bobbyf Review of Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Chase movie with eye candy...nothing more.

[6/10 · 3 August 2007]

I just watched this film again last night - right after I watched the last 20 minutes of "The Blues Brothers." I could have sworn I was watching the same movie- a chase movie. Lots of chasing and crashing and so on. Yes, the original has that component to it, but the heart and soul of the first film is the love story which is totally lacking from this film. There are moments in the first film that are terrifying. Nothing about this second installment impacted me in the same way. The suspense just wasn't there. It's also hard for me to care about any of the characters. Furlong's debut performance is two-dimensional: cocky and arrogant or screaming and whining. Arnold is much better as the cold-hearted villain- a element of the story that Robert Patrick's character, the T1000 falls short of delivering; and a twisted Sarah Connor that has little or no resemblance of the original character from "The Terminator." The dialog throughout the movie is corny. Trying to humanize the Terminator machine is ridiculous. ("Now I know why you cry." ugh.) There is no denying that the movie has amazing special effects- though dated now- and that the chase/action scenes are ground-breaking. But to me, the things that make a movie great are well-developed characters and a story I care about. I own this film, and think it's a fair sequel. But it is hardly the masterpiece that many make it out to be.