Terminator 2: Judgment Day

This is total overkill in several filmmaking disciplines that hasn't been knocked into the dust by time or silicon by better-refined followers. It's all been said about it already, but the unwritten Cameronian dictum that action scenes must serve the story and not the other way around ages like a fine wine with every unnecessary megabyte of data generated, and it's a wonder that there haven't been many action blockbusters that work on a similar principle in the twenty-six years since. Personally, I'll always prefer the uneven trench warfare of planetoid LV-426, but I still very much understand why this fully holds up in the genre battle even after blowing away all the nostalgic overlay in this millennium. This will survive judgment day because it's... (see the beginning of my comment). (10/01/2017)

The best action movie ever made. It’s got exactly the right amount of everything. Action and emotions are marvelously worked into a fantastic story which paints a chilling picture of the future. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who this time is on the other side of the barricades than in part one, gives the best performance of his acting career. The special effects are perfect (decent even for today’s standards) and maybe that’s why the runny Robert Patrick is even more terrifying than his predecessor. Terminator 2 is one of the movies that changed the history of cinema. It’s embedded deep in everybody’s memory and will remain there for many years to come. My personal Top 20. (11/20/2006)

The second installment of The Terminator was the pinnacle of Cameron's career at the time, mainly because he managed to completely refine the script into the perfect crowd-pleaser. In his previous three films (Piranha II doesn't count), you can feel that he had to force a lot of things and therefore they felt more auteur, idiosyncratic, and innovative. In Judgement Day he already knew exactly what to add, what to trim, what to emphasize, what to cut. It's technically competent, but what can we say, it lacks heart. Suddenly we've got comic figures, a badass villain, would-be on-the-spot musings about humanity, and an jacked-up Linda Hamilton whose character is pretty much written as a militant feminist for no other reason than Cameron had been getting big props thus far for how he'd been working with female protagonists and their abilities to make it in a man's world. After all, he himself said in the 80s that he himself doesn't understand how the film industry can ignore the 50% of moviegoers who are still 80% deciding which film to see. (11/28/2017)

What can I say other than praise. Right from the first viewing, I encountered an extended version, and those 154 minutes are absolutely unique at first sight. I've never liked Arnold as much as here, and Cameron's explosive ego I accept without question. Exciting action, amazing tricks, one of the best villains I've ever seen, and the Terminator reloading a shotgun with one hand. (05/24/2006)

Because The Terminator was a clear success with the audience and the revenue was, in one word, magnificent, the production studio decided to use its reputation to make a sequel, which was handled by almost the same crew as in the case of the first one, with the exception that William Wisher Jr. helped Cameron with the screenplay instead of Anne Hurd. Both main characters were portrayed by the same actors as in the first film, with the addition of Edward Furlong alongside Linda Hamilton as the future leader of the human resistance against the rule of machines. This fourteen-year-old boy was chosen in an audition from 1,400 applicants and received an unbelievable 30,000 dollars for his role. Unlike the first film, the sequel had a significantly larger budget, which allowed Cameron to come up with the concept of the liquid Terminator, an idea he had already thought of in the first film. However, at that time, he could not realize the idea due to insufficient visual effects technology and a limited budget. Unlike the gritty and stylish first film, the sequel is considerably more mainstream, and the altered character of the Terminator reflects that. Audience favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger was no longer meant to be a tough killer, but a robot yearning to understand human emotions, effectively becoming a positive character. On the other hand, Linda Hamilton portrayed Sarah Connor as a woman marked by her past, who was significantly tougher and more cynical. The unique innovation was the T-1000 robot, for which Robert Patrick found his role of a lifetime. The special effects required an investment of 25 million dollars, but it was well worth it in terms of revenue. The screenplay once again played with a clever time loop and even utilized the remains of the original terminator from the first film. Given that the sequel is just a safe bet and lacks the originality and rawness of the first installment, my rating is slightly lower. The second film was a safe bet for the director and producers, albeit one lined with dollars and therefore grandiose. Overall impression: 75%. (01/18/2008)