A work of art that can't be matched

Rating: 10/10 (23 September 2014)

Why am I writing this now? I don't really know for sure, but I just remembered how much I love this movie.
In my opinion, Terminator 2 is one of the very few perfect movies in the history of cinema. Of course, this could be debatable, but of all the films I've watched since I was born, this is one of five or six movies in which I haven't been able to find the slightest flaw. It gets a golden ten out of ten. Bright, solid, and massive.
So, I could go on with a panegyric, but I'll try to be short and accurate:
1- The direction is just perfect. Every shot is marvelous, every camera movement is breathtaking. There is absolutely nothing you could add or subtract. Touch it and you spoil it, seriously.
2- The script is a work of art, the story is mesmerizing, well-constructed, well-developed from the first movie, which was an incredible hit too, and it still has its own creations as well, and full of unpredictable twists. I don't know about you, but this take on the post-human era was unbelievably frightening. The idea of a vast army of machines taking over the world after sending off warheads to every major city is dark enough. Its power and effectiveness are yet, 23 years later, not to be matched.
3- The atmosphere is genius. Gothic, cold, and sometimes idyllic. The use of camera angles with editing techniques and the score is beyond description, and the use of sound effects is as thrilling as it gets. The result is pure magic.
4- The visual effects are the best possible for 1991, and it holds today as good as it did 23 years ago. Here you'll witness the perfect marriage between CGI, makeup, and animatronics. Stan Winston with his team and the magicians of ILM took the industry of cinema to the 21 century with ultimate success.
5- The acting is splendid. Arnold in the only role that suits him, as the protective machine T-800. Linda Hamilton as the tough woman & caring mother is more than a revelation. Robert Patrick playing the shape-shifting T-1000 gives me the creeps.
6- The score. Brad Fiedel's work matches the images so perfectly as if it is bleeding from them. It is, and will always be, the best soundtrack for a cold, hostile, post-human futuristic atmosphere in sci-fi flick ever.
7- A very good sign of a movie that has gone down in history is the amount of collectively well-remembered scenes. Well, T2 has so many that I won't go into it.
8- So, what more? I urge all cinema fans and directors to watch this movie a zillion times as I've already done, and take notes all along. But not in order to rip-off from it as many others have done, but to learn, learn, learn, learn and learn how a movie should be done. CITIZEN KANE? You must be joking.