Mechanical assassins & explosions galore... good times! (trailer-level spoilers)

Rating: 6/10 (19 August 2003)

Summer movies are about reunions. The cast and creators of a successful movie come back to tell you another tales of the characters you loved so much the first time around. While "T3"only retains one of the original cast and crew, there is still a reunion. It's a reunion between Arnold and the particular kind of fun he brings to his audience.
The present for John Connor (Nick Stahl) is now more bleak than his future. The doomsday foretold in the second installment did not come to pass, but John lives piecemeal and constantly on the move in fear that the mechanical demons of his childhood future may come back to hunt him. We know that very game is what we came to see, so we can't blame the poor guy for being paranoid. The machines do arrive in the form of the T-X model (Kristanna Loken) but with John being so hard to find, the T-X has secondary targets to search out. A mechanical protector, a T101 model (Arnold Schwarzenegger), arrives to help protect John and one of his future lieutenants (Claire Danes). Then the chase is fully on because the delayed "judgement day" is now eminent and Arnold's T101 is so vastly outmatched by the T-X. (And also because this is a sequel.)
The story is a bit thinner this time out, but few people could be expected to match "Iron Jim" Cameron's fiercely perfectionist filmmaking step for step. However, "U571" helmsman, Johnathan Mostow, is up to the task of keeping the action rolling and pulling the viewer along for the ride. He sets up everything as obstacles for the heroes, including things that are not usually found in action films, such as kennel cages, a particle accelerator and one wildly out-of-control construction crane. While the design of the T-X villain permits her almost every resource the situation demands, Claire Danes bears quite a bit of the missing exposition from John's childhood as well as the burden of frequently being a convenient plot device. However, she does it unflinchingly and helps carry the action forward.
Describing the action in any greater detail would be the same as telling everyone in line for the roller coaster the exact number and direction of the turns in the rail. The effects and stunts are all there in cutting- edge glory. This `Terminator' is not as dark as the first, nor as envelope-pushing as the second, but it is a complete thrill ride, and a welcome one in a summer of multiple action failures. It's worth the trip to the theater. Just try not to think too much about it afterwards.
7 out of 10