Review of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) by Victor T — 09 Jul 2014

Having already proved that he can make a sequel that is arguably better than the original with "Aliens", now the challenge is to outshine the film that Cameron owes his entire career: "The Terminator".

Following the events of the first Terminator, set up in the 90's, John Connor is now 10 years old living with foster parents, Sarah Connor is in a mental hospital because of a failed attempt to blow up a computers factory to prevent Skynet creation. Skynet sends a new Terminator, model T-1000 back in time to kill John but also arrives from the future, a Terminator model T-800 to protect him.

Arguably one of those sequels that are better than the original, T2 is a phenomenal action film that really ties in with its predecessor in the story aspect, also having cool and memorable sequences, great camera work and quotable dialog. The acting is amazing, Robert Patrick's creepy but awesome T-1000, Arnold's intentionally unemotive hero and Linda Hamilton's strong female character. Improving the magnitude of the story, the character development, action sequences and the special effects, which despite the fact that they are more than 20 years old they hold up, those being the reasons why the film has the good reputation it has in the history of sequels.

With all that been said, I dont consider this better than the original for a number of reasons: Unlike "Aliens", where Cameron made a gigantic jump from the original "Alien", T2 actually follows most of the formula of the first Terminator, with some new elements, I expected more creativity form Cameron. One of the elements that I loved in the first Terminator is the changes of genre and T2 never changes form the action genre, the plot could have been shorter, it felt like they wanted to stretch the film to 2 and a half hours and that John Connor who is the main plot element, sometimes feels like a burden and he is almost useless.

Overall, this is one of the greatest sequels ever made, a worthy one for the first Terminator film. A fun and enjoyable film. A must see in the action genre.