid? Bit of a brat if you ask me. And some of T2's humour is so horrendously misplaced and downright slapstick in places - oh look what the big unfeeling robot is doing now kinda thing - that it beggars belief, all that "no problemo" nonsense. And don't start me on that bit where Arnie steps out for the first time in the boots to the sound of Johnny Thurgood's 'Bad To The Bone'.
And, especially in its director's cut version, doesn't T2 tend to drag on a bit? Sags under its own weight? Blows all its wad about 20 minutes before the end? I think so.

Except he isn't.
As we all know, as seen at the end of T2, the war against the machines was prevented, Judgment Day never happened, August 29th 1997 came and went without so much as a party popper going off and everything was hunky-dorey. So where does that leave him? What's next? Everything he'd been brought up to believe, the day he'd spent his whole life preparing for, didn't happen. More to the point, IF the war was prevented, how come he's still here? If none of it ever happened, he wouldn't have been born in the first place, right?
What if the holocaust wasn't prevented at all, merely post-poned?
Talk about emotional turmoil, this is cool stuff!
No, for John Connor, something is still very definitely wrong. Something lurks. Skynet's presence is still felt somehow and so he lives anonymously, odd jobs here and there, no drivers licence, no address, no bank account, no way of Skynet tracking him down.

It doesn't matter anyway for when Connor has a minor accident on his motorbike one night and has to break into an animal clinic for some painkillers, Bam! Suddenly everything's back on again and Connor is once again running for his life from Skynet's latest weapon - the TX, or Terminatrix. This, ladies and gentlemen, is T3's trump card - the TX is one seriously bad-ass bitch. Played by the rather lovely Kristanna Loken, she's as lethal a killing machine as Robert Patrick's T-1000 but with added powers of seduction for extra effect, as well as a handful of other incredibly nifty tricks, like the ability to 'remote pilot' any nearby machinery - cars, cranes, power tools etc.. - to her deadly will. And, much to the delight of a million teenage boys, in true Terminator tradition she arrives in the sparkly time travel bubble in her 'au naturele' state (although her pink parts always seem to be tastefully concealed in the shadows - humph!).

T1 and T2 alumnae (and former Mrs Cameron) Linda Hamilton is no big loss, the female role here being filled by Clare Danes instead who does a perfectly credible job as Kate Brewster, a lab technician at the animal clinic and possible romantic interest for Connor. Between them they don't exactly set the screen alight but there's a few nice moments and the future/present double-back narrative structure of the story adds some interesting food for thought.
Of course, this is all secondary really, this is a Teminator movie and Terminator movies have always been about one man and one man alone.
And his name is Arnold.