Terminator 2: Judgement Day (James Cameron, 1991) Review

So it appears we've approached a film that is often considered the best. It's always up there (check IMDb for clarification) so I guess we have to hit this head on. I previously thought that the first Terminator was good however there were some flaws that stopped it from being one of the greats. A sequel can either hinder the film even more or improve on the mistakes prior. Judging by the response, you can guess which one this is. Let's take a look at Terminator 2.

After the failed attempted of assassinating Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton), another Terminator known as the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) is sent to kill Sarah's son John (Edward Furlong) instead. With Kyle Reese gone, the only person left to send back in time is the previous Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), however it is sent to protect John from T-1000 rather than kill Sarah. Now the Terminator, Sarah and John must set aside their differences to stop the T-1000 from succeeding.

As you can tell, the major difference (other than dropping 'The' from the title) is the role reversal. Now the Terminator is a protagonist rather than an antagonist. This was a great decision as, not only do we get to see more of him therefore developing the character, but we also grow to like the Terminator. The film is significantly longer which allows for more time to develop things further which is something I feel was lacking in the original.

This film takes more time to focus on more of the scare factor. Sure, this isn't a horror film but it's much more chilling than the first mainly due to the T-1000 and Robert Patrick's great performance. Arnie was clearly a robot but Patrick's T-1000 is more covert and manages to blend in insanely well which gives a feeling of paranoia since it could be anyone. More time and effort was put into this film and this quality of writing, casting and performances clearly shows that (why hasn't Robert Patrick done more stuff like this?).

Terminator 2: Judgement Day is a much improved sequel. It develops more of what the original film helped created and then some, it shifts the tone a bit to add more suspense and tension, there are some very memorable performances such as Arnie and Robert Patrick and the narrative gives the original a run for it's money. I can see why people but this so highly on the top movie lists. It's easily one of the best sequels of all time, that's for sure.

Verdict:
9/10
An improvement of the problems of the original as well as additional content that raises the bar while it's at it.



I also hate to be "that guy" but we hit 30,000 page views!.....I'm sorry....