Overall, an excellent sequel

Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2006)

Terminator 2 is one of those rare sequels that almost surpasses the original. Ten years after the first movie, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) ends up in a mental institution because of her ravings about the end of the world. Her rebellious son John (Edward Furlong) lives with foster parents. The movie begins the same way as the first with a T-800 (Arnold) coming back in time, except this time Arnold is the good guy assigned to protect John Connor from the T-1000 (Robert Patrick). If this was the plot of the film, I'm sure it wouldn't have been as successful. Cameron was smart enough to make the movie about the mission to prevent Judgment Day, so it gave us something fresh (although some scenes are recycled).
Terminator 2's greatest merit is that it has some of the best action sequences ever filmed. Since Cameron had a much larger budget on this movie, the action scenes are much more impressive than in T1. My favorite one is when Arnold and the T-1000 meet for the first time; the expressions on their faces are so intense! The movie was a breakthrough in CGI effects; The liquid metal scenes are still impressive today.
Plus, Linda Hamilton has much more to work with here than she did in T1, and I commend her for getting into such great shape (she had 1% body fat or something). Patrick, while not as menacing as Arnold, still delivers a chilling performance as the T-1000.
Despite all the praises I can give this film, I still think the first movie is slightly better. First of all, I just did not care for the characters in this film as much as I did in the first. Why? Because the sense of danger in T2 just wasn't as great as it was in T1. This can be attributed to two factors:
1. Arnold was a scarier villain than Robert Patrick, which probably has more to do with his size rather than his acting ability. Arnold was a predator; Kyle and Sarah were in constant danger. It also has to do with the fact that the T-1000 disappears for about 30-40 minutes in the middle. The Terminator's feeling of desperation was all but absent in the sequel.
2. The T-800 and the T-1000 seemed pretty evenly matched up until the last twenty minutes of the movie. As a result, it feels like John and Sarah's chances of success are pretty good. In the first movie, it felt like Reese and Sarah had no chance of defeating the Terminator, which really helped build up the suspense. In T2, John and Sarah have a nearly invincible hero on their side; the audience knows that no matter how many bullets hit him, he won't get hurt. The appeal of the action in this film is more about Arnold kicking ass and special effects, not fear. The movie does not lack suspense entirely though, it's still very exciting.
The Terminator was also better paced than T2. (SPOILERS) After the Terminator and John free Sarah from the mental hospital, the movie just shuts down for a little bit too long.
My only other criticism is the corny friendship between the Terminator and John Connor. Edward Furlong's performance isn't very good, which can partially be attributed to some stupid lines. This might sound shallow, but even his voice got on my nerves after a while. He is tolerable most of the time though. In my opinion, the love story in the first film was more touching and dramatically satisfying.
Still, T2 is a thrill ride that is necessary for any fan of action flicks.