Terminator 2: Judgment Day

RATING: A-

The best thing about Terminator 2--and its predecessor--is Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator. And it's hardly even close. 

Oh sure, there are some other likable things about these movies. The first Terminator movie had its frantic thriller-esque pacing which kept us all on our toes, as well as some well-done action scenes. And this movie has a brand-new Terminator with awesome brand-new abilities, some astounding visual effects which still hold up to this day, and some even more exciting action scenes that also hold up well. 

But here's the deal. These two movies take place in a universe that is undeniably interesting with its tale of AI gone wrong (Skynet) and machines attacking humankind. But the timeline is incredibly confusing--perhaps even more so in the sequel. Much is made of changing the future--but given the fact that the future has sent back time-traveling robots *and* people which have made a massive impact on the present which then should also have a consequential impact on the future... well, it screws with one's mind a lot. For example, if the future is changed and Skynet doesn't exist, then John Connor never meets Kyle Reese who then never goes back into the past... which if you saw the first movie, you know how that's a massive problem. Ugh. 

And elsewhere, there seems to be a problem with developing likable/interesting human characters. Again, perhaps that is more the case in this movie. Sarah Connor herself never became that interesting until the very end of the first movie--and here, she's fallen on hard times and for the first half of the movie, displays some almost psychotic tendencies on occasion that make it difficult to root for her. Sure, she improves down the stretch, but when the character never overwhelmingly stood out to begin with, making her temporarily unlikable does not help the viewer. And John Connor? We meet him now when he's about ten or so. And he is an annoying little punk for most of the movie. I don't necessarily expect him to be the fearless leader that he is in the future, but I do expect him to be at least somewhat likable in one way or another. And again, he improves down the stretch as well. But some of the dialogue he's given is still pretty ludicrous. 

But one tends to forget about these things when Schwarzenegger is eating up the screen, making us smile, chuckle or cheer with every little thing he does in this movie. See, Arnold's Terminator in this movie is again sent back from the future... but this time to protect John. And in the process, the Terminator actually evolves--he's not just a relentless killing machine with charisma, he actually becomes a bit of a character now as he learns further about human behavior--and becomes a better character than anyone else in this movie. Whether it's his unforgettable one-liners, or how he dispatches people *without* killing them (under John's orders), just about everything he says and does in this movie is awesome. 

And the new Terminator--the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) isn't a slouch either. Patrick doesn't carry the same charisma as Schwarzenegger, but he is appropriately threatening and the T-1000 has some crazy abilities. And here we get to see (multiple times) what we couldn't see in the first movie--two Terminators going toe-to-toe against each other. The result is awesome. 

Now the one other main issue with this movie is the middle of it. I saw talk of the movie having a slick pace and not really letting up, but they seem to have forgotten the middle of it--where the main trio (Arnold and the Connors) go on a road trip and eventually hide out for a while and nothing really happens except some attempted character development with mixed results. And there's another issue, actually--the T-1000 actually kind of disappears for a while. During all of this "road trip" bit and most of an extended sequence where they try to take out Skynet before it comes into existence (which is also a bit slow at first), he is nowhere to be seen. 

Despite that slow middle, though, the rest of the movie is pretty briskly paced and there are some incredible action scenes. There's an exciting car chase early, a super-fun hospital escape/battle, a building escape and a brilliant 30-minute climactic action scene which starts with another excellent car chase of sorts and ends in a brutal battle in a steel factory. (These movies love ending in factories, don't they?) It culminates in an unforgettable ending which will make you (and the characters) realize just how far we've come with the Terminator in a short time. 

Terminator 2 is hardly as flawless as some people make it out to be. The human characters are really not that memorable and even annoying occasionally (especially John). But Schwarzenegger basically single-handedly takes a movie that would've probably been just decent at best without him and turns it into a movie that is considered a classic. Despite some of my gripes, I can't really argue. Arnold's performance and the Terminator's character arc are what make this movie what it is. And at the end of the day, that was enough.