If it looks like a Terminator, walks like a Terminator, and talks like a Terminator, then it must be a Terminator, right? Not when a new creative team takes over the franchise from its original creators. Jonathan Mostow's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines replicates much of the surface qualities of James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. They made a clone, but left behind the soul -- T3 is T2 without the heart, spirit, and humanity.

Surely the film's star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, doesn't mind. The Terminator has always been his best role, and the Austrian muscleman would want to end his Hollywood career (he has stated his intentions to move into the realm of politics after this movie) by reminding us why. He can still play the matter-of-fact robot perfectly, his face never flinching from its singular expression. Unfortunately, the script gives him nothing new to do, and Schwarzenegger ends up merely    reminding us of glorious days past. Cameron brilliantly transitioned his Terminator character from ruthless villain in his first movie to cold-yet-loveable protector in the second -- scenes of the protectees' attempts to mold his personality were amusing, ironic, and original. The Terminator became a character; in Terminator 3, he's just retread.

In fact, everything about the new movie shouts "retread." The introduction of the rival Terminators -- the original (Schwarzenegger) and new female model T-X (Kristanna Loken) -- is similar to the last movie. The T-X's personality resembles Robert Patrick's T-1000 from T2 -- and no attempt emerges to play on the variation of this new version being  female. We get lots of chases, gunplay, and explosions. We see a chase scene involving a large vehicle with 10 wheels or more. We view moments of rest between chases where the Terminator and his two objects of protection, John Connor (Nick Stahl) and Kate Brewster (Claire Danes), talk about what's going on. Everything feels so . . . obligatory.

I believe the filmmakers put most of their efforts on giving the audience a great showdown spectacular. This movie isn't really about John's attempts to stop the end of the world -- it's not even about a good storyline in the first place, since it inexplicably turns John into some kind of a wimp and falls back on that deplorable Hollywood tendency to generate paranoia over the misunderstood computer virus. It's about original Terminator vs. T-X, both getting ready to rumble. Loken does her best Patrick impression, Arnold is Arnold, so let the bullets fly and the loud, random destruction commence. In all fairness, the action scenes are well-made --  I could even argue for Terminator 3 being mostly enjoyable purely as an action movie were it not for the fact that it's expected to carry the load from the previous Terminator flicks. 

And what a weight that is. Terminator 2 practically exhausted its viewers' reservoir of emotions, eliciting fear, laughter, anger, sadness, despair and hope. Far from just a mindless action flick, T2 had depth and a point-of-view. It presented the most bleak scenario and gave us hope as the weapon. By showing us how a robot could, through the course of human interaction, understand the importance of emotions, it rooted for human love and compassion in the face of the human tendency to coldly exploit new technologies for potentially destructive purposes.

Terminator 3 lacks all this. And it feels unnecessary because T2 already featured the perfect ending to the story. Does T3 give its audience more insight to the issues already dealt with in the last movie? At best, the new movie ignores what was said in its predecessor and offers viewers mostly harmless action. At worst, it actually overturns the statements made in T2. It's as if T2 was an old ruling that a new Supreme Court, consisting of the people who replaced Cameron and crew, has been asked to overrule. I've never felt the air go out of the tires of a franchise as drastically as I did by the finish of T3.

Remember how Terminator 2 practically made us cry over a robot? When Arnold said, "I know now why you cry, but it's something I can never do," and when he descends and gives us that last thumbs up... man, I'm tearing up just thinking about it. Compare that to the exit he makes in Terminator 3, where he's just disposable. Is the new movie telling us  everything T2 made a case for was a sham? That we should wake up and accept the coldness of the world? If it is, I don't want to hear it.

(Released by Warner Bros. and rated "R" for strong sci-fi violence and action, and for language and brief nudity.)

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.