Rent Terminator 2: Judgement Day on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: James Cameron, William Wisher
Directed by: James Cameron
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick, Joe Morton, Xander Berkeley
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor in 1984, must now protect her ten year old son, John Connor, from a more advanced and powerful cyborg.
Verdict
It's an amazing action movie. It's a similar plot to the first movie, but it builds on it, playing with expectations. The groundbreaking effects then aren't bad at all even after all these years. A liquid metal villain is a cool idea, and this movie does it complete justice. No other movie can attempt a character like that now. This even manages character development between action set pieces, and those action scenes are a lot of fun.
Watch it.
Review
The Terminator is a great sci-fi thriller. The sequel pushes the action genre forward.
There are three different versions of this movie. The theatrical is the best and shortest, the director's cut is the worst and longest. I watched the extended cut which is a few minutes longer than the theatrical.
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| Edward Furlong and Arnold Schwarzenegger play John and T-100. |
This has a great opening, much like the first one with two men appearing in a ball of electricity. This one does try to be more humorous which I don't like. The T-100 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has a fun introduction, but it's tongue in cheek. Parts of this movie feel like it's geared to be more mainstream. It's clear this movie has a bigger budget. There's money to buy a licensed song, "Bad to the Bone." This isn't hiding the fact that Arnold plays a cyborg. If you hadn't seen this movie you'd assume he is the bad guy. It's clearly an intentional misdirection. Which of these guys is bad? In the first movie the Terminator drove a cop car. In this movie the T-1000 drives a cop car.
The action is great. The moment the two Terminators encounter John turns into a shootout that becomes a car chase. That culminates in the T-1000 walking out of a burning semi-truck, much like the first movie with a T-100 walking out of fire. This time there is no safe moment.
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| Robert Patrick plays T-1000. |
Sarah (Linda Hamilton) is hard core, much different than when we saw her in the first movie. This sequel features a mother son relationship. Cameron did a family type plot point in Aliens, another sequel. The movie makes a point to develop the characters. Sarah reconciles hating terminators and now being helped by one. John now has a father figure in the T-100. This sets up a lot of moments that pay off later. The bond between the T-100 and John leads to the final scene and an iconic thumbs up.
Part of the sub-plot is the T-100 learning to act more human. In the extended and director's cut there is a specific scene that resets his hard drive read-write capabilities. Unless there's a lot happening off screen, the movie takes a few liberties with how much he learns as there are quite a few things we don't see him learn. The extended versions of the movie add scenes that explicitly tell us what we can already deduce. There also scenes towards the end that show the T-1000 slightly vulnerable
The effects were amazing at the time, and they still look really good. Cameron wanted a liquid terminator in the first movie, but the technology wasn't advanced enough. This movie is packed with big action set pieces and plenty of one liners. It's a quintessential action movie. Despite that, I still like the first one better because it's grittier and darker.
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