An action classic

Rating: 10/10 (14 July 2018)

Terminator 2 (1991) Review
Set ten years after the 1984 classic Arnold Schwarzenegger returns but this time his muscular cyborg is reprogrammed to protect the young John Connor. Meanwhile his mother Sarah Connor is doing time in a psychiatric prison because people think she is insane. John Connor is a troubled juvenile living with foster parents who he hates. He can hack into cash machines due to his mother preparing him for the future which even he doesn't believe. This time the robot on their trail is an unstoppable liquid metal cyborg played brilliantly by Robert Patrick who can morph his arms into knives, run really fast and change into anybody he touches
A few tiny nitpicks so say about it is retreads a few things from the original and the pacing sometimes feels slow. However the film never really stops for breath and the action has been amped up considerably since the last one. From an opening future war battle, two truck chases, a prison breakout and a few epic shootout scenes it's nothing short of breathtaking. They really focus on Sarah Connors journey here and Linda Hamilton plays her as a bad-ass who is always combat ready, doesn't trust anyone and can really defend herself. With all the action spectacle going on the film tackles a lot of themes like family, morals, friendship, war and even parenthood which is a testament to James Cameron's great writing.
From impressive sound effects, editing, music and cinematography Terminator 2 is one of the best action sci-fi films ever made, it's one of the most adored films of the 90s and easily the best sequel ever made. It was clear from the start that Cameron wanted to make a franchise from his original material. It has a much bigger budget than the last film leaving them to splash out on all the resources at hand to create the T-1000. Using state of the art CGI they pull it off with incredible results. Seamlessly mixing practical effects with CG animations the effects still look marvellous to this day. From a haunting vision of a nuclear bomb to the make-up effects it all just looks perfect.