FilmBlather.com

"Your levity is good. It relieves tension and the fear of death."

While James Cameron has been putzing around making documentaries about the Titanic and producing episodes of crappy television series, he has been replaced on the franchise that made him a name, and his absence is barely even missed. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, directed by genre genius Jonathan Mostow, is maybe the best pure action movie since... well, since Terminator 2. Months of disheartening buzz around this second sequel have turned out to be for naught; at just under two hours, the fast, funny, heartstoppingly suspenseful blockbuster plays like forty-five minutes.

This, despite the fact that T3 is more or less a rehash of its immediate predecessor. John Connor, somewhat matured and now played by Nick Stahl, is again the target of an advanced Terminator sent back through time, though the "T-X," materializing in the form of a female (Kristianna Loken), now has a list of other targets, including Kate Brewster (Claire Danes), Connor's future wife and first lieutenant in the fight against the conquering machines. Again they are rescued in the nick of time by an obsolete Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), whose program commands him to protect them at all costs.

A familiar series of desperate chase scenes and fights ensues, though the three runaways are outmatched by the far more capable killing machine chasing them. There is, however, more to the story: T3 promises to detail the beginnings of, appropriately enough, the rise of the machines, as SkyNet, the advanced artificial intelligence built by the US government to act as a defense system, seizes control of the nation and attacks. Brewster's father (David Andrews) is a high-ranking general who is reluctant to release SkyNet into the world but is pressured to do so when a powerful virus cripples every network in the country.

There is no other way to put it: Jon Mostow is incredibly good at what he does. As an action filmmaker, he is second only to Cameron himself, and rapidly gaining at that. His instincts are just dead on, and thus there is never a false moment; the pacing is perfectly calculated, the editing keeps the action sequences completely lucid, and the movie builds suspense at a remarkable rate. There is inherent tension in seeing our heroes being chased by an implacable, indestructible villain (and inexplicably even more so when the villain is a villainess), but countless Hollywood filmmakers could have made it into glum, confused mishmash. Mostow is unpretentious, high-spirited, and singularly effective.

High-spirited? Yes, actually. T2 had its share of cyborg jokes, but T3 cheerfully unleashes wagonloads of them, from the way Ah-nuld obtains his "Cloooz" to his newfound knowledge of basic human psychology. Somehow, this doesn't break the tension even a little bit; we expect this from the Terminator franchise, and they fit nicely into the movie's lean frame. The best Ah-nuld lines of all time are definitely waiting for you here.

The ending. There will be controversy about the ending. I am fairly crazy about it. The minor plot twist is a satisfying surprise that works on an emotional level and, by not copping out of the inevitable, goes a long way to further the mythology of the franchise. The beauty of the Terminator backstory is that it's really a forward-story: villains and heroes keep time-traveling from the future, so there is clearly a lot of ground remaining for new films to cover.

The idea of the T-X manifesting itself as a ridiculously attractive woman isn't exactly a flash of brilliant inspiration, but it works well here, mostly because model-turned-actress Kristianna Loken has such a steely presence; she might be the creepiest hot chick I've ever seen. Nick Stahl, arguably selling out after a career filled with indie credits, fills in nicely for the generally MIA Edward Furlong, and a strangely unrecognizable Claire Danes replaces the even more MIA Linda Hamilton as the female hero.

But this is really Mostow's movie. With the awesomely tense Breakdown, the underrated U-571 and now this flawlessly executed summer action extravaganza, he is carving out a name for himself as one of our leading genre film wizards. While I'd love to see him take on something more heady, he is serving a very important purpose exactly where he is, keeping these projects away from Michael Bay, Rob Cohen and other Hollywood slice 'n dice hacks.