One of those sequels that's really more of a remake, T3 tells pretty much the same story as T2, a time-travelling robot (correction: "cybernetic organism") reprogrammed to serve as protector rather than terminator of humanity's future savior, and a more advanced, shape-shifting, "anti-Terminator Terminator" hot on their trail. That the good cyborg is a somewhat thicker-set version of the one seen last (now that Arnold Schwarzenegger has moved into his mid-fifties), and the bad cyborg most often takes the shape of a petite curvaceous blonde (Kristanna Loken, a mannequin in motion), fits in perfectly with the rub-it-in-your-face jokiness of much of the film. Edward Furlong, even though the lull in the action corresponds exactly to the twelve years since the previous episode, was for some reason found to be unfit to resume the role of the savior (perhaps the star of Pecker lacks the requisite air of success), and was therefore replaced by the cuter and "hotter" Nick Stahl (In the Bedroom). Gone, too, is Linda Hamilton, laid to rest, or rather scattered to the winds, to make way for the crinkled-browed Claire Danes as the fated mate of our predestined savior: "You remind me of my mother," he sighs, after she takes a hand with a machine gun. The film comes as close as possible to the ideal of "nonstop action" without passing into total monotony. And while it is inherently not possible to top the chase scenes of the immediate predecessor without also attaining idiocy, the film does indeed top them. (Jonathan Mostow, of Breakdown and U-571, occupies the director's chair vacated by James Cameron.) The ending, however, restores a healthy measure of gravity, which in essence returns us to the ending of the 1984 original. Which never required a sequel in the first place. (2003) — Duncan Shepherd
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