King of the Action Flicks?

Rating: 9/10 (2 November 2009)

Most action movies follow a pretty predictable sequence. There's nothing written in stone, but the movie tends to have an introduction, an epic conclusion, and then fills the intervening hour or two carefully switching between scenes of suspense, heroics, setbacks, triumphs, evil ploys and noble sacrifices. The more you watch, the more you notice the formula.
Terminator 2 is one of the few good action movies that dares to throw the formula out the window, and that is what makes it so great. Instead of structuring the plot to build suspense by the book, Terminator 2 makes the bold move of telling a linear story where every scene actually has to be multi-dimensional and build the plot in a creative and new way. This is very hard to do, each scene practically has to be written from scratch like a chapter of a good book, and the difficulty of making that style of film-making succeed is why so many films rely on the trusty old formula.
The structuring of Terminator 2 is a subtle thing to notice, but I do think it contributed to its success, and certainly to the relatively serious respect its given as a film. No one is going to confuse it with an art house film, of course, but at the same time, it does something that formula thrillers like "Air Force One" don't even try to do, it tells a story in an original, genuinely creative way without relying on traditional suspense-building clichés. In its own way, this film is a work of art.
Of course, the film has much more obvious assets. The film's calling card will always be the epic action and special effects sequences - Arnold riding his bike off a ledge, twirling his shotgun around to reload it, tearing aside his fake skin to reveal the metal parts below - "Terminator 2" was a stunningly exciting film when it came out, and its visuals don't feel dated at all even 18 years later.
Still, though, a lot of other films have had competent special effects. Why do people consider T2 a classic instead of films like "Independence Day", which also invested heavily in effects? It's not enough to just generate 15 minutes of jaw-dropping visuals in a 2 hour movie. You need to be creative about what you're actually depicting. A $10 million scene that's carefully crafted into the film's narrative is always going to do more for the audience than a similarly expensive scene that doesn't bother to give the audience any real reason to care about what's happening. Terminator 2 is a movie where the director spends time on the non-action scenes, treating them as more than just filler, and this really pays off because instead of seeing a nifty visual sequence with some character you don't particularly care about, the excitement of the action scenes in Terminator 2 is actually enhanced greatly because you like the good guys on a deeper level than in a formulaic action film.
T2 is one of the high watermarks of action films. Everyone should see it, it's that simple.