Excellent effects and performances but the script has some issues that haven't aged well

Rating: 7/10 (31 October 2019)

When this movie came out, it was a watershed moment, especially among us 11-year-olds who were just now able to see R-rated movies here and there. At the time, we weren't thinking critically about whether things made much sense and we weren't comparing it to the first movie (which most of us saw later). The film changed the game of what a big-budget R-rated action movie could be, with top notch effects and plenty of scenes that will stay with you many years later.
As a jaded middle-aged adult who has studied and attempted my share script writing and film making, I can certainly appreciate the original film as a mini-masterpiece of mood, atmosphere, and a lean, mean film all around. It's got a few underwhelming effects shots but overall a miraculous production considering its relatively low budget.
Here with the sequel, they upped the budget 15 times, Arnold was already a major movie star, they threw in a spunky kid to be his sidekick, and so they had to up the threat level in terms of a new invulnerable foe. With the T-1000, I would say they were 100% successful in creating an interesting and relentless threat via the groundbreaking effects and Robert Patrick's genius performance. However, in the script, the machine would have been a lot scarier more tense had it behaved a little smarter.
For instance - I don't understand why it has to keep reverting to the same form as Robert Patrick even later in the film when everyone knows who he is. One of its main assets is that it can copy other people and infiltrate. Think how easy it would have been to get closer to John in the factory if it just took the form of Arnold or anyone else who would seem more trustworthy. Another issue is that it doesn't just obliterate Arnold when it gets the chance on at least two occasions. I think since it's a more advanced model, it'd be aware of Arnold's power core and CPU location and could easily have just punctured those things and walked away. Why didn't it do this? Well, because we wouldn't have had a movie otherwise.
After the amazing T-1000 morphing effects and a few heartless, dehumanizing kills, I still have to say that I'm a bit let down that this film just doesn't have the dark edginess and grit that the original had. It's not a small movie about a pursuit but a more muddled epic affair where the main characters go off on a bit of a tangent to change history later in the film which robs it of a lot of its energy. While it boasts bigger chase scenes with impressive choreography, the film had a lot less fatalities in an effort to give it more mass audience appeal.
It's unfortunate the terminator doesn't get to terminate anyone, even prior to receiving his new orders, especially as it later comes to the detriment of the main characters as the officers he merely wounds are still capable of disrupting their plans. The film itself lacks daring to give the characters a hard choice; what if killing a few people could prevent the end of the world? Could you still do it? It would have been so much more interesting to see characters just go with a bold choice instead of playing it both ways in such a wishy-washy manner.
Cameron just kept making bigger and bigger films as the years went on, with TITANIC and AVATAR both decent films but way more lavish and expensive than the scripts really dictated. Also an unfortunately byproduct of the success of this film would be the solidification of a repetitive formula that would haunt the franchise this spawned. The concept of a future war between humans and machines has so much that could be done with it. Why is every film in this series just another time travel plot about protecting some future savior of mankind and a bunch of chase scenes? Oh yeah, because this film made so much money, and the studios just think that all we will ever want is more of the same.