Film which shows you the value of TEARS

Rating: 9/10 (15 February 2014)

People say James Cameroon's best film is the titanic, some even say its the "avatar"(crazy). But the first thing that pops to my head when i hear the word Cameroon is "The Terminator 2", which I believe undoubted, is his crowning possession. Sure the whole series is based on a BIG paradox and the movie ignores those that come during its 150 minute runtime unlike "Back to the Future" series where everything done seems to have a reciprocal change in the future. But as per Steven Hawking's theory once you travel to the past paradoxes are unavoidable and traveling to the past is impossible. Anyway, I have watched this movie plenty of times when i was a kid. All that was exciting to me then was how the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) takes bullets gets fired and frozen but still forms back again. I am still baffled how a machine could be completely liquid without having a programming chip or CPU or something.
Though the movie is based on a big "logical loop" as i call it, you never have the time to think about it as once the movie starts which has great action sequences but what makes this movie remarkable is it circles around 2 basic human aspects
1) A kid's sense of trust (some may call it innocence) &
2) A mother's urge (madness) to protect her child, doesn't matter who is trying to harm.
The story begins with the arrival of both the terminators and us knowing that john's mother (Linda Hamilton) is in a medical institution for attacking the head quarters of cyberdyme (that will invent skynet). So now the poor kid john (Edward Furlong) does no longer believes in anything his mother lectured repeatedly about the war, judgment day & terminators.
Then we have the fight in the mall followed by a chase sequence on the roads which is brilliantly choreographed, it makes perfect use of Arnold Schwarzenegger's (t-800) grace with guns and bikes. Then the boy gets to know about the t-800 and that it has to obey his commands, this starts what i made the movie so good "the relation between the boy and the stone face". The boy orders t-800 to come with him to rescue his mom which they succeed (after making the stone face swears not to kill anyone despite it asking "why?", "of course, i am a terminator").
The director also shows the POV of Sarah (john's mom). A dream which she repeatedly has where she is playing with John but suddenly everything is destroyed, this sort of sets up the tone for her character which she so brilliantly portrays. She wants to have a normal motherhood but she always has the feeling that some form of harm is nearing her son and that it's inevitable.
As the movie proceeds the director does a brilliant job of stringing together some conversations between john and t-800 where the boy talks about his experiences and t-800 quietly listens (but does ask an occasional question "why do you cry?"). By doing so the director puts us in the position of the terminator he makes us relate directly with the kid and though he gives occasional glimpses of maturity he still is a kid underneath (who else trusts a terminator?). So involuntarily we don't want the kid to be harmed.
Sarah is always suspicious of t-800 and would have terminated him if it weren't for john. But gradually she starts trusting it (its mission rather) when the t-800 is always around the boy listening to all he has to say, doing everything he says without disobeying. She believes that it (stone face) will always be there to protect john (we do too) and that "in an insane world it was the sanest choice".
Then there comes arguably the most popular scene in the movie when t-800 shoots with the GE M134 minigun against the cops outside cyberdyme headquarters. Then comes the climax of the movie where t-1000, the chips from the other terminator and Arnold itself are all destroyed. All action sequences are all good and Robert Patrick (the bad terminator) does an incredible job of looking as mean as his co- terminator.
In the end the dialogue "I need a vacation" seemed cheeky and unnecessary but "now I know why you cry but it's something that I can never do" is flawless. A special must go the background score of the film composed by Brad Fiedel. Funny thing about terminators if their mission fails they become useless and have no reason to exist & if it succeeds they have nothing either. It's now are never for them. I wish humans were that way.
P.S: The way t-1000 shouts and changes into all the humans it has imitated after it falls to its doom ( molten steel) showing as though it could "feel""pain" was totally illogical as if it could then wouldn't it have felt pain each time it hits a wall or is shot at??????