Our Rating: 3.50
Yes, Virginia, you can make a fairly decent Terminator movie without James Cameron — as long as you’re willing to accept workmanlike thrills in place of innovation. In director Jonathan Mostow’s threequel, the futuristic Skynet network dispatches another lethal cyborg (Kristanna Loken) to our present to kill human resistance in its crib. And of course, yet another hero ‘borg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is on hand to even the equation. Strategically placed easter eggs of action keep us in the game, but the only true curve ball Mostow throws is a climactic nod to fatalism that recalls the sci-fi renaissance of the late ’60s and early ’70s. Otherwise, this is the filmed equivalent of fan fiction — consistently mindful of a mythos from which it dares not deviate. Salient line: “What, do you guys come off an assembly line or something?” Arnie: “Exactly.”
This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2003.