One of the few sequels that's better than the original

Rating: 10/10 (20 June 2009)

James Cameron's blockbuster sequel to his breakout film sees two Terminators sent back in time, one to kill ten year old John Connor and one to protect him.
Cameron starts the film with a bang, a elongated prologue showing us more of a nuclear ravaged Los Angeles in 2029 and giving us our first glimpse of the leader of the human resistance, John Connor. From there its a slow build of tension as we're introduced to our characters as the rival Terminators stalk their prey, the pre teen John Connor. Every time I see this film, I always wonder how it would've been had Cameron stuck with his original intention to not reveal that Arnold is playing a good Terminator. The early scenes are deliberately set up in a way similar to the first film and it's heavily implied that it's Arnolds T-800 who is the one after killing Connor. However for some reason they decided to announce the good Terminator quite early in production. It doesn't harm the film but it would've been nice if, in those pre internet days, the twist hadn't been revealed.
From the brilliant opening motorbike chase to the rescue of a damaged Sarah Connor from the local Mental Institute, the film hardly stops for breath with its spectacular stunts and FX showcasing the latest breakthroughs in CGI, the T-1000 sequences still stand up to this day. The middle reel then takes a well intended breather to discuss the implications of changing the future and whether this impacts on fate and destiny before the final reel hits fifth gear with Sarah Connor's failed assassination attempt on Miles Dyson, the attack on Cyberdyne and the showdown with the T-1000 in an Industrial Foundry.
One of the most impressive aspects of Cameron's films is that he gets outstanding work out of his actors. Linda Hamilton returns as a psychologically damaged Sarah Connor with a brilliant progression of the innocent waitress we saw in the first film, Arnold Schwarzenegger has never been better as the self learning T-800 and Robert Patrick is chilling as the liquid metal T-1000. Special mention should also go to Edward Furlong, who impresses as the young John Connor in his feature film debut. It's a real shame that his career didn't take off after this, with his only other notable acting work being American History X, but apparently his real life problems have hampered his progress in Hollywood in recent years but more on that with my review of T3.
T2 was considered quite a gamble at the time of release. Cameron was coming off commercial failure The Abyss, it was leaked quite early that Arnie that would be playing a good Terminator (something that raised quite a few fan eyebrows) and the film was, at the time, the most expensive ever produced but Cameron delivers the goods, producing one of those rare sequels that is even better than the original, and even rarer (especially in these days of dumbed down summer films), an intelligent action blockbuster.
Probably the action film of the 1990's and certainly, in my opinion, up there with fellow best action films of all time Raiders of the Lost Ark and Die Hard. 10/10