Review Detail

Overview - Intriguing followup to T2 featured interesting plot twists to resurrect the narrative. The film was overlong, however, the characters unlikeable and unsympathetic, and humour elements mishandled and simply unfunny.
Uncanny Antman chopped almost 20% of the film, making it leaner, colder, and roaring like an out of control Mack truck.

Video - With over eighty cuts or trims, one expected to notice the stray jag or abrupt shift. No way. Slick, professional editing all around. Only thing I noticed - and I think this was in the film - was fade to black (commercial break?) about three quarters through that held a beat or two too long. Personal taste, I don’t like black screens.

Audio - Loud, aggressive 5.1 mix, though not necessarily discreet. Again, that was source material. Antman’s editing was smooth with no noticeable transitions.

Narrative - The problem with truncating 20% of a film is the risk of losing coherence. That does not occur in this edit. The story made logical sense and motivations were clear. In fact, except for the loss of the TX’s inflating orbs, I didn’t miss any of the cuts.

Enjoyment - With T3, the franchise had run out of gas. Bloat substituted for invention, with the main characters lacking chemistry and any sense of goals. Clueless reaction shots from both T-850 and TX only added to head scratching irritation.
Antman’s edit blasts like a bat out of Hell. The pace is so furious, so relentless, you don’t have time to consider directorial miscues, indifferent performances, muddled writing.
T3 remains, essentially, a B-film.
But Antman’s version is a sleek, kickass B-film. His has replaced my original.