[yasr_overall_rating]
A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her teenage son, John Connor, from a more advanced and powerful cyborg.
I remember going to the UCI Cinema in Coolock in Dublin in the summer of 1991 to see “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” It was a Friday night and when I reached the box office, it stated that the movie was sold out. I had to go back the next day and boy was I surprised. I had grown up with VHS and “The Terminator” was one of the most rented titles during the ’80s, not just in Ireland but around the world and when “T2,” as it became known, was released upon an unsuspecting public, little did I know it would become one of my all-time favorite films. Arnie was back and in better shape than ever before but it was Linda Hamilton who stole the show. In the first movie, she played Sarah Connor, a gentle and unpretentious waitress, thrown into a nightmare when she discovers that a cyborg from the future, has been sent back in time to kill her because her son John will go on to become a great military leader who will fight the machines and win. In “T2,” she bulked up, so much so that she overshadowed the hulking Schwarzenegger, which back then, when he was in his prime, was no easy feat. She knew what the future held and she was preparing for it.
This time around, we discover that two Terminators have been sent back in time, one to kill John Connor while he is just a child, the other to protect him. Like before, the resistance is able to send back a Terminator (Schwarzenegger), the exact same model that was sent back to kill Sarah in the first film, a T-800 (Schwarzenegger) which has been programmed to protect John. A far more advanced Terminator, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), which can take the shape and form of pretty much anything it comes into contact with, is sent by Skynet, the artificial intelligence that controls the world in the future, to track down John and terminate him. It finds John in a mall and just as he is about to kill him, the T-800 model intervenes and manages to keep him at bay. John escapes on his motorcycle with both the T-1000 and T-800 in hot pursuit and after an exciting chase scene through some of the Los Angeles flood control channels, he is rescued by the T-800. When the Terminator states that they need to get as far away from the city as possible, with Judgment Day only a few years away, John orders him to help rescue his mother Sarah, who is now housed at a mental institution. After they successfully break out of the facility, Sarah takes it upon herself to track down Miles Dyson (Joe Morton), the man responsible for creating Skynet, with the intent of killing him, thereby preventing Judgment Day but like before, the T-1000 is not far behind.
“T2” used state-of-the-art CGI, which was still in its infancy in 1991, care of Industrial Light & Magic and it blew audiences away. Thanks to advances in CGI, director Steven Spielberg later stated that because of what he saw in “T2,” it gave him the confidence to proceed with “Jurassic Park,” and we all know how that turned out! James Cameron returned as writer and director and delivered one of the best sci-fi action movies ever made. That is quite a feat, considering that the first Terminator movie, along with “Aliens,” “The Abyss,” and “Avatar,” are also considered to be among the best in that genre. It seems like the man is always competing with himself. While “The Terminator” hasn’t aged very well, “T2” has managed to keep a leg up on its predecessor. While watching the film again for the first time in years, there are certain scenes that are slowly beginning to show their age and while newcomer Edward Furlong, for the most part, did well in his feature film acting debut, there are some cringe-worthy lines of dialogue that even today, seem uncharacteristic coming from a child. Robert Patrick, while nowhere near Schwarzenegger’s size, created one of the greatest cinematic villains, not by physical intimidation but, rather, his tenacious relentlessness. Knock him down, shoot him, drive over him, he just regenerates and keeps on going. On top of that, he is expressionless, no matter what you do or say, you cannot manipulate him or verbally upset him. That, is scary.
To date, there have been five Terminator movies and while parts one and two, directed by James Cameron, are considered by most to be the best of the lot, that is the literal truth. “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” was nowhere near as good as its two predecessors and was pretty much just a rehash of “T2,” with Schwarzenegger returning, yet again, to protect an older John Connor while trying to fend off an even deadlier Terminator, the T-X (Kristanna Loken), that has all the capabilities of the T-1000 plus so much more. It gets old real fast and I won’t even talk about the abomination called “Terminator: Salvation,” although it did feature an all-star cast including Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Bryce Dallas Howard, and the late Anton Yelchin. When “Terminator Genisys” was released in 2015, it did not fare well at the box office and critics slammed it but I actually had fun with it. Part of the movie goes back to some of the events that transpired in the first movie and they were able to alter the timeline to such a degree, that it actually made sense. The plan was to make two more films after “Genisys” but because of its poor reception, those plans were scrapped. Filming is currently underway on a new Terminator movie that stars Linda Hamilton from the first two films, as well as Schwarzenegger and Gabriel Luna, who is also being credited as a Terminator, and it is being produced by James Cameron and directed by Tim Miller (“Deadpool”) and from what I’ve heard, it completely ignores the events which transpired in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” and its subsequent two sequels so, in essence, this will technically be known as “Terminator 3.” I’ll be very curious to see where they go with it.
Available on 4K Ultra HD™ Combo Pack Box Set (plus Blu-ray™ and Digital) July 17th
