It's been a long time coming but I'm finally going to talk about the movie I most remember from my youth, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It's the movie I've seen probably more then any other, the movie that I always looked forward to seeing even if I'd seen it 3 times earlier that week, and a movie that I'm finally talking about cause I really don't have much to say, but I'll try. Much like when I reviewed Star Wars it's hard to say things that everyones already said time and time again.
*Spoilers*
The story of Terminator is about how artificial intelligence manifests into a global threat and a nuclear war ensues cause the AI doesn't trust humans. John Connor is the leader of the human resistance and teaches the survivors how to fight back and win against the machines. The machines get smart and send a Terminator back in time to kill John Connor's mom so that he won't exist. Thats the first movie, and really this one except the machines are trying again. This time with a better Terminator and when John is a boy. The humans are sending someone back to be John's savior. The first time it was a resistance fighter, now it's a captured Terminator.
Much has happened between the first and second movie. The remains of the first Terminator are being studied and are forming the basis of what will now become the AI that declares nuclear war. Sarah Connor from the first film, meek and average has toughened up considerably and got thrown in a mental hospital for attempting to destroy a computer factory thinking it would have a hand in the future war. John is now born and growing up in a foster home where he doesn't get along with the mom or dad. By this point both Terminators, each with robotic efficency have obtained clothes, weapons and knowledge of where John may be. One will kill John and the other will be his savior.
Looking back there are all those little things that I loved about the movie like how if you didn't see any previews for the movie or didn't read the back of the box, you'd be surprised to find Arnold is the hero this time, having been the villain previously. Steely and cold Robert Patrick is the villain here. The scene where John is cornered between the two of the Terminators you wonder WHO is the good guy, till Arnold tells John to get down and allows Arnold to pummel his opponent with repeated shotgun fire. It does also make me think why this movie and the first are loved and the third is loathed. The talk of how time and time travel is played with and what it means. Can you make a better world by killing someone even though it can prevent millions of deaths? Is there no fate but what we make? As far as playing around with time, heres some that I never hear mentioned. Did the resistance get the Terminator to the time machine first and reprogram him fast enough cause they knew the Cyborgs were going to try again at killing John in the past? How long did the Machines go till they realized that the first Terminator failed in it's mission before they tried again at another go at this plan? Why do people say that all the evidance of Terminator's is gone at the end of the movie, and there shouldn't have been any more movies when Arnold is missing one of his arms at the end and we don't see it destroyed?
I gotta talk about Robert Patrick here for a second. This guy plays the role of the T 1000 so evil, you REALLY want to see this guy lose, and HOW he's going to lose. Instead of being a regular Terminator like Arnold, which is just living human skin covering an armorded skeletal body, Patrick is made out of a liquid metal alloy. Shoot him with shot guys, his holes seal themselves. Split his head in half, it comes back together again. His shape changing ability comes in handy as he gets into places disguised as others or attempts subterfuge and his shape changing comes into play in another way, his arms can form knives, hooks and other tools and weapons making him deadly. You can fill him full of holes, burn him in a car wreck and even shatter him, but he IS going to come back and get you. He has forever in my mind become a classic movie villian.
The movie has a desolate look to it. If it isn't the sterile and silvery look of the computer labs and hospitals, it's all the dirt and dust on the highways. A lonely and sterile world. Nothing to look forward to. The special effects to me are the measuring stick by how and how good effects will look. Even today, the effects look great. When I got a bluray player, this was my first movie cause I needed to see the effects in this movie looking as best as they can.
It's also worth noting that this movie along with another James Cameron classic, Aliens has a special edition that does help the movie. Not as MUCH mind you but it helps. We see how the Terminator's brain works, how he eerily smiles, Sarah getting abused in the hospital and that the T 1000 CAN be hurt. I must say that after seeing the movie as many times as I have and then seeing these added in years later I didn't care for many of them but can see why they are put in. We see another reason why Sarah needs to escape the hospital. Reprogramming the Terminator helps John step more into the role he is meant for and even the T 1000 malfunctioning shows that he CAN be hurt. Seeing the T-1000 being damaged I honestly didn't like since it took an otherwide nearly unbeatable foe and brought him down a peg, but I will still maintain that Cameron with his movies is a much better master at reincorporating deleted scenes for a better emotional impact of story cohesion then Lucas who just keeps adding junk for the sake of adding, well junk that does nothing and hurts the moive. Kicking Lucas is passe, so I'll move on.
Some people consider the first film superior for it's colder and more violent nature and higher drama with the characters being in a more perilous predicament. Some people don't like this movie cause it's flashier and lacks the freshness of the first. I think Terminator 2 keeps plenty of drama on the characters, expands it to show an impeding nuclear war and like the first, keeps the threat large. I like them both, but I grew up on this one, and love this one more.
