Last year I did a review on the classic Sci-Fi horror film "The Terminator" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. With its great story (Original, or not); powerful acting; scary villain; creative special effects; cool action; and grim and horrofying atmosphere, a sequel to this film sounded like a dumb idea. However, to everyone's surprise, the sequel that was released in 1991 was a just as great as the first film, if not better!
Two Terminators are sent back in time in the year 1991. A reprogrammed Terminator (Arnold Schwarzengger) was sent back in time to protect a 10 year old John Connor (Edward Furlong) who will in the future lead the Human Resitstance in a war against the machines; from a more advance Terminator the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) who's mission is to Terminate John. The Terminator and John break John's Mother Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) out of a mental institution, and try to prevent Judgement from happening.
Arnold reprises his role as the famous killing machine, and to see the same Terminator model go from being a villain in the first film, to being a hero, is brilliant writing! In fact, if you were going into this film not knowing about the premise, except for having the knowledge that you have from the first film, you'd think Arnold would be the bad guy, and you think the T-1000 is a human from the future. Every piece of dialogue that Arnold has, he manages to sell it out so well, that it's just as mind blowing as how he sold out the dialogue in the first film. I also love that the Terminator isn't dead serious throughout the whole film. At many times he can be cool and badass,while at other times he can be funny, and a show a bit of emotion. As corny as the last two characteristics sounds, it's actually done really well, and does indeed fit the story perfectly! Just like the first film, you totally buy that he's a machine!
Next, you have Linda Hamilton reprising her role as John's Mother Sarah Connor. Remember, how weak and vulnerable she was in the first film until the end, well, here, she's just as badass as Arnold is! I'm dead serious, James Cameron turned this helpless victim, into one of the strongest and toughest woman characters that I've ever seen on film! She looks cool; she gets awesome action sequences; she's very smart and clever; she's really tough and intimidating; and man, can she swear! The drama to her character thankfully is not ignored. You really do feel her emotions and anger of trying to stop Judgement Day; you do get just as petrified as she is about the dark future that awaits mankind; and her relationship with her son John and The Terminator are executed perfectly. She also narrates the film, and let me tell you, it's really just as haunting as how Kyle (From the first film) described the future. For me personally, Hamilton's performance in the film is my favorite.
Edward Furlong as John Connor when he was a kid, is great for the role. I understand some people find his performance annoying with his screams and overacting, but I think he does a great job with those reactions. I do feel his emotions, I do feel like he's in trouble! What I love about both the character and his performance is, while he's a cool street foul mouthed trouble maker, you not only find him likable, but you do see an innocence to his character; you do sympathize him about his troubled relationship with his Mother; and you also do see him slowly become this great military leader. The best part about his performance and story ark is his relationship with The Terminator. It's a really sweet and touching relationship. While The Terminator serves as a Father figure for John, John teaches the Terminator the value of human life, and man is it done effectively!
While I do love and prefer the evil Arnold Terminator in the first film out of all villains in the franchise, Robert Patrick as the T-1000 is just as awesome! First off, this Terminator acts so much like a human, that you'd never suspect him to be a machine. He can blend in with a crowd of people and pass as a natural human being with nothing weird about him at all. This liquid metal machine can also change his form into any human he contacts with; he can change his hands into stabbing weapons; and he can quickly heal himself after the amount of abuse he takes. Robert Patrick also makes the character very horrifying and intimidating to look at, and when you see him chase after the characters, you know he means some serious business, and will not stop until he accomplishes his mission.
Finally, you have Joe Morton as the guy who's responsible for Judgement Day, Miles Dyson. Instead of being some greedy, corrupt businessman, who doesn't believe the characters and only cares about the money, even if it's at the cost of human life, he's actually the complete opposite. He's a family man who's passionate about his work, hoping that it will benefit the world, but once he finds out about the future, he does whatever he can to prevent it, even at the cost of his own life. Joe Morton really does give a really likable and emotional performance, and despite not being in the film for very long, I still find him to be just as great of a character as all the others I've mentioned.
One of the many things that I love about the films are the special effects. This film goes all out creative with its effects! They use robots; puppets; miniature sets; cool looking Make-Up for the Terminator looking half human and half machine; stop-motion; and CGI and they all look awesome, and still are awesome to look at. The CGI is not overused as it would be in today's standards, in fact, it fits the character of the evil T-1000 perfectly. There's enough practical effects, to make this film look amazing and epic. All these effects show how much time and effort went into this movie, and how willing that James Cameron wants to bring his vision of the story to life!
The action in this movie is so awesome and kickass, that there's just too many scenes to talk about. The fight at the Biker Bar; The Terminator destroying the Cop Cars; the chase sequences; the fighting between the Terminator and the T-1000; the war against the machines; my god they all look so cool and jaw dropping! The explosions; the slow-mo; the stunt work; the sound effects; the special effects; it's just too awesome to talk about, you just have to see these scenes, to know what I'm talking about. As the film's score is just as epic as the score for the first film, only this one has a bit of drama and emotion to it, while the score in the first film was dark and creepy!
This film is so great, epic, amazing, and fantastic with its well written story; great character development; perfect acting; and jaw dropping special effects and action, that it's indeed a great sequel, like Top 3 of the best movie sequels easily. If you loved the first film, you're really going to love this film as well.
RATING 5/5
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