Terminator 2: Judgment Day

What can I say other than praise. Right from the first viewing, I encountered an extended version, and those 154 minutes are absolutely unique at first sight. I've never liked Arnold as much as here, and Cameron's explosive ego I accept without question. Exciting action, amazing tricks, one of the best villains I've ever seen, and the Terminator reloading a shotgun with one hand. (24/05/2006)

A great film. The second installment was definitely not a disgrace to the first one. It was just as good, and, thanks to more advanced special effects, it might have even surpassed it in quality (although I’m not sure if that’s even possible). The cast was excellent and both Terminators were extremely convincing. (13/09/2016)

The second installment of The Terminator was the pinnacle of Cameron's career at the time, mainly because he managed to completely refine the script into the perfect crowd-pleaser. In his previous three films (Piranha II doesn't count), you can feel that he had to force a lot of things and therefore they felt more auteur, idiosyncratic, and innovative. In Judgement Day he already knew exactly what to add, what to trim, what to emphasize, what to cut. It's technically competent, but what can we say, it lacks heart. Suddenly we've got comic figures, a badass villain, would-be on-the-spot musings about humanity, and an jacked-up Linda Hamilton whose character is pretty much written as a militant feminist for no other reason than Cameron had been getting big props thus far for how he'd been working with female protagonists and their abilities to make it in a man's world. After all, he himself said in the 80s that he himself doesn't understand how the film industry can ignore the 50% of moviegoers who are still 80% deciding which film to see. (28/11/2017)

The best action movie ever made. It’s got exactly the right amount of everything. Action and emotions are marvelously worked into a fantastic story which paints a chilling picture of the future. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who this time is on the other side of the barricades than in part one, gives the best performance of his acting career. The special effects are perfect (decent even for today’s standards) and maybe that’s why the runny Robert Patrick is even more terrifying than his predecessor. Terminator 2 is one of the movies that changed the history of cinema. It’s embedded deep in everybody’s memory and will remain there for many years to come. My personal Top 20. (20/11/2006)

A seminal film, not only in science fiction, but in cinema as a whole. The fastest 150 minutes of my life, the most entertaining and at the same time most stylish action flick in history, better than anything by Spielberg or Ridley Scott. The story is again simple, but memorably upgraded with chilling flashforwards, a dash of perfectly workable value philosophy ("I swear I won't kill anyone") and of course the duel between two fantastic movie characters – the sinister machine, who gives you goosebumps and ranks among the best villains ever, and Arnold, who is more than just cool, and his building human relationship with John Connor is the biggest highlight of the whole film. The inimitable and touching finale only underlines all the genius. I'd probably propose to Cameron if I happened to meet him somewhere .... I just wouldn’t be able control myself. :)) (18/04/2022)