The Bottom Line: The latest in the Terminator franchise "is back," but doesn't seem to take a big step forward.
The Story: Last time we saw John Connor in "Terminator 2: Judgement Day," he was 13 years old and sprang his mother from a mental institution. She spent every waking moment, not nurturing him or helping him get through adolescence, but showing him how to hack computers and load firearms. John and his mother, with the help of their nemesis, the Terminator from the first film, destroy the software that made "Skynet," the computer system that launched the attack on humanity, or "Judgment Day". Now John (Nick Stahl) is 18 and the heavy responsibility he carries with him concerning the future has really got him bummed out, even though he believes the threat has been thwarted. He lives his life "off the grid," no phone, no address, and little or no human contact. Whenever the reason or the motivation hits him, he packs up his bike and heads on to the next town.
One fateful bike ride ends with John taking a bad spill, and when you're "off the grid" you don't have Blue Cross. Connor breaks into an animal clinic and self-administers some veterinary medicine, causing him to pass out. He's awakened by Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) who works at the clinic and went to Jr. High with Connor. Enter the T-X (Kristanna Loken), the state-of-the-art Terminator, sent back in time to kill Connor's future lieutenants in the resistance against the machines in the future. Who will save Connor and Brewster from the future's most efficient killing machine? Mr. "I'll be back" Schwarzenegger himself, of course. At this point the original Terminator is an "obsolete" model but loyal to his mission all the same, and he goes to great lengths to defend John and Kate.
Tell Me More: No one expected much from the first Terminator movie, but it was real cool and actually pretty good. The second movie blew folks' doors off¾mine included. But in the second movie we had Connor being defended by the same Terminator who tried to kill him before he was even born, and protecting him from a seemingly indestructible foe. Here's the problem I had with this movie. In this movie we have Connor being defended by the same Terminator who tried to kill him before he was even born, and protecting him from a seemingly more indestructible foe, all the while trying to prevent "Judgment Day" ¾like in the last movie. See what I'm saying? This movie is too much like the last one, and franchise series should attempt to wrap up the story or try to further the story by introducing new elements. This film didn't do either, but it did set us up for another installment. Didn't throw many curves at me, but it was pretty well done and not hard to look at all, especially new comer Kristanna Loken as the "Terminatrix," just a bit disappointing to me.
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