4 out of 5

Director: Jonathan Mostow

I know I’m in the minority for considering 3 the most solid entry in the series up to this point, but although it can’t be credited for adding nuance to the story – though I’d argue its just been a rehash of Terminator chases man since film 1, with the ‘judgement day’ timeline flexed to fit whatever date is convenient – ‘Rise of the Machines’ is not only the most tonally consistent of the Termies, but also finally finds Arnold in the right mindset for the role and pairs him with actors who don’t annoy (Furlong) or overact (Biehn).  However, we’re also firmly in the hands of director Mostow, who we can perhaps credit for that: Cameron is from the school of Movies, and pitched his series’ entries as overblown B-flicks.  Mostow has a more modern approach which works better for blending the high-concept undercurrents with the campy core of battling ‘bots who wear leather.  Mucking about with the epilogue of film 2, we join a young adult John Connor (Stahl) on the road, trying to live ‘off the grid’ by, I guess, hanging around his old neighborhood and not having a cell phone.  When doing some off the grid pain med theft from a vet’s office, he runs afoul of Kate Brewster (Danes), which is all nicely fated (scripted) to be, as the future’s third attempt at Connor retcons comes in the form of a T-X (Loken), tasked with hunting down lieutenants in the upcoming war, Brewster being one.  Thankfully we get another Arnold model T-101 sent back to help our human protagonists.  The movie succeeds in balance.  There’s an amazing, amazing car chase sequence (matching the previous flicks), which is spaced out from and tonally different from our first Arnold / T-X fight, which is spaced out from and tonally different from a final battle.  Mostow doesn’t do widescreen like Cameron, but he has a great sense for leading the eye and creates an appreciated sense of narrative consistency in his action.  The tone: Stahl and Danes and Arnold all maintain a believable emotional pitch for their roles and maintain it at proper levels throughout.  And Loken is perfect, never breaking character except for hints of an evil smile (acceptable for a villain); otherwise these machines FINALLY start acting something like machines, directly pursuing their target and their target alone and not blowing excess stuff up just because maybe it helps.  So T1 and T2 obviously established the world, but I still feel like they try to have it too many ways – take me seriously, but let me make my one-liners.  T3 embraced the lighter tone and chose, smartly, to modernize the wheel instead of reinvent it.  Solid entry to the series; equally solid on its own.