Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Director: James Cameron
Writers:  William Wisher Jr. , James Cameron
Cast:       Arnold Schwarzenneger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick

A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her young son John Connor, from a more advanced cyborg, made out of liquid metal. So we've got Arnold back, but this time as a hero, and it is explained away as: John Connor from future was able to reprogram it and sends it back in time to protect a young John Connor.

In the first terminator film, the terminator and the human soldier comes back in time using a time machine which was supposed to be destroyed. So that was the last chance for the things from future to affect the outcome by tweaking the events in the past. In T2, it is not explained how they were again able to come back in time. Only possible explanation is that both machines and humans have a set of time-machines each with which they are trying to affect things in the past. That kind of sucks because why can't they just go back to 1984 and try to kill Sarah Connor again. Things happening in T2 will be just one such attempt of many meaning that at the end of the day it doesn't amount to much in the large scheme of things. 

The version I watched was about 154 minutes long while the theatrical one was 137 minutes. The extra 17 minutes includes among other things a dream sequence involving the father of John Connor. The film can be divided into three halves: first one with Arnold saving John and helping John save Sarah from the mental institution she is in, second one in which they are on the run and goes to south where Sarah and John had stayed earlier training to fight, and the last sequence involving the assault at the cybernetic corporation who were developing the Skynet technology out of the things recovered from the terminator in the first film. Basically the first and last are kickass action set-pieces while the middle third is painfully boring stuff linking the two. Cameron tries to pull of some humor between John and Arnold which doesn't always work and Sarah is a nagging presence throughout. Sarah decides that she is supposed to alter the nuclear war fate, logic of which is presented in the film in a very underwhelming manner, and decides to kill the scientist who is developing the chip that will lead to Skynet and details about him are provided by Arnold. 

Overall it is a good watch but the film as a whole is uneven. They could have done away with the melodramatic parts and decided to go for all out action. I don't know whether the shorter theatrical cut might have changed this a bit. The story was anyway not going to be as interesting as the first. You do get a very early 90s vibe in the way it was filmed and I was kind of reminded of Natural Born Killers, maybe because of the desert. The kid playing John Connor is not very good, partly due to script,  and Home Alone vibe doesn't go well with The Terminator franchise. All that said, the action sequences were great making use of the whopping $94 million budget and the CGI was cutting edge stuff for early 90s. Shame that Cameron got a hard-on for CGI and went on to make thoroughly average films like Titanic and Avatar since then. I haven't seen 'True Lies' which came after T-2. As for the Terminator franchise, two other films came out both of which were supposedly crap. Another one, titled 'Terminator Genisys, featuring Arnold is slated for release this year and I have not interest in watching that. 

Rating: 3.5/5

                                                                              

The Terminator (1984)

Director: James Cameron
Writers:  Gale Anne Hurd, James Cameron
Cast:      Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn

A human-looking indestructible cyborg is sent from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate a waitress Sarah Connor, whose unborn son will lead humanity in a war against the machines, while a soldier from that war is sent to protect her at all costs. The situation in 2029 arose after the machines decided to wipe out mankind so that they may not destroy everything in the future and the way they went about it was by launching a nuclear war. 

I have seen Terminator 2 like when I was in school and don't remember much about it apart from the famous chase sequence and the last thumbs up shot of the film. Those who know their onions often claim that the first film in the Terminator franchise is the best out of the lot. It is understandable because the first one often have the best story as the audience don't know anything about the universe the film is set in and the director can reveal little by little throughout the film without it feeling like a sequence of action sequences just for the sake of it. This is indeed how 'The Terminator' turned out to be, a great action film with an interesting story line. It is a very enjoyable watch even though the whole idea about the film is from a very basic story about Man Vs Machine & Time Travel. Like all time travel films, it also features Bootstrap Paradox. Paradox here is that it is the soldier from future who impregnates Sarah Connor leading to the birth of John Connor who goes on to become the leader of men in their fight against machines. John had used information given to him by his mother to send the soldier back in time, while Sarah got the information in the first place from the soldier himself. So the information is circular without an origin but it is done in an interesting way since the time travelling soldier doesn't know that there is an extra motive for John to send him back in time. He could have seen John being named as a Connor, after his mother, as a possible clue. People often cite Bootstrap Paradox to chide time travelling films when in fact they are a recurring feature in almost all such films and it is what make them interesting. Same was used to criticize Interstellar when in fact that film had so many other problems that you could beat it with. Presdestination is an excellent film from last year which celebrated the paradox in such a way that I still can't get my head round all the paradoxes. 

Overall it is great watch with some solid chase action sequences. The time travel aspect of the film and the paradox must have been novel when it came out in 1984, much before the 'Back To The Future' franchise. Towards the end you do get a feeling that Terminator is just a turd that refuses to be flushed down and we can totally relate to Sarah's words: 'You're terminated, fucker!'. They could have very well ended the film with that tanker explosion scene. Arnold's Terminator character is listed in AFI's lists of 100 best Heroes and Villains in both categories with the only other one such character being Al Pacino's Michael Corleone. Looking forward to watching Judgement Day again. Hast la vista, baby!

Rating: 4/5