What did you think watching the young and intense John Conner in T2? His iron willed mother?

Ahem, having saved the world anonymously in T2, the adult John Conner tries to kill himself drunk driving and inept as he is at it he tries to be a junkie for a change. He's so strongly hit by paranoia that he keeps off the computers and lives off the grid. He still cannot shake off the dreams about machines taking over the world. Talk about being a junkie! Then one day he repeats history by hacking a veterinarian's hospital and the story begins.

Somehow the director and story writer lost hope and decided that they should just try to make some money. Or maybe they saw matrix movies (Later about that). That is what the movie seems to be about. So we have a junkie teamed up with a veterinarian, as the hope of mankind, who provide the humor for this movie. Funny lines like "talk to the hand" don't give the effect but you have to see the way Terminator keeps snubbing John Conner and occasionally pulling his ear to make sure that the guy will grow up to be the leader of the resistance. Nick Stahl fits to the T as John Conner, if you manage to listen to the dialogs, not action and keep in mind the storyline of previous Terminator movies. Some funny dialogs of the movie go like this...

(First contact) Terminator: "John Conner! It is time!" John(half dazed on dog pills): "Are you going to kill me?"
(Two hours away from Armageddon) John: "Why don't you respond to my commands?"
Terminator: "Because you are dead". John(sullen): "Too bad! Can I atleast ask how"?
Terminator: "I terminated you". Our man maintains silence.

Do you really want to know why? Wifey Kate Brewster doesn't want future hubby to command terminator even from the time they know they are going to be married! Like T2 where Sarah Conner is in-charge and makes the serious attempt to kill off research at CyberDyne, here too history repeats itself. Here comes the truth. Terminator was never in the business of stopping future. Remember that Sarah goes on her own to kill the researcher? Terminator relents only after commanded. He knows that nothing can be changed and this time tells that directly to John and Kate in vain. He was always redirected by masters when he travels back to the present.

Well, the action scenes are typical and studiously avoid slickness. Director attempts to repeat almost all the interesting scenes of previous films. By the time you recover from the demeanor of John Conner, you will miss enjoying some early good action. John Conner's characterization sorely disappoints and this is the major weakness of the movie. Terminator looks a bit more human than before. SkyNet is too eager to nuke humans. What about electricity after Armageddon? Couldn't SkyNet think of starting off a production line of Machines before firing off? Terminatrix starts off like in Sophie Dahl's song and doesn't look as menacing as T1000. But for the life of me I cant figure out why terminatrix has to morph into Kate Brewster and shout daddy when she could have killed Papa Brewster the way she is. Just forget the fact that she never touched Kate and so would not have been able to morph into her. The psychiatrist returns to provide some humor in what is an uninteresting repeat of T2's action scene. There is no dark brooding over future and pondering over life and artificial life as in T2. What is interesting about this movie series is that it tries to be the prequel to Matrix series.

For those of you who watch Tales from the Crypt and like dark humor... John tries to figure out timelines and comes up with this gem. In T2, the day before Terminator whisks him away to safety, he makes out with Kate. If the fight over future didn't erupt, John says, he would have been with Kate from then on. At the end of T2, they end up in a basement with all the time for themselves as Mojave desert sustains serious nuclear fallout.

Can Fate not be changed? This summer's Two big Sci-Fi Flicks bring forth this question. Terminator series merges with Matrix and Matrix edges towards Thirteenth Floor. If you still didn't figure it out, remember Neo stopping the sentinels in the 'real' world? Heard what the Councilman asks Neo?

My advice: watch T3 for the dialogs and if you really are a Sci-Fi buff, try thinking of what john said about timelines. Watch it twice to really enjoy it.

T1000 is gone. Mad yahoo as you are, and how ever pissed off you are over the loved one, you will know the truth in the future. Here I am smoking and waiting.

-krk