Terminator 2: Judgment Day

In part one, Arnie promised that he’d be back. And he kept his word like a real gentleman. But the stumbling block here is the sticky epilog which I have never come to terms with (and have no plans of doing so in the future) and this also applies to the special effects which are unusually frequent for Cameron. P.S.: This is one of the few movies that HD is detrimental to. The picture is so crystal clear that in most stunt scenes you can easily recognize Arnold’s stand-in, who really doesn’t look much like him. (08/01/2010)

This is total overkill in several filmmaking disciplines that hasn't been knocked into the dust by time or silicon by better-refined followers. It's all been said about it already, but the unwritten Cameronian dictum that action scenes must serve the story and not the other way around ages like a fine wine with every unnecessary megabyte of data generated, and it's a wonder that there haven't been many action blockbusters that work on a similar principle in the twenty-six years since. Personally, I'll always prefer the uneven trench warfare of planetoid LV-426, but I still very much understand why this fully holds up in the genre battle even after blowing away all the nostalgic overlay in this millennium. This will survive judgment day because it's... (see the beginning of my comment). (01/10/2017)

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 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)

In the first film, the heroes fought for their lives, and the good rule of the second film is that twice as much must be placed on the bet. Cameron fulfilled his commitment, and so the marvelous trio of warriors are fighting not only for existence, but now above all for the future. The script cleverly developed Kyle's words about fate, and Judgment Day is such a dramatic struggle for the right to change what was determined the first time. While machines act as exotic oddities in the first film (in accordance with the times), the second film does not deny the onset of the silicon age. Computers are a common part of human existence, and Cameron rightly points to the threat of diluting human intelligence with a virtual one. But since T2 is massively leaning on the power of silicon as the first film in history, the message goes the other way: even a machine can think like a human. Arnold has a top performance as the humanized Terminator. If there hadn't been such a strong disregard for the genre among academics, it would have been at least nominated for an Oscar that year. One tends to believe in the machine with the learning module. To this day, I'm not convinced that the Governor doesn't have a metal chassis under his skin. If James Cameron based T1 on excellent action, T2 is brilliant professorship. No one (and I stand by that) has been able to elevate the "fallen" genre to the level of art without alienating himself by low means. The lightness with which Cameron juggles emotions and pumps adrenaline, the genius of the action scenes (again, still unbeatable) and the overall apocalyptic touch are among the film's crowning displays of power. That's not the opinion of an intellectual, but of a man who grew up on T2 and, after years and hundreds of films, watched it again, found Cameron's pet to be at least as powerful. Like the time I woke up in the morning and dreamed on the way to elementary school that the door would open and Arnie would join me with a slightly crooked smile. (08/01/2004)