Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2003
Just like the original "Terminator," I can't imagine anyone reading this review, or looking at the Amazon entry and thinking about buying the film in it's "Ultimate Edition" DVD version, and not actually knowing what the film is about. The original "Terminator" became an icon; it entered our collective memories - "I'll be back!" - became a cultural phenomenon, a cinematic urban legend with a life all it's own, and "T2" is the next step in its evolution.
And `evolution' is a good way of looking at it. "T2" is not some cheesy installment in a bloated cinematic franchise, designed to generate mega-$'s for all concerned, while shortchanging the viewer with a bland or worthless story line, cardboard FX, and Z-list performances. No, "T2" is a legitimate continuation of the original "Terminator," creating more of the backstory and mythology of the "Terminator" universe, and taking us closer to the day when Skynet achieves consciousness and decides to wage its war of global extermination against Mankind. In fact, the genesis of the "T2" story can be seen in one of the deleted scenes contained on the "Terminator, Special Edition" disc; Sarah Connor, tired of being hunted, decides to take the fight to Skynet's creator, the Cyberdyne Corporation, which, as shown in yet another deleted scene, is where the climactic fight against the original terminator took place!
And this, literally, is the key to "T2." When the original terminator was crushed in the press, the company salvaged its CPU/chip, damaged and inoperable, plus one arm. It's the research done on the CPU that leads to the computing breakthrough that leads to the creation of Skynet, which created the terminators in the first place! And just as Skynet sent a terminator back through time to ensure John Connor couldn't interfere with its plans, Sarah Connor attempts to stop the creation of Skynet itself in the present... you see where this is going? There're probably a couple of pretty nasty time-travel paradoxes involved in all of this - maybe we should ask Dr Who! - but it doesn't matter, the story carries you effortlessly along and doesn't let you start going `round and `round in those kinds of ever diminishing circles!
The basic set-up is as follows, having failed in killing Sarah Connor in the original "Terminator," Skynet dispatches yet another terminator, a state of the art T-1000, this time to kill John Connor while he's a young teenager. And just as before, the adult John Connor dispatches a guardian, in the shape of an old T-800 terminator, reprogrammed to protect him at all costs.
And it's the difference between the two terminators that is one of the main joys of the film. The T-1000 is a shape-shifting "liquid metal" creation, able to morph into almost any guise it needs, as long as the end result is the same basic size, or volume, as itself. This basic characteristic is one of the elements that delayed the making of "T2." James Cameron had the idea for the "shape shifter" when making the original "Terminator," but it took the intervening years for cinematic CGI FX to catch up with Cameron's imagination, so the T-1000 could be portrayed convincingly on-screen!
Robert Patrick plays the "human" T-1000, and his performance is as different from the original terminator as is the technology he represents. "Ahnald's" original performance set the standard, relentless and robotic, unstoppable, like a semi spinning out of control on an ice covered freeway; get out of the way or be obliterated. Robert Patrick gives a more subtle, more nuanced, performance; he's smaller, sleeker, faster, his is the relentlessness of a shark moving in for the kill, a thing of terrible beauty that cannot be swayed or negotiated with. But the T-1000 also knows something of human frailty, of pain, and how to use it to its advantage. Whereas the original terminator simply slaughtered anything that got in its way, the T-1000 actually tortures Sarah Connor in one scene in an effort to make her give up her son, telling her, "I know this must hurt..."
"Ahnald's" performance, as the old-tech T-800 model terminator, is also more varied, and this is explained in, what I think is, the most important scene deleted from the original theatrical release, but reinstated in this "Ultimate Edition." Sarah, having been broken out of an asylum by her son and his newest bestest buddy - his very own terminator! - is holed up in a disused gas station with John and the Terminator. The T-800 explains, while Sarah digs bullets out of its back, that it's possible for the terminators to learn, to adapt to their environments, but a switch on the CPU has to be reset to allow this behavior; the default setting is the unstoppable hunter killer, with no need of subtlety. But here's the catch, to make the change, which will allow the Terminator to better protect John, the CPU has to be removed, effectively shutting down the Terminator, then reset and reinstalled. The CPU is removed, but Sarah tries to destroy it, saying it'll be one less terminator, and John, exerting his authority for the first time, convinces his mother that they need the Terminator if they are to survive, and more importantly, stop the creation of Skynet. From here on in, the film roars to its finale as Sarah takes the fight to Cyberdyne by, literally, zeroing in on Dr Miles Dyson, the scientist who obsessively cracks the secret of the original terminator CPU.
"T2" lacks the sheer visceral punch of the original; it's a more refined, mature, and carefully thought out film, but that's no criticism, the set pieces will blow you away, and the CGI, absolutely state of the art at the time, STILL stands up today. This is controlled action and mayhem for grown-ups, and "Ahnald" was true to his word when he said, "I'll be back!"
![Terminator 2: Judgement Day 4K Ultra Hd [Blu-ray] [4K UHD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SfHrOr4GL._AC_US60_SCLZZZZZZZ__.jpg)
