more than just action/entertainment

Rating: 9/10 (28 June 2000)

Few people seem able to step back and see a bigger picture -- assuming Arnold to be just a muscle-bound action hero doesn't do justice to his body of work.
Has anyone noticed that many of his films deal with profound issues? The idea of aliens on Mars and implanted memory from Total Recall is as provocative as the issues of artificial intelligence in computers of the Terminator series; and then there are the intelligence issues of Eraser, or another commentary on alien and human behaviour in Predator -- this is a far cry from the more benign action fluff of car chases and
explosions...
But anyway, the two most powerful scenes in the film for me are:
1. the first entrance of Arnold, which only impacts you if you've seen the first movie first - if you haven't seen either, do not see 2 until you've seen one - to do so would be to spoil your viewing experience (if reading these reviews hasn't already).
2. the scene where the T2000 is smashing Arnold's head with the heavy equipment towards the end of the film; the music creates a dark doomed feeling I've scarce experienced in modern film.
The theme of the predator becoming more human while Linda Hamilton becomes more mechanic is pure cinematic/directing genius.
The statements about the human experience, and our future, is serious. this is no vain glitter action film -- there's
plenty of things to really think about.
I'm almost tempted to raise this film above and beyond the genre of action, because it is so much more than a story of good guys shooting up bad guys.