Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
The third installment of the Terminator series finds itself without director James Cameron and stars Edward Furlong and Linda Hamilton. But all you need is Arnold. Schwarzenegger here is sent back once again to protect John Connor, now played by Nick Stahl, who for some odd reason looks strangely like Doctor Bashir from DS9. The nemesis now is the T-X (Kristanna Loken) which has all the powers of the T-1000 from T2 plus the ability to take control of other machines. With John nowhere to be found, the T-X focuses on his lieutenants, including Kate Brewster (Claire Danes). The trio of the terminator, Kate and John must run again to prevent Judgment Day from happening, now a few years late from its original August 29, 1997 date. Skynet is about to go operational as the Pentagon is worried about a new super-virus spreading to all computers throughout the world. They're convinced that Skynet can seek out the virus and destroy it. But as we all know from T2, Skynet becomes self-aware and takes control launching nuclear missiles everywhere. Kate's father happens to be the military guy in charge of the operation and so that's where they must go to prevent the looming nuclear winter.

This simply is a rehash of T2. I liked T2 so that isn't necessarily a bad thing. But there's something missing and that seems to be the human touch. In T2, you had John, an innocent boy thrown into the wild world with no one to look up to except a mother who's been judged crazy. Throw the terminator in there and you've got instant father figure. You see the connections grow right before your eyes, bridging the gap between man and machine. You've also got the strong female figure in Sarah to pull everyone together. The perfect dysfunctional family who you know will make a difference. In T3, you again have John, now a strong independent man. His character doesn't crave human contact and thus is judged to be distant. As a result, the connections between this new trio is non-existent, no matter how things go now or are supposed to be in the future. You're supposed to be seeing future leaders, but instead it seems they're portrayed as helpless, waiting for the next person to tell them what to do.

As for the film, it's well done. Director Jonathan Mostow mastered the silence and claustrophobia of U-571 and now has done well in filming loud explosions and city blocks of mass destruction. They took a lot from the last movie, from a chase through L.A. to lines of dialogue, but it works as does the shots of nuclear fallout. Loken, Danes, and Stahl are all fine performers in this venture, but their parts pale in comparison to T2's Robert Patrick, Hamilton, and Furlong. The signature lines that struck a chord with audiences in the last movie, as well as some new ones, fall completely flat here. And what I hate about some movies is when they leave it open for an uncertain next movie, which they so obviously do here. It seems to me this would be a fine jumping off point for the series unless Cameron comes back and leads the series in a new direction. It's also assuming Schwarzenegger isn't governor anytime soon. 3 stars