After making nothing but flops in the past few years with "End of Days", "The Sixth Day", and "Collateral Damage", Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to the roots that created his world-wide fame hoping to reclaim his spot as top action star; this time he returns once again as the Terminator. We go back to the present before the mighty machine war where John Connor emerged as the victor and leader of the rebels. After Terminator 2, they were able to prevent Judgment Day but John still feels uncertain to his future. Now, a brand new sleek, tough, and advanced killing machine known as T-X has landed on Earth in the form of a seductive woman and is out to kill twenty people who will help with the rebellion. The Terminator lands on Earth as well and must protect John and a new character Kate Brewster a veterinarian who will play a role in the war. Now, they must travel to Skynet and prevent the machines from rising while they clash with T-X. Can they stop the war? Or is it all inevitable?

"Terminator" is one of my all-time favorite science fiction movie with the mean Schwarzenegger as the murderous cyborg. In that one he failed in his attempted murder of Sarah Connor. I thought "Terminator 2" was lame despite the cool special-effects in which terminator is now a hero protecting Sarah and the young John Connor as he battles against the T-1000. I wasn't too happy about watching this one and would have waited but the opportunity arose. The movie starts off with an excellent scene of the machine war with all of the terminator units battling the humans and instantly we see the two terminators preparing for battle. Nick Stahl takes on the role for Edward Furlong as John Connor and we don't miss Furlong. One of Terminator 2's biggest faults was Furlong's whiny and terrible acting so I was excited to see Nick Stahl in the role. Nick Stahl is a great actor and helps bring a lot of humility and rage to the character. I'm a fan of Stahl's work and applauded he taking on the role. Claire Danes is a new character and is a good addition mostly serving as a replacement to the absence of Sarah Connor/Linda Hamilton. She's hilarious and pretty ballsy throughout the movie as she attempts to discover the battle that lies ahead.

Schwarzenegger is in rare form in this movie buffing up well and becoming the stone cold warrior once again like he never lost it. He's a great character and I loved to watch him fight the T-X even though he knew he was outmatched. Kristanna Loken is a lot of fun to look at and looks hot in her burgundy suit that she wears throughout the film. She's got the stone cold alluring look down well and packed a punch with her cannons and flame throwers. He best feature is her ability to control machines through her circuitry which enabled her to become sneaky and slimy throughout the entire movie. The scenes where she and the terminator brawl are excellent and mind-blowing and a whole lot of fun to watch. Jonathan Mostow is able to breathe new life into the story with the sleek visuals and exciting chase sequences and fight scenes, a lot of the sequences, including the fighting scenes and futuristic landscapes are great and nearly flawless. The opening sequence with the terminator's on the battlefield left me with my jaw hanging down. The story itself is pretty paper thin but is still entertaining as the events all lead up to the war. The ending leaves a large hole open to a sequel which will no doubt be big.

This lacks what the first two Terminator movies had: vision. James Cameron was able to instill his sleek and dark vision within the complex story-telling but Mostow doesn't pull it off. The movie is lighter and sleeker than I would have liked it to be. It rarely focuses on the machine war yet focuses on the entire story at hand which is paper thin: hot robot chase kids, male robot protect kids, robots fight, save world. Within all that is disappointing basic action scenes which include one too many fight scenes between the two Cyborgs. I felt they should have held off with the fighting and build up to it towards the end for anticipation to keep the audience wanting more but they fight too much.

There's also a car chasing scene in the beginning that goes on w-a-a-a-y too long with a lot of explosions and destruction. Four minutes into the chase I was exhausted and wasn't excited as the director tended to keep it going for as long as humanly possible. The scene where the robotic machines wreak havoc also seemed too long and had little to no excitement as I would have liked. The Terminator at times is too comical disposing of his usually cool costume search into a campy romp which was funny but made the terminator less intimidating a presence. Kristanna Loken is fun to look at and is really hot but lacks the charisma and intensity that Robert Patrick gave to his miming role as the T-1000. She has very little lines and her role mostly depends stone cold facial expressions and little smirks occasionally but I never truly felt threatened by her. The story is dumbed down lacking the true intense storyline the second one so effortlessly set up and completely smashes it to the ground.

This was an exciting and fun popcorn romp that, despite a lot of flaws, ultimately left me satisfied and will most likely carry me into the theatres with it's ending that left the door open for another sequel.

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