Over ten years after the events of Terminator, Sarah Connor
(Linda Hamilton) is imprisoned in a mental health facility for trying to blow up
Cyberdyne, the company that will soon create Skynet, the computer program that
will destroy the world. Of course, nobody believes Sarah's ranting about a
future world ruled by machines, least of all Dr. Silberman (Earl Boen, also
reprising his role from T1), who, as Sarah's doctor, is as smarmy as ever.
Sarah's son, John (the screechy, nails-on-blackboard-Edward Furlong) is now a
little punk who is living with a foster family. But no sooner can you say "time
paradox" than not one but two Terminators arrive in the present day via those
crackling balls of energy. While Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to the role that
helped make him famous, he is actually playing a different Terminator than the
one from the first film (the rebels in the future apparently either captured an
assembly line of Terminators, or had this extra one in reserve).
Arnie's opponent, the second Terminator, is a completely different beast. Robert
Patrick perfectly portrays the T-1000, a liquid metal machine that is just as
unstoppable and as unrelenting as the original Terminator. The T-1000 is capable
of incredible shape-shifting powers and cunning intellect. Sent back by the
rebels to protect John, Arnold's Terminator is clearly out-matched and
out-classed by the T-1000, and it ultimately takes the combined wits and brawn
of Sarah, John and the T-800 just to stay alive. The film's stunt work, all
done on a massive scale, is amazing yet still plausible. With buildings
exploding, helicopters crashing and all sorts of vehicular destruction, it's
just the sort of mayhem you'd expect to see when two invincible machines go at
it in the middle of L.A.
Terminator 2 is basically a pumped up remake of the first Terminator film, and
that's not a bad thing. The T-1000 represented the introduction of advanced
computer generated imagery on a major scale, depicting still-amazing scenes
where the T-1000 morphs into ooze, changes into completely different people,
and even survives getting its head blown apart with a shotgun. Robert Patrick
gives just the right amount of creepy/calmness in his performance to make it
very effective. And Linda Hamilton is superb in her role as Sarah Connor reborn
as a warrior woman. No longer the meek waitress from the first film, she takes
charge, and takes no prisoners with a vengeance. The film points out, in a
sense, that Sarah has become something of a Terminator herself. This brings up
a valid question: what's the point of fighting for humanity when you lose your
own?
The Terminator 2: Judgment Day DVD is fantastic. In addition to an expanded
version of the film that was not seen in theaters, there is a multitude of
special features, including extensive "making of" documentaries, a High
Definition version of the film that's playable on a Microsoft Media Player on
your PC, and an all-new commentary. T2 director/writer James Cameron and writer
William Wisher's commentary is both fascinating and hysterically funny to
listen to, especially the little joke that Cameron makes in reference to
Terminator 3. Other than the deleted scenes on the Terminator DVD, this is the
very first and so far only feature-length commentary that James Cameron has
given, and it alone is worth the price of this DVD. Be sure that you get the T2:
Extreme DVD, for this is the only copy that has Cameron and Wisher's commentary.
--SF