What better way to celebrate the Independence Day weekend than an apocalyptic super-action flick that is the third in a trusted and beloved franchise?

The reviewer for the Atlanta paper brushed T3 aside with the comment that it "is all about bruiser vehicles" and that it is a big-screen version of "World's Scariest Police Chases."

That's not true, but even if it were, so what? What guy doesn't love to see smash 'em up car chases with everything from hearses to construction behemoths?

Still, the movie really is much more, and if you like the Terminator franchise then you'll feel at home with this release, a dozen years after the sequel rocked audiences and the box office.

Though not as good as the first two, this one works on its own merits as a dumbed-down version with less focus on acting than the action scenes. Besides, you've already heard all the mumbo-jumbo about fate and future paradoxes, and there's just a little more here in revelation about how the entire kit and caboodle of the war begins.

Every other sentence in the first half-hour is foreshadowing and play on words, but thankfully something blows up quickly and you forget.

The talk here about the future and whether John Connor (played this time by Nick Stahl instead of Edward Furlong) can save humanity is merely an interlude for the audience to catch its breath until Arnold Schwarzenegger and the ultra-cyborg, Terminatrix (Kristanna Loken) can get on their fight thang.

Stahl has been in a few indie flicks and roles you won't remember from In the Bedroom and The Thin Red Line, but he did really well. He puts on the best performance (again, if you care about acting in this kind of flick), which is important since he's humanity's best hope when Judgment Day arrives. No Linda Hamilton this time, either, so don't expect any mother-son bonding over the end of the world again.

Even Arnold tries his hand at a bit of acting when the "hard drive" of his "obsolete design" is corrupted, but it is really just awkward. Same goes for Claire Danes, who otherwise is likable and a good actress, but she has a few silly bits in the movie. OK, so that's not her fault, especially since there's much more to giggle about in the constant "saved in the nick of time" moments.

I can guarantee you haven't seen Kristanna Loken anywhere, but I bet you won't forget her after the first couple of minutes on screen as the near-indestructible T-X. Yowza. If machines look are all hot blondes in the future, count me in. Of course, that's assuming they're better than today's models and don't need to be rebooted and upgraded every year. I don't want my machine babes any more high maintenance than human babes.

Among the trivia on Internet Movie Database on Loken, it mentions that for her role she took mime to learn to communicate through facial expressions and body gestures. Good for her, because she doesn't say much. Not that it mattered. She's just supposed to stalk and kill people in wildly different fashions.

As a result, the movie is full of "ooh" and "whoa" moments as she and Arnold wreak havoc on an unsuspecting populace with total disregard for the law. Very cool.

No, T3 isn't a classic combat vehicle like T2 or even the original, but it has plenty of pop for the audience to stay focused, and it ends when it should. Some might debate the ending, even, but I loved it. Spot on ending for this franchise.