This post contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen Terminator 3 and don’t want to know what happens then don’t read this.

I left the movie feeling disappointed. As I reflected on the movie’s plot, thin—like butterfly wings, I was more dejected. What were they thinking? 175 million dollars for what? Some non-original chase scenes (the crane was somewhat original), most of which were recreations of chase scenes from Terminator 2, a new Terminator TX (not much different from the T-2000), and with the exception of Arnold, all new actors. We’ll leave aside his decision to do this movie in the first place, but with judgement skills like this, do we really want to consider him as Governor of California?

What really bugged me about the film was the new take on the frachise philosophy. The war is now inevitable. It is fate. So Sarah Connor’s epitaph, and best line from T2, ‘No fate but the fate we make.’ is gone, out the window, buh-bye. Instead we have an inevitable war with the machines (which is not stoppable at all in the movie); SkyNet will take over the world’s computers by viral infiltration or human invocation. The first movie started out this way, Sarah Connor running for her life, just trying to survive, yet in the end she defeats the Terminator and grimly realizes that the machines are not invincible. In Terminator 2, the humans go on the offensive and destroy the remaining parts from Terminator 1 that are leading to SkyNet’s creation. We even have a soliloquy at the end that tells the audience that the road is not set, that Sarah Connor’s rallying cry ‘No fate but the fate we make’ is the rule now, not fate.

Then Terminator 3 … war is inevitable … we end the movie with John Connor and new chickie (future wife and mother of his children) hiding in a bunker riding out judgement day.

So what is so terrible about that? You pays your $8.50 and you sees some shit blow up. Entertainment? No. No, it isn’t and it’s also lousy storytelling. Because now in the Terminator trilogy we are left with nothing more than three movies chronicling the beginning of what is arguably a much better story. Fictional heroes are not made in the early battles. John Connor’s heroic moments come in the future, so how about some of that story? How about the story of the war between man and machines? Since this war is no longer an option in the minds of the writers and producers, then why the hell do we care about the story of Terminator 3. Skip it. Let’s get on with the story of the war. Tell us how John finally grows up, stops whining and takes charge — PLEASE! Tell us how we turn the tide in the battle against the machines. Tell us the story of the Luddite nightmare that this franchise has become. Tell us about human spirit overcoming problems and defeating the machines. Don’t show us a movie that just rehashes a prior movie. Unfortunately, after blowing 175 million dollars on this waste of celluloid, I don’t think that story will ever be green-lighted, and the potential of this franchise, like this last movie, is wasted.