Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Directed by Jonathan Mostow. Starring Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kristanna Loken, David Andrews, Mark Famiglietti. [R]

Ten years have passed since Skynet was destroyed and Judgment Day was prevented, but times have been tough for the Connors since then—Sarah is deceased and John (now played by Stahl) lives off the grid and on the run. It’s only going to get worse when those pesky Terminators show up again: an upgraded version of the T-800 model that still looks like (an older) Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a powerful new assassin (Loken) with shape-shifting capabilities and an arsenal of built-in weapons. Lacking the ambition and humanity of the earlier franchise entries, this is essentially an extended chase movie with lots of high-tech razzle-dazzle buffing up the chrome skeleton of its B-movie aspirations. Director Mostow may not be an equivalent replacement for James Cameron, but he knows his way around an action scene, and delivers a few good ones, including a whopper of a demolition-derby pursuit involving a crane truck. Its scant new characters—including John’s future wife (Danes), who just so happens to have known him as a pre-teen and crosses his path again just a few minutes before the cyborgs crash the party—are given short shrift on development, which along with the flimsy story structure, negates some of the impact of what could have been a cold-hearted knockout of an ending. The comic relief, however, is so clunky that it feels like it needs its own comic relief. Earl Boen makes an unlikely but welcome cameo appearance as Dr. Silberman. Followed by Terminator Salvation.

64/100