FILM REVIEW - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Moving straight on to Terminator 2. The sequel was released 7 years after the first film, in 1991. This was due to the fact that James Cameron felt that the technology needed to do what was his original idea for the Terminator film, didn’t exist in 1984 and so he was able now to capture the idea that he first had.
The film starts very much in the same way, with flashes of lightning and figures emerging from the future with an agenda that no-one knows. Cut to a young boy, John Connor, whose mother Sarah is now in an asylum for raving about her experience with the Terminator in the first film. Naturally, no-one believes her. As her son is put in the crosshairs of the two travellers from the future, she steps up in full badass mode, to protect her son. There is a twist in the story, however, which I won’t give away, but it seems that John Connor, from the future, has once again sent back someone to protect him and his mother, setting the stage for a showdown of epic proportions.
So once again, I have to give it to Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger for their performances as Sarah and the Terminator respectively. However, this entire film belongs to Robert Patrick. His role as the T-1000 was iconic, arguably more so than Schwarzenegger’s from the first film. There seems to be a general consensus that most sequels never even come close to the original, but T2 is one of the few films that surpasses its predecessor.
The ideas explored in the first film are still very prevalent in the second, however, I guess there is a sense of repetition in the general premise of the film. Granted the twists and turns of this story do make for better watching, but in terms of the actual plot development, one could argue there wasn’t much. Saying that there is no denying that this film was even more iconic than its predecessor.
The music was again very good and completely appropriate for the film. I agree with Cameron’s decision to make this film later because the graphics are so much better and needed when it comes to T-1000. I’d say that genre of the film differs from the first one, in that, it’s less a horror and more sci-fi and action-driven. Overall, this is one of my favourite films of all time and the reason that I could never hate on Arnold’s acting, *cough* Mr Freeze *cough*.
Rating:
Story:★★★★½
Acting: ★★★½
Cinematography: ★★★★★
Music: ★★★½
Enjoyability: ★★★★½