A blazing big-budget sci-fi thriller, very creative, to be entirely experienced...

Rating: 9/10 (3 August 2003)

A strange lightning forms a circular opening in mid-air, and in the sudden flare of light we see a figure in a sphere of energy... It is the figure of a naked man... 'Terminator' has come through... He stands, and impassively surveys its surroundings...
His physique is massive and perfect... His face devoid of emotion... He's not here to kill Sara Connor... His mission now is to protect the future savior of mankind, her son John... Thirty years from now, Terminator was reprogrammed to be John Connor's protector here, in this time... Terminator would never leave him... Terminator would never hurt him... Terminator would die to defend him against any danger...
But Skynet, the computer which controlled the Machines, sent an advanced prototype back through time, to destroy the leader of the human Resistance, little John...
T-1000 is very menacing... His features are handsome bordering on severe... Its face is simple, unformed... His eyes are gray ice, penetrating... He is certainly not built like Terminator with complex hydraulics and cables... He is human-shaped but far from human...
Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfect as the super-hero... He never threatens, that's a human thing! He just takes... He can jerk any knife out without slowing a stride... His hand blurs out like a striking cobra...
We watch him smashing the cover plate off the phone's cash box with the heel of his hand... And when the bullets rake his chest, he doesn't even draw back... We observe him in slow motion how he fights for control, how he jumps his bike, sweeps a street kid off his machine with one arm and swings him in front of him...
Robert Patrick is a super-villain, a perfect chameleon... He can change shape and color... He can imitate anything it touches, anything it samples by physical contact, any object of equal size...
He is a 'killing machine' with the ultimate skills of mimicry for infiltration of human society... He looks and acts exactly like a 'cop' but with quite a few surprises... His arms and fingers can be turned smoothly into something else... He spins at a sound... His blow is lighting fast... He pulls the trigger so fast it almost seems like a machine-pistol... He is cool, alert, confident in his power... His expression emotionless and judgmental...
Linda Hamilton is not a mission priority... She is the same woman we remember from last time... Her body is straight and taut... Her arms are lean and muscular... Her eyes peer out through a wild tangle of hair like those of a cornered animal... Her voice is a low and chilling monotone... Her expression cold and impassive... She is defiant and intense... She looks hard...
Hamilton seems to have the weight of the whole world on her shoulder.. She draws her knife from its belt sheath, and idly starts to carve something on the table top, the letter "N." Something changes in her eyes... Her face is an impassive mask... We see the forces at war behind her eyes... She has become a 'Terminator,' intending to change the future somehow...
Edward Furlong is young John Connor... He is a ten-year tough delinquent, targeted for termination... He has short yellowish hair and a sullen mouth... His eyes reveal an intelligence as sharp as a scalpel... His interactions with his 'protector' give the movie effective moments of psychological depth...
He reluctantly shows his friend a shot of his mother, pregnant, in a jeep near the Mexican border... John doesn't know it now, but he will carry the photo with him for over 30 years, and give it to a young man named Kyle Reese, who will travel back in time to become his father...
Joe Morton is Miles Dyson, the star of the Special Projects at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation... He is a man in a hurry, a man with much to do... He's brilliant, aggressive, driven.. In a few months he creates a revolutionary type of microprocessor... He can be the man most directly responsible for 3 billion deaths on August 29th, 1997... The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day, will live only to face a new nightmare, the war against the Machines...
His face, his posture, his ragged voice express soul-wrenching terror... This is a man ripped out of normal life into a grim world... He looks up, through his pain and incomprehension, and asks himself: Why is this nightmare happening?
The level of violence in Cameron's film is pretty intense... The special effects are outstanding... They look realistic... The action scenes are amazing, very well executed... James Cameron tries to provide a message of peace... The music score is almost perfect... The plot is intriguing... The motion picture features excellent performances...
'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' is a blazing big-budget sci-fi thriller, very creative, to be entirely experienced... A definite must-see movie...