So, figured I would get one more post in before Christmas comes round and this one will be on yet another Arnie film and this one is of course Terminator 2 (or T2 if you like) which is the mega budgeted sequel to the original. So, this post will be a revisit of my previous post, which was also a revisitation of the much older original one.
So, with that said, let's load up and see how T2 fairs after 32 years...
And the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
STORY
OK
starting with the usual stuff the story of the film begins back in
1995, where John Connor (Edward Furlong) is just a 10 year old boy, who
at this time lives in Los Angeles with his foster parents. John's
mother Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) however has been sent to an asylum
after she tried to blow up a computer factory, and is monitored by Dr
Silberman (Earl Boen) from the first film.
Skynet in the future, still set on destroying the resistance, sends a new terminator back in time to kill the young John Connor, the terminator, a T-1000 model, is far more advanced than the T-800 model, which is composed of liquid metal and can imitate anyone it comes into contact with, as well morph its hands into stabbing weapons. The T-1000 (Robert Patrick) assumes the identity of a police officer, and starts to track down John, but at the same time, the future resistance send back an older T-800 model Terminator (Arnie) to protect John.
Both terminators eventually track John to a
mall, and they end up both fighting each other, with John barely escaping
on his motorbike. The T-1000 chases John in a truck along the freeway
and before he is run over, the T-800 rescues him, and shoots out one of
the truck's tyres, causing to crash and explode, but the T-1000 soon
emerges unharmed, as it morphs back into its normal form.
The
T-800 (or Terminator as I will call him from now on!) then explains to
John that his mission is to protect him and that he was sent by the
future John. The Terminator tells John that the T-1000 in attempt to
kill him, will wait for John to contact his mother, who he will assume
her identity and kill her. John orders the Terminator to help him avoid
Sarah from being killed, and they soon rescue her from the maximum
security hospital, as she was in the process of trying to escape
herself, but they are soon intercepted by the T-1000 who gives them
chase, but they escape.
John, Sarah and the Terminator then travel out south where Sarah meets with an old friend, Enrique (Castulo Guerra) who helped her during her resistance days. Sarah during their stay has a terrible nightmare about the nuclear holocaust of Judgment day and this pre-empts her to go after the man responsible for creating Skynet, Miles Dyson (Joe Morton). With the knowledge the Terminator has given Sarah, she travels out to Dyson's home and attempts to assassinate him, on entering his house however, on the verge of pulling the trigger, with Dyson's family around him, she can't bring herself to do it.
John and the Terminator
soon arrive once they realise what Sarah is doing, and they tell Dyson
about Judgment day and the future. Dyson agrees to go to Cyberdyne labs
with them to destroy his research, however they are soon surrounded by
police, and as the police breach the building, they shoot Dyson, who
holds the detonator, wired to blow up his research, on his dying breath
he lets it go, and blows the labs up.
John, Sarah and
the terminator manage to escape the Cyberdyne building, but they are
pursued by the T-1000 who chases them on the freeway, and they
eventually arrive at a steel mill, where they face the T-1000 in the
final final confrontation.....
THOUGHTS
After the sleeper success of the original Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day had quite
a bit to live up to, and for the most part it delivers on its promise
in doing so. At its time it was easily the most expensive film ever
made, budgeting at just under $100 million dollars, and CGI just in its
infancy, it proved to be one of the most groundbreaking visual films in
the last 30 years or so, which paved the way for computer imaged based
films since. In fact its probably safe to say that alot of films CGI
have paled in comparison ever since this film was released so that is
saying alot for how good the effects are.
Terminator 2 also is
definitely one hell of a thrill ride as
there are plenty of great action set pieces throughout the film, of
which some of the highlights are the first scene where John is confronted by the two terminators at the mall, the scene where Sarah tries to escape
the hospital and stumbles into the Terminator coming out the lift. And
of course one of the biggest set pieces is the police seige at the
Cyberdyne building, with the Terminator using a mini-gun to take out the
police cars (with zero human casulaties measured down to the decimal
point! (i.e. 0.0).
And if there
is one thing that has changed in the terminator universe in the 2nd
film then that is the added morality of the T-800 terminator being
re-programmed to protect John Connor, and John ordering it to not kill
anyone, and all of a sudden the terminator has become a tamer version of
its former self. But that's not to say the terminator still doesn't do
a fair amount of damage in the film, as he certainly does that, with
him throwing people through windows, stabbing them in the shoulders, or
kneecapping them with a gun, as well as blowing stuff up.
WARNING: BIG SPOILER MENTIONED BELOW!
The terminator
also takes on a father figure for John in T2 where its mission is to
protect John, which helps bridge the gap of
not having a dad in John's life, but in the end the Terminator admits to
John that its something he could never do, in which is one of the
film's rare poignant moments at the end when terminator gently consoles
John, before he sacrifices himself by lowering himself into the lava pit
in the steel mill.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers and strong language!)
As for the cast well things are
pretty good here overall.
Starting with Edward Furlong as John Connor, he does a pretty good job as the young cocky upstart, who despite his mischievious youth, realises the importance of his future existance and he also starts to take on a commanding position later in the film. Admittedly though at times Furlong can be a bit annoying little knob when he is being cocky, and telling the Terminator how to talk and sound cool among people, "and if you really wanna shine them on, then its "hasta la vista, baby!", but overall he does his part well.
Furlong also has some amusing moments such as the scene where John twigs that the Terminator has to obey his commands as the Terminator grabs him after telling its not a good idea to rescue Sarah from being killed by the T-1000.
So, in the scene, the Terminator says to John "The T-1000's next best chance of success would be to copy Sarah Connor and wait for you to contact her" and John asks "What happens to her?" and the Terminator says "Typically the subject being copied, is terminated". John shocked then shouts "Shit! Why didn't you tell me?! We have to go there right now!!". The Terminator then grabs John and says "Negative. It's not a mission priority" and John angrily hits him and says "Well, fuck you! She's a priority to me!" but the Terminator won't let go and John shouts "What's your problem?! Goddamn it!" and he calls out "Hey get this pyscho off me! Let me go!" and the Terminator does so and John asks "Why the hell did you do that?!" and the Terminator says "Because you told me to". John then realises "You have to do what I say, huh?" and Termiantor says "Its one of my mission parameters" and John says "Prove it, stand on one foot" and the Terminator does so and John says "YES!".
However, having called out, attracts the attention of two nearby jocks he tells one of them to "Take a hike, bozo!". And one of the jocks says "Fuck you, you little dipshit!" and John says in response "Dipshit?! You called "moi" a dipshit?" and he turns to the Terminator and says "Grab this guy!" and the Terminator grabs the jock by his hair, lifting him off his feet and John says "NOW who's the dipshit, you jock douchebag?!". However as the other jock tries to save him, the Terminator nearly kills the other one with a gun and John stops him and shouts "NO! Put that gun down NOW!!" which the Terminator does. So, as the two guys run off, John shocked says "Jesus, you were gonna kill that guy!" and the Terminator says "Of course. I'm a terminator". John however tells the Terminator "But you just can't go round killing poeple?" and the Terminator asks "Why?" and John "Because you just can't OK? Promise me on this!" and then he tells him "I'm gonna go and get my mom and I order you to help me!".
Another good scene is when the Terminator tries to fix one of the jeeps and John talks to him about growing up with Sarah on the road. So, John says of Sarah and her brief relationship with Kyle Reese (his father) "She still loves him I guess. I see her cry sometimes, but she totally denies it of course, like she's got something in her eye". The Terminator then looks up and asks John "Why do you cry?" and John says "I don't know. People cry, you know, like when it hurts". The Terminator get's up from under the jeep and asks "Pain causes it?" and John says "No, its like their is nothing wrong with you but you're hurt anyways. Get it?" and the Terminator says "No" and he tries the jeep and it starts up and John excited says "Alright, my man!" and Terminator says "No problemo". Then John tries to teach the Terminator how to do a high five and says "High five me! Alright!" and John does it first but the Terminator then high fives him back and John winces in pain "Alrighhhtt!".
Then there is the scene where John and ther Terminator having seen Sarah drive off abruptly, check the carving she made on the table that says "No fate". So, John says to himself "This is a messsage I made to memorise to give to her. So, the whole thing goes...the future is not set, there is no fate except what we make for ourselves". The Terminator then suggests "She intends to change the future" and John says "Yeah..." but then it dawns on him "Oh shit!" and Terminator says "Dyson" and John shocked says "Yeah, gotta be! Miles Dyson! She's gonna blow him away!" and he starts to run off "Come on, let's go! Come on, let's go! Come on!".
Then there is the scene where John and Dyson at Cyberdyne enter the safe and retrieve the original Terminator from the first film's cpu and remains of its hand. So, in the scene, John and Dyson enter the vault and Dyson tells John "Now to get that out all you need to do is..." and John suddenly smashes the containers open and takes them saying to Dyson "We've got Skynet by the balls now, don't we! Come on, let's book!".
And last of all is the scene where (SPOILER!!!) the Terminator decides that he must be destroyed as well after the T-1000 has been melted in the steel mill and John becomes very upset by this as the T-800 has been like a father figure to him.
So, in the scene after Sarah says "Its over", Terminator says "No. There is still one chip" and he points to his head and says "...and it must be destroyed also". John looks shocked by this and says "No. No! You can't!" and the Terminator says "I have to go away, John" and prepares to lower himself by grabbing a chain that dangles over the steel molten pit. John then grabs him and tearfully says "I order you not to go! I ORDER you not to go!" and the Terminator gently touches his face and says "I know why you cry, but its something I can never do" and the two of them hug for the first and last time.
Robert Patrick as the newly enhanced T-1000 model terminator
is perfect, as he plays the terminator almost like a cat, who is very
cool and detached, and his ability to move in a smooth and stealth like
manner, suits his ability to play the part perfectly in the film.
Patrick also has some good scenes such as the one where the T-1000 pays a visit to John's foster parents and asks them "Are you the legal guardian of John Connor" and John's foster dad, Todd says "Yeah, that's right officer. What's he done now?" and T-1000 says "May I speak with him please?" and Todd says "You would if he was here, but he took off on his bike an hour ago". T-1000 then asks "Do you have a photo of John?" and Janelle says "Yeah, one minute" and she goes off to get the photo. Todd then asks "What is this about?" and the T-1000 says "I just need to ask him a few questions" and Janelle gives him the photo and he says "He's a good looking boy. Do you mind if I keep this picture?" and Janelle says "No, go ahead". Janelle then says "There was someone here earlier looking for him" and Todd says "Yeah, a big guy on a bike. Is that something to do with this?" and the T-1000 looks up and says "No. I wouldn't worry about him. Thanks for your cooperation".
Then there is the scene where after John, Sarah and the T-800 give the T-1000 the slip, the T-1000 is approached by a police officer riding a bike. So, the officer stops to ask him "Are you OK?" and the T-1000 says "Fine" and looks at the bike "Say.... that's a nice bike!".
And last of all is the scene in the steel mill where the T-1000 corners Sarah as she fumbles to load her shotgun and shoot him and he swiftly knocks the shotgun away and impales Sarah's left shoulder with his finger turning into a sharp knive. So, the T-1000 tells her "Call to John" and he twists his finger causing Sarah to groan in pain and he says "I know this hurts, Call to John" and Sarah tries to resist. The T-1000 looks at her again and says "Call to John now!" and she looks at him and says "Fuck you!".
Linda Hamilton also gives
a fine performance once again as Sarah Connor, who by now has become
half crazed by her nightmares, and being imprisoned in a maximum
security hospital, when she desparately wants to protect her son and try
and end the nightmare that would become Skynet.
So, this time round the Sarah we see is a far cry from the one in the first film, as she has become a more hardened, physically stronger woman, Linda has her share of good scenes and amusing moment in the film comes in her first scene where she is doing pull ups in her cell and Dr Silberman, who is giving a tour of the hospital to some guests, say good morning to her through the speaker com, and she says "Good morning, Dr Silberman, how's the knee?" and Dr Silberman awardly says "Fine, Sarah".
Then there is the powerful scene which albeit is basically a retread of Reese's rant in the original film where we see a playback of a video tape of Sarah telling Silberman of her nightmare of Judgement day. And in the scene forewarns "Its not a dream its real! I know the date it happens and on 29th August 1997 its gonna feel pretty fuckin real to you too! Anybody not wearing two million sunblock is gonna have a real bad day, GET IT??!!". And she continues by shouting "You think your safe and alive? You're dead, him, you everybody!! Everything you see this whole place is GONE! You're the one living in a FUCKING DREAM, SILBERMAN! BECAUSE I KNOW IT HAPPENS! IT HAPPENS!!!".
Then there is the scene comes when Sarah tries to escape from the hospital and she knocks out one of the guards and hits Silberman's arm with a trunchoen. And Silberman painfully says "You broke my arm!" and Sarah spits back "There are 215 bones in the human body, that's one! Now don't move!" and she injects a syringe she stole into a bottle liquid drainer. Then as the scene continues, she holds Silberman hostage with the syringe pressed at his neck and she tells the staff to open the door to let her out. Silberman however weakly tries to persuade her to stop "You're no killer, Sarah, I don't believe you'll do it" but Sarah tells him "You know I believe it, Silberman. Everybody dies, so don't FUCK WITH ME!!".
Then we have the scene where Sarah infiltrates Dyson's house to assasinate him as she is poised outside with a sniper rifle, aiming through a scope as she watches Dyson work on his computer. However, just as she is ready to pull the trigger, Dyson's son rams a remote controlled toy car into his leg and he bends down and Sarah misses and shoots Dyson's computer screen and she then proceeds to shoot up the place and shoot Dyson in the shoulder.
And as Sarah runs in and points her gun at Dyson and his wife and son she says "Nobody fuckin move!" and she points to Dyson's wife "Down on the floor bitch! FUCKING DOWN NOW!" and she tells the boy to back away, who covers Dyson. Sarah then shouts at Dyson "Its all your fault, motherfucker! Its all your fault!" and Dyson shaking violently, having been shot in the shoulder asks "What?" and Sarah trembling herself says "I'm not gonna let you do it!". However Sarah can't bring herself to kill Dyson and she backs off against the wall and slides down on the floor tearfully.
Then there is the scene just after, where the Terminator and John arrive and the Terminator lays down the future events caused by Dyson's research. So, in the scene, Sarah narrates "Terminator laid it all down for Dyson. Judgment day, Skynet. Its not every day you learn you are responsible for the deaths of three billion lives. He took it pretty well" and Dyson shocked says "I think I'm gonna throw up!". Dyson then says to them "You're judging me on things I haven't even done yet. How are we supposed to know?". Sarah then scornfully says "Yeah right! How are we supposed to know? Fuckin men like you invented the hydrogen bomb! Men like YOU, thought it up! Men like you have no idea how to create something all you create is death and destruction..." and John interrupts shouting "MOM! We need to be a little more constructive here. I mean we still have to stop this from happening, don't we?".
Last of all is the scene where the T-1000 stabs Sarah in the shoulder in the steelworks and tells her to call John. So, in the scene after the T-1000 stabs Sarah, he tells her "Call to John" and Sarah in great pain defiantly says "No!" and the T-1000 twists his metal finger knive in and says "I know this hurts, Call John!" and Sarah resists and the T-1000 produces another sharp from a finger on his other hand and says to her "Call to John now" and Sarah looks at him and says "Fuck you!".
Earl Boen also makes another appearance as Dr Silberman, and he provides a fair bit of amusement as the smarmy criminal psychologist, who does everything he can to keep Sarah down.
And I will mention two of Boen's scenes incuding his first where he is taking some people on a tour around the institute and he tells them about Sarah. So, Silberman says of Sarah "29 year old female, who suffers from acute case of paranoid delusions. She said that her son in the future said a soldier back in time to protect her from a robot that was going to kill her". So, they stop at Sarah's cell door and hits the button on the intercom as she finishes doing pull ups and he says "Morning, Sarah" and she turns around and says "Good morning, Silberman. How's the knee?" and he smiles and says "Fine Sarah". Silberman then turns to the people he is with and says "She stabbed me in the kneecap with my pen a week ago". So, after the people he is with walk away, Silberman says to one of the orderlies "I don't like how she is disturbing things like this, see to it she takes her thorizine".
Then there is there is the scene Sarah tries to convince Silberman that her stories of the Terminator and the future were just fantasies in an effort to try and see John. So, in the scene Sarah says to Silberman "Well, Doctor. I have shown improvement, haven't I?" Silberman replies "Well Sarah, here's the problem. I know how smart you are and I don't think you really believe what you are telling me today and I think you are just telling me what I want to hear. And if I put you in minimum security wing I think you will just try and escape again". And after Sarah fails to convince Silberman she tries to throttle him, and he gets away as the staff move in to restrain her he looks to the video camera recording the interview, and he says sarcastically "model citizen!".
Jeanette Goldstein and Xander Berkeley are also both very good in their roles as Janelle and Todd Voight respectively, who are John's foster parents.
And I will mention a coupe of their scenes, starting with their first one where Janelle tells off John for not cleaning his room but he is on his bike revving it in an effor to ignore her. So, Janelle goes back inside and complains to Todd, "I swear to God, I have had it with that goddamn kid! He won't even answer me anymore!". Todd however just sits there and Janelle complains to him "Would you get off your butt and help me? Todd?!" and Todd says "What?!!" and Janelle says "He hasn't cleaned that room of his in a month!" and Todd annoyed says "Jesus, its an emergency, I'll get right on it" and he goes outside to John, who is now on his bike. So, Todd says to him "John, come on get your ass back inside, do what your mother tells you!" and John looks at him and says "She's not my mother, Todd!" and he drives off.
And lastly there is the scene where John calls home from a pay phone, and Janelle answers it but she sounds suspiciously nice to him. So, as they talk Janelle says "John, where are you? I've been so worried!" and John covers the phone and says to the Terminator "Something's wrong, she's never this nice!". And in the background of Todd and Janelle's household, we hear the dog barking and Todd says "What is that goddamn dog barking at?" and he shouts at it "Hey shut up, you worthless piece of shit!" and John back on the phone looks worried "The dog is really barking". Todd then says to Janelle "I thought you told the kid to get rid of that fuckin mutt!" and we then see Janelle change phone hands and she pushes her right hand out and we hear noise and she says to John "John sweetheart, don't be long". The Terminator then takes the phone and asks John "What is the dog's name?" and John tells him "Max" and the Terminator asks "Janelle, I can hear Wolfie barking. Is he OK?" and Janelle says "Wolfie is just fine, sweetheart, he's fine. Where are you?" and the Terminator hangs up and tells John "Your foster parents are dead". And we cut back to see that Janelle has indeed been copied by the T-1000 who has stabbed Todd through his mouth with his arm formed into long metal shaped blade and he pulls it ot and Todd falls down dead, and the T-1000 morphs back into himself.
Joe Morton is also excellent in his role as Miles Dyson, the director of special projects at Cyberdyne systems, who unbeknownst to him, would go on to become the man who spurned Judgment day.
So, I will mention a few of his scenes starting with the one where one of Dyson's staff tells him ne needs to sign out an order. So, the staff member asks Dyson "I wanted to ask you something" regarding the terminator's arm remains from the first film "Where did it come from?" and Dyson tells him "You know I asked them that very same question one time and you know what they said? Don't ask".
Then there is the scene where after Sarah fails in her atttempt to assassinate Dyson, John and the Terminator arrive and the Terminator shows Dyson his robotic arm and later the future events after Judgment day. So, in the scene Dyson looks shocked and says "I feel like I'm gonna throw up. You're judging me on things I haven't even done yet. How are we supposed to know?". And after Sarah has a go at him, John says they have to be more constructive and they still have to change Judgment day from happening.
Dyson's wife however suggests "But aren't we changing things right now? Changing the way it goes?" and Dyson says "That's right. No way I'm gonna finish the new processor. I'm out, I quit Cyberdyne tomorrow" but Sarah tells him "Thats not good enough" and the Terminator says "No one must follow your work". Dyson then says "OK, well then we have destroy all my files at the lab, everything. Everything. I don't care. Do you know about the chip?" and Sarah asks "What chip?" and the Terminator says "The cpu from the first terminator" and Sarah angrily says "Son of a bitch! I KNEW IT!". Dyson then says "They told us not to ask where they got it" and Sarah angrily says to herself "Those lying motherfuckers!" Dyson then becomes more animated as he tells them about the chip "It was scary stuff, radically advacned. It was shattered, it wouldn't work. But it gave us ideas, took us in new directions. Thing we would never..." and he stops as he realises he is getting carried away and says "All my work was based on it".
And last of all is the scene where Dyson and the trio of John, Sarah and the T-800 arrive at Cyberdyne labs and place explosives around the lab and destroy his own work. So, in the scene Sarah says to John "Get started on the door" and to Dyson "Miles, hand me the detonator". However, as Dyson goes for it, the doors open and SWAT arrive and open fire and Dyson is shot several times and falls down with the detonator still in his hands. So, a few minutes later, the SWAT team move in and find Dyson dying and gasping for breath as he holds the detonator over a trigger and says desperately "I don't know how much longer I can hold this!" and the police scarper just before Dyson dies and drops the detonator on the trigger causing a massive explosion.
And finally we have of course Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator (or T-800 or if you like, the OG model!) and once again he is terrific at playing the cyborg, and his terminator in this film becomes a more humanised version of the remorseless killer in the original. And there is plenty of room for humour in this film, where the terminator learns from John Connor how to adapt and ape human behaviour, as well as pick up phrases from him such as "hasta la vista baby" and "chill out, dickwad".
Arnie has plenty of great scenes such as his opening one where the T-800 walks naked into a bar and analyses the customers and spots a biker who is a perfect match for his clothes size and he simply asks the biker "I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle". And as the whole room erupts with laughter the biker says "Hey, you forgot to say please!" before making the mistake of stubbing out his cigar on the T-800's chest.
Another good scene is when John
asks the T-800
to swear to promise not to kill anyone when they arrive outside the psychiatric hospital. So, John tells the Terminator to stop and he asks "Why do we stop now?" and John says "Now remember our promise right?" and the Terminator asks "What?" and John says to him "Just put up your hand and say "I swear I won't kill anyone" and the Terminator does so. So, as the Terminator drives the bike up to the gate, one of the security staff comes over to them and Terminator takes out his gun and shoots the guard in one of his kneecaps and takes his gun and hits the button at the barrier to let them in and he says to John after "He'll live!".
Then there
is the scene where the T-800 drives his bike with John on the back and
he tells him about the T-1000 and the T-800 warns John not to go back to
his foster parents house. "Negative. The T-1000 will definitely try
and reacquire you there?" and John asks "Are you sure?" and the T-800
almost sarcastically says "I would".
Then we have the scene where the T-800 subdues a bunch of armed cops at
the Cyberdyne building while taking heavy gunfire to his chest and face. So, as the Terminator approaches them, he caps the officers in the
knees with his gun, but before he does he says to John and Sarah "Stay
here. I'll be back". Afterward he goes outside and fires several rounds of tear gas to incipacitate the police officers and he goes up to one takes their mask and says "Here hold this!" and gives him the smoke grenade launcher and gets into a police truck, and as he is about to hotwire, he remembers John earlier telling him to look under the sun flap and he finds the keys there.
And last of all there is the final showdown at the steelworks plant
which starts with the T-1000 suffering the effects of colliding into
liquid nitrogen its body starts to freeze and crumble and the T-800 aims
his gun and says "Hasta la vista, baby!" and shoots, blasting the
T-1000 into a thousand pieces. And.... (SPOILER!) after the T-800
finally destroys the T-1000 by firing a grenade launcher shell at it,
blowing it apart it falls into a pit of molten lava and dissolves. And
the T-800 afterward wearily says "I need a vacation" but then says
"There is still one more chip and it must be destroyed also" pointing to
his head. And as John tearfully begs him not to go the T-800 says to
him "I now know why you cry. But its something I can never do".
DIRECTION AND MUSIC
Finally getting onto the film's director, there is not much doubt that
James Cameron has done an excellent job with T2 and he keeps the film
zipping along at a fairly quick pace and he is no stranger on how to
shoot a great action sequence and T2 has plenty. Cameron also
confidently handles for the most part the story's characters and manages
to elicit some pretty good performances from the cast although I've
already mentioned them so I won't need to again. Music wise the film
also features a fine score by Brad Fiedel who of course did the music
for the original Terminator film and in this film he expands on the
score from the original and manages to make it sound bigger and better
than the first one.
FLAWS
As for T2's flaws...... well yeah OK it has a few.
So, to start off it has to be said that one of the
main ones for me is Linda Hamilton's mostly cringeworthy narration,
which is for the most just embarrassing to listen to. An example of which is the
scene where Sarah watches John with the terminator who tries to make
him learn human phrases and give a thumbs up, and she says "In an insane
world, it was the sanest choice". Also
the her final line is probably the worst where she says "Because if a
terminator can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too!". God!!!!!!
The tone of T2 is also alot more cheesy overall than the
fairly straight dramatic tone of the original, and it allows for some
pretty
corny moments, especially with the young precocious John and his young
friend with the mullet
hairdo (despite the fact this film was made in 1991, they still hadn't
quite yet got out of the 80s!) saying "cool, piece of cake!" etc etc.
And in regards to the director's cut of the film while most of the
additional scenes are good there are some corny ones too such as the one
with Dyson's family, as he is so
obssessed with his work, his wife comes in and reminds him "why don't
you make time for your other babies!" as his kids peep their heads round
the corner and race into the room its like something out of a TV
advert!
The film also falls foul to that
rather annoying tradition in action movies of its time where they keep
referring to dialogue from the original film such as Arnie saying "stay
here I'll be back!" or the T-1000 saying "Get out", which Arnie said in
the first Terminator film when he tells a truck drive to beat it out the
tanker. And I also can't forget the one line where the T-800 having
rescued Sarah from the hospital guards and says to her that immortal
line uttered by Reese in the first film "Come with me if you want to
live". Yeah its a very bad trend and as the series went on it got worse
by the time we got to the incredibly medicore Terminator Salvation it
reached fever pitch!
Another issue stems from the casting of Edward Furlong which in terms of
his age was a bit miscast as John in the film was supposed to be 10
years old, yet Edward Furlong was 13 at the time and clearly looked a
bit too old to play the part. So in that respect Ed looks less than
believable as a 10 year old boy and if he was 10 than he would clearly
be pre-pubescent and his voice wouldn't have broken but this clearly is
the case with Ed here! But this purely boils down to an issue with the
age of Furlong himself and of course there are plenty of other actors
who were cast in films who were much older than they were supposed to
be, e.g. Malcolm MacDowell in A Clockwork Orange who at the time of
making the film as 27 but he was playing a 15 year old.
Further to this point, there is also an issue with Sarah's age, as Silberman says she is 29 years old, which given the film was set in 1995 would mean Sarah was born in either 1965 or 1966. Now, that would mean that Sarah was only 19 when she gave birth to John, which suggests that the events of the first Terminator film meant she was only 18 at the time. However, you'd imagine that surely Sarah would have been a bit older in the first film, at least in her earlier 20's and not just 18, plus she was getting in nightclubs without ID and are they not supposed to be for people aged 21 or over??? Anyway just a thought and one that doesn't quite sound right in terms of Sarah's appearance in the first film.
Another problem I have with the film is to do with the Terminator's lack
of understanding of human behaviour as on one hand it says it has
detailed files of human anatomy but it also has to ask what is wrong
with John when he sees him cry at one point during the film. Now this
is a flaw because in the film the Terminator clearly must know something
about human behaviour as it knows how to lie and that is pretty much
without any of John's future tutelage for the T-800 on how to do
sarcastic putdowns etc. And a lie is of course part of human behaviour
and if the T-800 knows that he/it must have some understanding of human
emotion and crying, so clearly I think its a bit crap in the film when the
T-800 doesn't recognise this.
Then there is a continuity flaw within
the series, as when at the end when the T-1000 is destroyed and the
T-800 sacrifices itself by being lowered into the steel mill lava pit,
doesn't this mean that Skynet will no longer exist? As if the only two
surviving terminator cpus, are the one which came from the first
terminator as well as the remains of its skeletal arm, which Dyson used
for his research, and the one inside the T-800 in this film, once they
are destroyed along with Dyson's research at Cyberdyne, does this not
change the timeline and thereby Skynet will be pre-emptively aborted?
Because if Terminator 3 is anything to go by then this certainly isn't
the case, as it would appear the destruction of the two cpus and the
cyborg arm, would only postpone judgment day, and the hellish future
world will still remain the same. And this is where the whole logic of
the timelines becomes blurred, and in that regard it was something that
was done that bit better in Back to the Future!
But further to this point if you look closer at the scene where the
T-800 and T-1000 fight each other at the steelworks plant and the T-1000
pushes and thereby jams the T-800's hand into a large gear in the next
scene the T-800 uses a crowbar to snap off his hand to free himself from
the gear. Now.... by doing this the T-800 had left his severed
mechanical hand behind and in doing so he ensured that Skynet will still
exist in the future as he had neglected to pick up his own hand and
throw it into the lava himself.
So this means that investigators searching place were sure to find the T-800's hand and from there it would doubtless find its way into the hands of more government scientists and before you know it, voila!.... we have Skynet once again. So in short, thanks T-800, you failed in your mission to prevent the creation of Skynet and from the worldwide genocide of Judgement day as it was always ensured that it would happen! ;-)
So, that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, Terminator 2 still remains a highly entertaining sci-fi action film after over 30 years later as well as one of the most groundbreaking films in terms of computer generated effects, as the T-1000's liquid metal effects still hold up really well to this day. The film also features some great action setpieces and James Cameron keeps the pace going nicely throughout and ramps up the tension as the film progresses. There are also of course some fine performanes from the cast as Arnie is perfect again as the re-programmed Terminator, and Edward Furlong makes a fine debut as John Connor, and Linda Hamilton also nicely reprises her role as Sarah Connor, plus Robert Patrick is perfect as the eerie and patient T-1000.
And despite some plot holes and minor flaws elsewhere, Terminator 2 still remains one of the most seminal and groundbreaking films of the 1990's.
So, I will rate T2:
9 out of 10
So, that's it for now and I might not make another post in time before Christmas, so I will wish you all a Merry Christmas just now and see you back on here with another one before the New Year.
So, until then have a good one!
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