Great movie, except for the annoying brat kid

Rating: 9/10 (17 September 2002)

I seem to be in the minority here (based on the IMDb top 250 movie ratings) in that, spectacular as T2 is, I still prefer the original. Now, I must say that, having just watched it on DVD after having not seen it since it was playing in theaters, it's a better movie than I initially thought. Back then, I remembered it being a case of stunning special effects and amazing stunts trumping the basic story and characters (much like Independence Day), this in contrast to T-1 where they merely complemented them. I still think that is somewhat true, however, after watching this movie again, I really do have to give credit to most of the actors, as well as the writer(s), for a job well done.
First off, Arnold simply delivers. Just as no one else could have played the terminator in the first movie, he's the only one who could play it in this one. He's still a machine, but much like Star Trek's Mr. Spock, there's a hint of humanity and humor right below the surface, and to portray this skillfully requires a degree of subtlety that Schwarzenegger hadn't previously been noted for. Robert Patrick is perfect as the emotionless, yet relentless machine sent to kill john Connor. Linda Hamilton returns, only now she has to escape from a mental institute to save her son, Earl Boen also returns as the perfect combination of jerk and dork as Sarah's shrink, and on and on. Perhaps the best scenes, at least in terms of emotional intensity, are the ones in the psych ward, where Sarah goes from determined escapee to terrified woman fleeing at her first encounter with the (good) terminator at the elevator to protective mom when the three of them steal a cop car and make their escape. The only thing I would have added would have been to show what happened to Dr. Silberman after he witnessed the encounter between Sarah, her son, and the two terminators. After all, he was the one who'd been scoffing at Sarah from the beginning, so it would have been amusing to see how he dealt with finding out that, far from being a loony, Sarah had simply been telling the truth. Would they have had to lock him up, or would he have simply gone into denial to protect his sanity and his reputation?
Anyway, the bottom line is this film grabs you from the beginning and doesn't let go till the credits roll. The amount of action is simply stunning, just think of what it took to film the final 30 minutes or so, from the gunplay at the Cyberdyne headquarters to the helicopter chase, and ending up in the steel factory. The story is well paced and, for the most part, the acting first rate. The only exception I'll make is for the kid. There are many instances where his dialog is simply awful, and his basic character seems unsuitable for someone who's supposed to be a great leader in the future. As just one example, there's a scene early on, shortly after John and the terminator have escaped from the mall, where he yells to a couple of guys to `help get this psycho off me!' then, when they actually come over to do just that, he insults them and has the terminator nearly beat them to death. This was just the worst scene he's featured in, but there are plenty of others, such as, right after the aforementioned scene, he tries to explain to the terminator why he can't kill people, but he seems unable to come up with a better rationale than `because you just can't. Trust me on this'. I'll be blunt Â– this kid (at least for me) is fully as annoying as Jar Jar Binks was in `Phantom Menace', and of course, since he's one of the main characters, it definitely detracts from an otherwise great movie. So, for that I rate it 9 out of ten.