TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1991) - ♦♦♦♦

Directed by - James Cameron

 

Written by - James Cameron, William Fisher Jr.

 

Starring - Arnold Schwarzenegger

 

 

 

"After the success of the previous film and the consecration of its Arnie as an action superstar, Cameron does the most sensical thing by resurrecting the franchise and casting him in the role of the hero. The audience is now forced to accept without questions asked that the same cyborg that had been sent to kill Sarah Connor in the previous film was now sent back in time to protect her son against an even more advanced and indestructible mean cyborg who wants to kill the child. The film was, of course, a box office hit and is commonly regarded as the best of the Terminator film. Full stop. Yet, apart from the disappointment in having been almost too naturally force fed a plot twist that is more implausible than other sci-fi film controversies from the ‘Greedo shot first’ one of the Star Wars films, there is a little less appeal in seeing Arnie play a more ‘child friendly’ version of his badass Terminator – the version he had portrayed in his 1984 performance and that was arguably most responsible for making him a star. Yes, Terminator 2 is a greatly entertaining film with its fair share of spectacular sequences and breathtaking CGI that certainly make the most out of the increased budget that was certainly greater than the one Cameron had made the 1984 film with. In fact, nothing can be said about the film’s commercial appeal and the gripping pace of this film. Yet, at the same time it is precisely this radically more commercial approach that makes this Terminator film less influential at its core than the previous movie, where everything seemed perhaps more genuine and more inventive as well as amazingly darker and less dumb brained and overworked to suit the popcorn munching audiences. Terminator II: Judgement Day represents the crème de la crème of blockbuster science fiction action flicks, yet despite of its reputation it ain’t quite as groundbreaking as you would expect it to be."

 

 

Science Fiction, USA/France