It's been eleven years since Sarah Connor incountered the terminator, and she has since been locked away in a high security mental institution; all evidence of her meeting with the terminator seemingly erased. But, before long, a new model of terminator, the T-1000, is sent from the future; it's mission: to terminate John Connor, Sarah's son and leader of the resistance. To give him a chance at survival, the resistance send their own terminator to protect John, the same model that tried to terminate his mother all those years ago.
"Hasta la vista, baby."
In T2, Arnie's terminator is still every bit the lean, mean, fighting machine he was in The Terminator (1984), but, throughout the film, it's as if he softens. As a viewer, we know that terminators do not have human feelings, but if there was ever a terminator that came close, it was this one. In his scenes with John, the terminator seems more of a gentle giant than a lethal killer. His protection of the child could easily be mistaken as that of a father. By the end of the film, John and the Cyborg develop a touching bond that it undoubtable, which gave me a thought: If a terminator is capable of learning just about everything else, perhaps, with time, it could also learn to feel.
Sarah Connor is a completely different person in T2 as opposed to who she was in The Terminator. In the first film, she was a gentle, perhaps weak, woman. In T2, she is anything but. Sarah is now a hard, strong, skilled woman - A living terminator, if you will - and she will stop at nothing to protect her son, the future leader of the resistance. Sarah fully realizes just how important John is to the survival of the human race, and her only goal in life is to keep him alive; she couldn't care less about her own survival.
The T-1000 is an extremely advanced killing machine. Instead of being half man, half machine (like the terminator model 101), the T-1000 is made entirely of liquid metal, with the appearance of being human. What's so clever about the T-1000 is it has the ability to shapeshift. The model can also self-heal its wounds in mere seconds, rendering it almost indestructible. The entire concept of the T-1000 is very clever, but to disguise it as a cop was genius. In that uniform, the it can get away with almost anything without a second glance. The T-1000 is a truly fascinating character.
"It's in your nature to destroy yourselves"
I absolutely love this movie. I can watch it again, and again, and again. And I do, for that matter. It's far more exciting than the first and every bit as brilliant, and it is without doubt my favourite of the Terminator film series. It actually angers me that they continued on with the series after T2, as neither of the two latest films have lived up to the genius of the first two, and I honestly hope that they don't make any more.
The special effects featured in Judgment Day are awesome. Absolutely amazing, especially as far as the T-1000 is concerned. Even today, almost 20 years after the film's release, watching the T-1000 melt into a puddle of liquid metal, before reforming itself, is stunning. It's no wonder that T2's visual effects team won oscars for their work. They were very much deserved.
James Cameron is one of my favourite directors, and I would gladly watch just about anything he makes. What I would give to look into his mind... The things he comes up with are fascinating. He's incredibly creative, and I look forward to seeing what else his can come up with in the future.
"What's wrong with your eyes?"
I love Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don't know why, but I do. I would watch him in anything, whether he's any good in it or not. This movie happens to be one of those times where he is, actually, good - VERY good. His performance is rather gentle, and he has great chemistry with Edward Furlong, who plays John Connor. Furlong was also very good in his first acting role as Connor. It's a shame that his career hasn't lived up to its phenomenial debut, though, at 33, he still has time. Linda Hamilton gave, what I believe to be, the best performance of her career in T2. She plays Sarah with a kind of psychotic intensity, and it really works for the character. Robert Patrick also gives an intense performance as the T-1000; however, though his terminator is scary, it isn't as scary as Arnie's terminator in The Terminator. Despite this, he was very good in the role.
My 'judgment' on T2? If you haven't already, see it. Now. 10/10
Trivia: During one of the final scenes of T2, the T-1000 molds itself to look like Sarah Connor, hence the appearance of two, identical Sarahs on screen. Instead of using clever special effect methods to insert Linda Hamilton, who played Sarah, into a shot, James Cameron brought in Hamilton's identical twin sister, Leslie Hamilton Gearren, to play the T-1000 version of Sarah. According to Hamilton, one day on set, Arnold Schwarzenegger mistook Gearren for herself, resulting in an embarrassing yet amusing situation.
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