Review of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) by Dillinger P — 19 Mar 2015

Most sequels never live up to the hype or recreate a true succession to its source material, Aliens example, is widely regarded as the best sequel of all time, which I dont agree with. But aside from Mad Max 2 and The Dark Knight, only one film really managed to take all the great elements of their predecessor and build on them in such an impressive way, broadening the scope of the source material, ramping up the action and fleshing out the characters.

That film was Terminator 2. With a much larger budget that the first one and an artistic freedom that the first film and Aliens allowed him, due to box office success, James Cameron goes to work here, remaking certain elements of the original to better fit his idea, while building upon the story massively.

John Conner, now a teenager, lives under the supervision of foster parents, his mum Sarah is locked away in a mental asylum for trying to blow up Skynet and rambling about a future robot war that nobody can really get their heads across.

This time 2 Terminators are sent back through time, one that has been reprogrammed to protect John and the other a new sophisticated killing machine that is made of liquid metal and can shape shift. As these 2 killing machines battle it out to achieve their goal John and Sarah must bring down Skynet once and for all, before its too late.

As I mentioned earlier, Cameron does go to great lengths to recreate some of the first movies elements, the future war for example is redone with all new shiney model work and live action practical effects, it actually looks and feels like a future that is possible.

Sarah voice overs the events of the first, rendering it needless as this film really can stand on its own 2 feet without it, Cameron also builds upon the films core ideas and really goes in depth with them this time around.

If the original was a mixed genre that opened our eyes, T-2 is is well refined new model. Parralelling the Terminators themselves, using their ability to not only highlight the shift in time but how redundant the original can be, in some comparissons to the newer, shiner model.

With the directors cut, the film is almost doubled in length, which gives us time, something the original lacked, allowing us to wrap our heads around what was going on, much like it refines its look and feel.

This is science fiction action at its finest. Its shiny, gory, the score is huge, it feels more human. Even with Conner's attempts to humanize the T-800, allow Arnold to be more than just a killing machine, while staying faithful to the source.

Arnold puts it a game changing performance and Robert Patrick as his nemesis is terrifying as the Liquid Metal fear machine, that just wont stay down. Patrick's mannerisms are perfect, for example when entering a new location he scans his field of vision from left to right, reading all the information he can, the way he runs after Conner with his hands in a pointed manner, makes him look like a preying mantis, even his ability to become vaguely emotional to convince people he is real is brilliant.

He manages to give of just the right amount of doubt throughout his perfomance and at points, you really feel like the trio are completely fucked. The main star of the show is Sarah, Linda Hamilton is now allowed to go to town with her acting chops, shes no longer some clueless woman thrust into a situation that makes no sense, she is a hardened warrior, fearing for the future and her sons safety.

She plays with her emotions to get what she wants and you can physically see she is a broken mess, trying to juggle everything as the world she tries to save just wont allow her. It's a huge leap forward for her in terms of character and although I wouldnt expect this level of depth in the original, he performance here makes that look shambolic.

The action is the film is, for its time and even to this day, epic! Dont worry if you liked your relentless chase sequence from the original, this movies exposition comes while characters move from set piece to set piece, each on growing in scale and horror.

The car and bike chases are outstandingly huge, helicopter chases, swat teams, mini gun rampages, 2 machines battering the shit out of each other. It goes balls out here and you know all about it. Stan Winston is allowed to go to town using his effects team and his make up and effect work is flawless this time around, as Arnold progresses through the film we see him become more battered and bruised, Stan shows this perfectly, no more plastic looking model work, here its all face masks, make up and prosthetics and it looks stunning.

Cameron also has tightened the reign and allowed for a more focused and choreographed film. There are however some flaws, flaws that although may not have been such an issue at the time, certainly didnt age well.

Where to begin? Edward Furlong, although he does better than a lot of child actors, here his character is written with yet again typical James Cameron cheese, spouting lines like "Dickwad" and "Awesome" every five minutes.

Its cringe worthy to watch him teach the Terminator, look at it one way and its a master stroke of genius, but look at the language he teaches him, "Asta La Vista Baby" "Chill out" and "Dickwad".

It shatters the greatness going on here as Arnold just flat out repeats the lines in a comical dead pan fashion but its like Cameron didnt know that phrases like that only stick around for a year or so, making them redundant in future years.

Furlong is at his best however when Cameron writes his lines like an adult and here we get some great work between him and Arnold, as he tries to convince a machine that is solely built to kill to be a person.

Also, i'm sorry but it has to be said, for the time the liquid metal effects looked good but god dam, relying so heavily on them makes this film shamelessly dated. The effects were ground braking for the time, now however we are tugged straight out of the movie every single time Robert Patrick turns silver.

Its a minor gripe, I know, but it really is frustrating to compare Stan's work with the visual effects team and to note that CGI, just cant compare. Regardless, T-2 is a masterpiece, it broke our minds back in the day and today is hailed as one of the classics, mention Terminator to anyone older than 16 and if they had no idea what it was, it would be acceptable to slap them.

Although not as rugged as the original, this shiny new model, is more refined and intricate, much like its new antagonist.