yakkowarner's Full Review: Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 2 is one of the premiere action movies of all time. What this movie gives is a front row seat into what the characters are experiencing as well as plenty of action. It is an exciting and well done movie. Not only does it contain plenty of action but there are several undercurrent themes throughout the movie. Not the least being what is humanity and life?
The story starts in the past, around the summer of 1991. John Connor is a Middle school student who is a disobedient youth living with a couple of foster parents. He does what he wants and many times it is illegal. He obviously has no fear of getting caught. He has been raised by his mother and a plethora of stepfathers. He has a great deal of animosity toward his mother because of how she treated him and John thinks she is a loon that deserved to be locked up.
Sarah Connor, John’s mother, is in a high security mental hospital. She is deathly afraid of an event of the future, WW3. But this WW3 is started by a computer, not man. Sarah blew up a plant that she thought would be important to this to-be-created computer but got caught. They have deemed her insane and locked her away in a maximum security mental facility.
Due to events in the last movie, Sarah Connor thinks John Connor will become a great leader in the future. John will lead the human resistance against the machines. The machines sent a terminator back through time in the first movie to kill Sarah Connor before she gave birth to John. Now Sarah fears that the machines will send another terminator back through time to kill John. But because she is locked away, there is nothing she can do about it.
The third character of the story is the Terminator sent back in time to kill John Connor. The computer threat believes that John Connor is the key to destroying the human resistance movement of the future. It first tried to destroy John right before he was born (9 months to be exact) but that terminator failed. Now it is trying again when John is a teenager.
The 4th character is one of the heroes of the story. He was sent back in time to protect John Connor from the terminator. He does it by trying to stay one step ahead. This is a person that you really get to know and care for as the movie progresses. It is kind of interesting that you as the audience develop this type of emotion, considering what type of man he is.
The acting is believable and well done for a sci-fi movie. Linda Hamilton plays Sara Connor but this time she is a totally new character. If memory serves correctly, Linda prepared for her role by going to a boot camp and getting in shape. And she is physically fit in this movie. Her personality is one that is a bit over the edge too. Linda does a nice job of portraying someone that is both sane and insane at the same time. She definitely has the best performance in the film.
John Connor is played by Edward Furlong and he does a good job with the part. He definitely plays a good Junior High brat. But is it believable? In a way. I think at times the writing made him out to be a more mature and wise individual than the typical 13 year old is. Impossible? No. But I think unlikely.
Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the role of a terminator sent back through time. His performance is flawless. Yes there isn’t much acting going on because he’s a stoic tin can, but few people could have pulled it off as well as the governator does.
The fourth character is also sent back in time and he is played by Robert Patrick. I feel his acting is very well done and it is consistent throughout the movie. But saying anything more would be a spoiler in my opinion.
This movie also deals with the question of life. What is life? What does it take to be a person, an individual, a life form? Is the terminator a machine or an individual. A program or a living breathing creature. The beauty is in how they tackle this issue. They do not tell you the answer, rather the audience has to come up with the answer themselves.
The story is absolutely captivating. From beginning to end you are glued to the screen waiting to see what happens next. It is not a predictable movie nor does it follow a common format in its story telling. This is one of the things that sets this movie apart from all of the others.
The special effects are first rate, even for being an old movie the special effects still hold up. They did a great job with the makeup, stunts, explosions, and the computer generated effects. The reason I believe it still holds up to today’s movies is because they didn’t rely on CG effects to tell the story but used CG sparingly to enhance the story. The graphics, explosions, and action never took away from the story but were carefully scripted to enhance the events in the movie. Stan Winston did a great job.
The music is powerful and timely. One of my person favorites.
The flow of the movie is virtually flawless. In order to do this they had to leave a lot of material on the cutting room floor. You can see most of this material by following the code I listed below. But you as a viewer are not bored by the progression of the story. It goes smoothly from one scene to another keeping the viewer glued to the story they are telling.
DVD extras. Disk 1 Commentary. Cast and crew biographies Disk 2 Three featurettes about the making of T2. A copy of the script. Story boards. Written, background/making of information. Several short featurettes of the writing and previsulation.
Codes for the ultimate edition You can watch an extended version of this movie. It has some scenes that were removed for the theatrical version. The scenes slow the movie down a bit but gives a bit more character development to the Terminator trying to kill John. It is a very cool version of the film. To access this T2 easter egg you need to put in disk 1 Select special edition Highlight play special edition Type in 82997 Go to theatrical version Above that it will say play extended special edition. Select extended special edition.
You will know that you did it right if you see the words “the future is not set” on the right side of your screen.
The players Director: James Cameron Writer: James Cameron and William Wisher Music: Brad Fiedel Producer: James Cameron Make-up and terminator effects: Stan Winston
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