Critics Scoreboard
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...
Average Critic Score:
66
(41 sources)
66
(41 sources)
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90
LA Weekly
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 » -
90
Film Threat
This movie doesn’t cop out. It doesn’t go for fake, feel-good warm fuzzies, and it’s not for the faint of heart. Terminator 3 has guts. It has a LOT of guts. And it’s a rare thing for any movie – whether it’s a summer blockbuster or an indie arthouse flick – to have guts. Read Full Review » -
90
Variety
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 » -
88
New York Daily News
The effects in "T3" are spectacular, and the action sequences -- particularly the fights between the good and bad terminators -- are exhilarating. Read Full Review » -
83
Entertainment Weekly
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 » -
80
Washington Post
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 » -
80
Los Angeles Times
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 » -
78
Austin Chronicle
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 » -
75
Premiere
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 » -
75
Charlotte Observer
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 » -
75
ReelViews
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 » -
75
Rolling Stone
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 » -
75
Miami Herald
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 » -
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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 » -
75
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75
Boston Globe
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 » -
70
Wall Street Journal
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. Read Full Review » -
70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
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 » -
70
Dallas Observer
Overall it's reasonably thrilling anyway. If you're hoping for a brilliant revisionist take on the franchise, forget it. Read Full Review » -
70
Time
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 » -
70
The New Yorker
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] Read Full Review » -
70
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70
Newsweek
At its screeching, wall-breaking best, “T3” achieves heavy-metal slapstick. Read Full Review » -
70
The Hollywood Reporter
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 » -
67
Portland Oregonian
As an action film it roars forward with agreeable, transporting energy. Read Full Review » -
63
Chicago Sun-Times
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 » -
63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Terminator 3 moves at not-quite-breakneck speed, and the shape-shifting, metal-melting special effects aren't exactly spectacular. Read Full Review » -
63
Baltimore Sun
The good news is that Schwarzenegger is more entertaining than ever as the Terminator T-101 cyborg. Read Full Review » -
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
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 » -
60
The New York Times
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 » -
60
Village Voice
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 » -
60
TV Guide
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 » -
60
New York Magazine
I don’t mind the movie’s retro-ness, but I wish Mostow didn't take pulp so seriously. Read Full Review » -
60
Chicago Reader
Less about the characters than about the first two movies, whose best scenes it congeals into ritual or parody. Read Full Review » -
50
Film Threat
Unfolds as a thrilling piece of entertainment, but it has a third act and ending that don’t work and shouldn’t ever work. Read Full Review » -
50
Christian Science Monitor
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 » -
50
Slate
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 » -
50
San Francisco Chronicle
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 » -
50
USA Today
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 » -
40
Washington Post
Wastes no time getting very loud and very silly and never really lets up. Read Full Review » -
25
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