about as good as basic action movies get

Rating: 7/10 (20 August 2000)

This movie is so deftly composed that the "battle" scenes take on a heightened reality.
Many action flicks - MI:2 is a good example - seem so absurd that it pops you back into reality rather than absorbing you into the action (in MI:2, for example, we are supposed to believe that the characters deliberately jump off their motorcycles to do a high speed body slam, fall 50 ft., survive without injury and shake it off immediately, then resume their fight.... puh-leaze, take a course in physics, or at least common sense). T2 seems believable, in the sense that the terminators act in much the way their capabilities are outlined, and the way the scenes unfold with a degree of intelligence.
That intelligence undoubtably comes from Director Cameron: you get the impression that he didn't just blindly shoot a scene, but stood their scratching his chin to think of interesting, exciting, yet reasonable ways to proceed (eg. the scene with Arnold solving his tanker truck problem near the end of the movie).... "What WOULD a smart terminator do here?" Arnold probably contributed significantly, too, as he's no dummy.
As action flicks go, this is pretty basic - interesting premise, but it's not as meaningful as the old movie "The Great Escape" or as intriguing or with the character development of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". But if you are looking for an entertaining and novel good guy vs. bad guy movie, and if you appreciate AH-nold at his droll best, this is a great bet.