10 Movies With Great Second Halves (But Awful Firsts)

10. Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines

Despite being the best of the last three Terminator movies, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is nevertheless a wildly uneven movie - an initially underwhelming sequel which eventually morphs into an entertaining chase thriller.

The big problem with the first half of T3 is that it forces the viewer to accept a lot of things.

For starters, there's a new actor playing John Connor (Nick Stahl), and a new villainous Terminator, the T-X (Kristanna Loken), who can't hold a handle to the series' prior villains.

But what the first half of the movie gets truly wrong is its sheer avalanche of goofy humour, unconvincing action, and disappointing storytelling it piles upon fans.

From the silliness of the T-X inflating her chest to distract a cop, to the new T-101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) stopping off at a gay bar to acquire some clothes, a car chase which randomly turns from night to day in mere minutes, the infamous "talk to duh hand" scene, and Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) being killed off-screen, it all leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

But the second half becomes a more urgent, traditionally Terminator-esque pursuit flick, complete with some surprisingly hardcore violence, a couple of F-bombs, an hilarious cameo from Dr. Silberman (Earl Boen), and general humour that actually lands.

That's not to forget the movie's coup de grace: a shockingly ballsy ending in which billions are nuked out of existence by Skynet, and all John and Kate (Claire Danes) can do is hole up in a fallout shelter while it happens.

If the entire movie had the more darkly humourous tenor of that second hour, this would've felt like a far worthier follow-up to T2 overall.