Still going strong

Rating: 8/10 (26 April 2006)

15 years on and still Terminator 2 remains a turning point in cinematic history introducing the world to photo-realistic computer generated 3D rendering. To this day, this is still an astounding achievement, however (ironically) these are the things that re-watching the film now, you notice as not being to the standard we now expect films to be.
As a result of this, you're then forced to look beyond the graphics in search of other quality. When I last watched it (about 3 weeks ago), something stood out to me that never did before because of no longer being mesmerised by the graphics.
This was the interactions between characters who are gritting, no nonsense, hard edged people, but those who care deeply for one another. In particular, I'm referring to Sarah and John Connor, but also to the inhuman T-101 in all it's programming trying to humanise itself (at the demand if John).
Though these might sound like day to day interactions (pardoning the whole terminator and robotic elements here), but to put them onto film and not have them feel forced or contrived is quite a feat, and all of these were achieved far above the expectation of one watching an "action" movie. You truly believe that John is devastated to have to lose T-101. You can tell he's fearful about Sarah going off to kill the man who would kill the world, unwittingly.
I urge you all to sit down and watch this film again. You will remember things you've long since forgotten, and maybe appreciate something you never even noticed was there before.