T3 and the summer of 2003

Flashback to summer 03. the summer of The Matrix II basically (and there was X2, Hulk all very big deals) so Matrix Reloaded came out mid May and shock horror! it wasnt great despite the same writers/directors/cast/crew as the instant iconic/one of the all time greats of the scifi genre 1st film. Couple of weeks before you had X2 which was great and one of the best superhero films/sequels at that point (far superior to the matrix sequel, ironic as the style of X1 was part influenced by The Matrix as was Daredevil released in the Feb) then June you had Hulk which should've been great (the director, the fact it was the first time for the Hulk on the big screen coming after the mega success of Spiderman the summer before) but like Matrix Reloaded was another big disappointment (and a near box office bomb making less than a third of Spidermans box office)

Then July the one many had been waiting 12 years for (making Matrix's 4y wait seem miniscule in comparison) - T3

since the huge Batman/Jurassic level phenomenon of T2 in summer 91 terminator had somewhat fallen from the cinemascape radar, there were online rumours of a potential T3 but Cameron was now king of the world (and had stated he felt terminator was kind of old hat when considering the forthcoming millennium), Arnies name above the title star had waned due to bombs/batman/health issues, and The Matrix had now become the big dog of malevolent AI sci fi action cinema (what was Agent Smith but a vengeful sarcastic T1000). So how ironic the long rumoured/never gonna happen/old not obsolete Terminator sequel would come out the same summer as the similar themed fashionable/of the moment/so hot right now Matrix sequel. But unlike that no one aside Arnie, Stan Winston and Earl Boen was back. No Linda Hamilton (the Ripley of the franchise!), no Ed Furlong, or Robert Patrick not even Brad Fiedel, and the unthinkable: no James Cameron! at all. not even an exec producer credit. Cameron was pretty much as big a star of Terminator as Arnold (and after Titanic was like a global mega star director eclipsing even Spielberg) so not having him involved seemed absolutely crazy . Instead it was Jonathan Mostow a guy not many filmgoers would've been aware of, the director of U571 and Breakdown (an effective atmospheric Duel like thriller). A far cry from the rumoured post Gladiator/equally iconic as Cameron Ridley Scott (the Terminator/Alien connections would've been nerd blowing) and John McTiernan (from Arnies Predator/Last Action Hero not to mention The Hunt for Red October and frickin Die Hard!).

Nonetheless coming after the disappointment of Matrix II, T3 seemed positively awesome, obviously not as classic as T1 or 2 but still pretty good. and that was the general consensus with critics and movie goers making T3 a hit but still roughly 100m less than T2 worldwide unadjusted, and almost half of Matrix Reloaded. However Matrix Revolutions later that year would (understandably) do about the same as T3.

However looking back on it now T3 feels almost a stdvd movie without many of the elements of the iconic previous films, kind of subpar CG (the cut paste T800s future war), inferior villain, little to no iconic scenes, and the movie that effectively derailed the franchise from which it never recovered (similar to Matrix Reloaded in that regard, each sequel becoming more ridiculed and less box office) not even when Cameron returned (sort of) for T6, the discarded Blomkamp Aliens sequel style direct sequel to T2 (i.e. The 'real' T3) which upset 'legions' of terminator fans and bombed horribly (an unthinkable notion that summer of 91 or even 03)