Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines - 12

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If ever a man was true to his word, it must be Arnold Schwarzenegger. After declaring he'll be back in ...

If ever a man was true to his word, it must be Arnold Schwarzenegger. After declaring he'll be back in the first two Terminator movies, the big man indeed returns in the third cyborg showdown of the series. And this time around he's fighting a girl. She's a lass, however, who turns out to be the advanced Terminator model, the deadly T-X, sent back in time to kill the future rebel leader John Connor aka Nick Stahl. Entrusted with the mission to keep Connor and another rebel-in-the-making Clare Danes alive, Arnie's now obsolete T-101 machine goes into battle with his superior adversary on the day when the Skynet system of machines are due to launch its first attack on humanity. And for all its clanging symptoms of sequalitis, "T3" proves to be well-crafted, rollicking fun. Considerations about plot and the complexities of time travel are gaily chucked out of the window - the apocryphal Judgement Day supposedly averted in "T2," for example, turns out to have been only 'postponed' - and the humour level is upped dramatically to the point of near parody. But who cares about such planet-sized plot holes and cheap laughs when out-and-out destruction is the name of the game in a series of high-speed chases, exploding police cars and fearsome robotic fisticuffs that will make even the most cynical of pop-corn stuffing souls cheer with delight. And while it's not a patch on James Cameron's truly memorable and groundbreaking first two Terminator flicks, the movie's surprisingly bleak but effective ending rounds off the mechanical mayhem nicely.

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