The Terminator faces judgement.

Rating: 10/10 (31 August 2019)

Catching the sequel first after being given a video of it by family friend Guy Morgan, (who tragically passed away in March this year at age 46)I was left breathless by the sheer scale of the epic Action set-pieces. Going to a double bill of the first (also reviewed) and second Terminator flicks on the big screen for a friends birthday,I got set to see judgement day unleashed.
View of the film:
Given away in the marketing, co-writer/(with William Wisher) directing auteur James Cameron slyly plays on the original image of Terminator in the opening, keeping the new T-1000 as a polite, mild-mannered cop asking around for John,a contrast to the bar room brawling, Harley riding Terminator. Revealing in a criss-cross shoot-out that Terminator is now on the Connor's side, Cameron impressively concludes the Terminator saga, whilst at the same time building on themes that run across his credits, plugged into a warning of technical advances in the (unintended) inventor of Terminator being confronted by his creation warning of a future nuclear holocaust.
Although the message is layered out a bit thickly in Sarah's narration, (something which re-occurs in Cameron's titles) the writers continue the parental theme from Sarah being pregnant with John at the end of the first, to here John (a wonderfully scrappy Edward Furlong) developing a fatherly relationship with the Terminator, who stops Sarah from becoming a killing machine who sees " no fate" in the world, which leads to Sarah (a tough, burnt at the edges Linda Hamilton) going on a road to optimism that if a Terminator can overcome machines to find humanity,mankind may also be able to.
The first film with a $100 million budget, Director James Cameron & his regular cinematographer Adam Greenberg put every cent on screen in spectacular Action set-pieces, locked and loaded on nail-biting chase sequences of the camera following Terminator (a blunt,dead-pan comedic Arnie) trying to keep the Connor's safe. Reuniting with Stan Winston, Cameron combines Winston's practical creations with ILM's CGI to mesmerising effect, via the the morphing liquid metal of the T-1000 (a chilling, dead behind the eyes Robert Patrick) smashing the twisted, damaged metal of the Terminator in a battle for judgement day.