Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
Image From IMDB
Terminator 2 could easily be considered one of the greatest Hollywood action films of all time. Maybe the true birth of CGI in big blockbuster movies (along with Jurassic Park) although, like Jurassic Park, T2 thankfully uses a hell of a lot of practical effects as well. If Terminator 1 is movie making at its finest, T2 is a Hollywood Blockbuster at its best.
There’s no need to go over the plot as it’s practically the same as the first (and you should have all seen both by now) but I will say that I like the fact that Arnie is the ‘good guy’ this time around. It was probably a concept that hadn’t been done a lot at the time, turning the previous antagonist into the protagonist, but it’s executed perfectly here from the introduction to the end result.
Having seen what the Terminator is capable off, the brutality and violence he can inflict, and then watching him bond and protect a child is pure movie magic. Schwarzenegger and Edward Furlong clearly have great chemistry, and it’s the heart of the movie. It represents more emotion than we might normally see in a James Cameron film, which are often concept and world building over character (that isn’t a knock by the way, I love either side of that)
The movie has too many cool action films from the mall shootout to the prison breakout. The bike chase. The whole sequence with Dyson and Cyberdyne. Everything looks and sounds amazing. The stunt work is second to none, and the witty dialogue (while lessening the serious tone the first instalment projected) only adds to the fun and adventure of every crazy sequence.
The effects at the time were revolutionary. Robert Patrick’s T-1000 was like nothing we’d ever seen before. It’s probably hard for a modern audience to grasp just how insane those special effects were at the time. With that said, i’ve always been a practical effects guy so I was pleased there was a ton of that too.
I have a friend who describes Terminator 2 as the best R-rated family movie ever made, and i’m going to go along with that. The movie feels Spielbergian or Joe Dante like with the family dynamics. The kid making friends with the alien (Terminator this time round) Teaching it how to be human. If it wasn’t for the loud action and violence the movie could easily sit alongside Gremlins, Goonies, and ET.
Terminator Two is one of those movie that will appear on everyone’s much watch list. Every video showing a retrospective of cinema will have at least one clip from Terminator Two. It’s engrained into pop-culture, and rightfully so. I’ll always prefer the first film, but they’re both perfect films in my eyes, just in different ways. If you want sci-fi action, this is the film. T2 is incredible, i’ll never hear any differently.
