The Rise Of The Machines takes up the story some ten years after Terminator 2 and still focuses on the concept of Judgement Day when the machines attack the humans. John Connor, played by Stahl, has tried to live an anonymous life during that period but continues to be haunted by his memories of a future that may or may not happen. He breaks into a vets looking for drugs and is eventually overwhelmed by Kate Brewster, played by Danes, who is then in turn kidnapped into the adventure. Unbeknownst to the pair they are actually married in the future and bear offspring who play a major part in the Resistances eventual victory over the machines.
A new and technologically improved TX Terminator, played by Loken, has been sent back to the past to kill Connor and any of his potential lieutenants and in true Terminator style she arrives naked. It doesnt take her long to take the clothes and car belonging to a passing female motorist and she then sets off on her mission to destroy. It must be said that she makes a very interesting Terminator, with a skin-tight red leather outfit, a face that hides any emotion and an array of weapons that appear out of the end of her right arm.
Arnie returns as a T101 Terminator although he is not the same one as was lowered into the oblivion in T2. He is apparently just another T101 off the assembly line with similar thought processes but not the memories of the previous escapade. He too arrives naked and in what appears to be some homage to T2 goes to the Desert Star saloon to get some clothes. Fortunately it is Ladies Night and they all go nuts as Arnie parades nude through the crowd up to the stage to get clothes off the male exotic dancer. He leaves dressed in the usual Terminator black leather outfit and eventually finds the dark sunglasses he needs to complete the outfit.
The TX closes in on Connor but Arnie arrives just in time to save the day. In a spectacular crash scene he smashes the TX, allowing time for Connor and Brewster to escape although she is trapped in the back of the vets van. But the TX recovers and ends up smashing Arnie, leading to a chase scene that is an absolute pearler. Picture a large mobile crane zooming along suburban streets at a great rate of knots with Arnie hanging off the hook at the end. Then marvel at the way the TX turns the crane section at right angles to the truck to smash down a series of buildings, light poles and other assorted bits and pieces in an attempt to get Arnie off. It is a lovely variation on the huge tow truck used in T2 and ends in an amazing crash.
Arnie gets away to join Connor and Brewster as they head for Connors mothers burial site where Arnie smashes open the crypt to reveal a coffin filled with all sorts of guns and other weapons. The Police arrive to try to stop the Brewster kidnap but after a fierce firefight and another run in with the TX she ends up going off with Arnie and Connor. They stop to gather their thoughts so Arnie tells them that Judgement Day is set to happen in about three hours. Brewsters father turns out to be the man responsible for Skynet, the huge computer system designed to protect the US from the threat of missile attack. Little do Brewsters father and the rest of the military know that Skynet is the real enemy as it becomes self-aware and turns on its makers.
By the time Arnie and the crew get to Kates dad it is too late. Skynet has been turned on and sets in motion a nuclear attack that ends up killing 3 billion people and allowing for the rise of the machines as the dominant force. Kate and Connor flee to the Crystal Peak mountain, a thermonuclear fallout shelter buried deep beneath the rock. Arnie and the TX fight along the way and eventually only Connor and Brewster make it to safety to live to fight another day as the two Terminators destroy each other. In the aftermath of the bombs Connor finds himself as the man in charge, leaving us to ponder what might come in T4.
Usually I am not a big fan of movies that can be seen to be made simply to whet the appetite for the sequel, but this one only leaves the smallest degree of regret when it closes. I wonder how much of the disappointment is really about the end of a good action flick and how much is because there is more to come and I wanted it then? Either way or in combination I quickly turned to the positives out of this movie.The story runs along at a fair clip and held my interest throughout. There are enough references back to T2 to bring back fond memories  the outfits, the sunglasses, the way Arnie can shoot so many rounds without hurting humans, the tow truck homage, the appearance of the psychiatrist from T2, the use of Ill be back, the humour, etc., etc.. There are plenty of laughs, plenty of special Terminator moments for the enthusiast and the special effects are really well done. Even the music fits with the whole thing and adds to the experience.
There are some who might bag the whole thing as just a poor example of when people dont know when to give up on an idea. Some will argue it has no individual merit and stretches the storyline to its limits. I liked it for itself, while recognising that is not the greatest piece of art ever. I will be waiting for T4 but now that Arnie is the Governor of California that may take a while. I will have the first three movies to play with until then.

THE EXTRAS

There are a raft of goodies on the main disk and there are even more things on the bonus disk. On the main you can choose the audio, subtitles, scenes, whether to have a commentary over the movie with the Director and all the main players or just the Director and watch all the trailers. There is the T3 teaser trailer, the theatrical one and one for the video and PC games. In a bit of cross-promotion you can see the trailers for S.W.A.T. and Charlies Angels Full Throttle, both of which gave the sound system a real workout.
The bonus disk has a wealth of stuff on it too. There is a documentary on the film with each of the main cast members giving insights into their roles and how they approached them. It is obvious that these people and Director Mostow understood that they were dealing with a classic film and that they had a huge responsibility to maintain the high standards set by their predecessors. We get to see some to the out-takes from filming, how the visual effects were put together, information on the Skynet database and a pretend advertisement for Skynet in which Arnie plays Sergeant Candy. Candy is a big wrap for Skynet and its machines going so far as to claim that Skynet will actually make war safe again. This disk has an absolute heap of great information and is well worth a look when you get the set.

CONCLUSION

The older-style Arnie Terminator attempts to complete his mission to protect John Connor from the new and deadly female TX Terminator in the build up to Judgement Day. Follow their attempts to stop the computer software Skynet from destroying the very humans that created it in ORDER to supplant them with the array of machines that want to rule the world.