9. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
If there is one movie in the Terminator franchise that fans grew to love, it’s definitely gotta be the third outing. That’s not to say that Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines wasn’t well-received when it was first released, because it was, but it was often treated like a good-but-derivative chapter of the original trilogy that was somewhat inferior to its predecessors. And then the sequels happened.
Ever since T4 brought the franchise to the point of no return, every sequel has tried to be “the real T3”, but as the years have gone on, fans have started to see what they probably should have back in 2003: The real T3 is good. No, it’s very good. Great, even.
The reason that Rise of the Machines has aged so well is down to the fact that it didn’t try to overcomplicate things or franchise them. It just decided to tell the next chapter in the Terminator story; a chapter that wasn’t necessary, but one that did a great job in furthering the story nonetheless. The T-X was a wonderful villain that felt like an effective upgrade from the T-1000 (a task that should have been impossible) while the futile attempt to stop Judgment Day kept the stakes mighty high throughout. The CGI is also far superior to the visual effects used in the more recent movies.
This was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last movie before he became Governor of California, and it was a pretty epic way to temporarily halt his acting career. Of course, he was once again brilliant in his most iconic role.