Every Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie Ranked Worst To Best

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a film that really should not exist, with James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day so perfectly capping the story off. However, Schwarzenegger had wanted to pursue a third Terminator for years by the time Rise of the Machines was made, and as a sequel that exists just for the sake of it, it could honestly be a lot worse.

The biggest criticism against Rise of the Machines is that it undoes the happy ending of Cameron's saga, concluding with the activation of Skynet and the commencement of nuclear armageddon. It's a familiar story for a Cameron sequel, but while Alien 3 at least had the pageantry of David Fincher to fall back on, Rise of the Machines isn't so lucky.

As it stands, it's a perfectly okay action film elevated by Schwarzenegger's presence and that of Kristanna Loken as the T-X. Otherwise, it's pretty disposable.