Ultimately cool, though even masterminds make mistakes.

Rating: 8/10 (9 October 2001)

Yesterday I watched Terminator 2 Judgment day THE ULTIMATE EDITION and I must say it is quite the experience. Not only the extra's and the menu screens, but the film is somewhat of a more 'complete' experience as well. I mean some of the 'new' scenes make a better or just another sense then they did before. I mean I do not want to ruin anything for anybody, but for anybody who wondered how to choose between 2, without hesitating is possible, this film shows it (I hope this was cryptic enough for those who haven't seen this film and specific enough for those who have). This ULTIMATE EDITION is really a great experience. Although it is filled up with about 15 minutes more than the original theatrical version it still is good. I mean there are no things added to this edition that I think should have been edited in the first place. Why the heck did they take these parts out, I wonder.

Anyway all the actors in this film are great. Linda Hamilton as the die - hard b..ch from hell. Edward Furlong as the lonesome kid, who hasn't got anybody really and of course Arnold Schwarzenegger. He just ROCKS. Ok say what you want about Schwarzenegger. I know he is no great character actor, but he does his job well and he has a certain kind of humor, which he also shows in this movie (as well as in True Lies). But that is not the fact that he is so great in this. The reason for that is rather the same as in THE TERMINATOR. He is excellently cast, with his muscular body and his grim face, along with the mechanical walk he adapted. He just makes the perfect machine. I miss out on the villain as well though, Robert Patrick, he is very cool too. A ruthless killing machine, without any regrets whatsoever.

Another thing that is really great here is the direction. Especially the scenes, that take place in the future and the action scenes. There is some blood squirting around when people go shooting, but despite that, this one is not as violent as the first one. I also think James Cameron did a great job in putting some critique about human behavior in it and also inserting some drama into the story and even the 'emotionless' cyborg. The special effects, once great are still good, although they are getting a bit old, just as the movie. But have no fear, it will not affect your viewing pleasure.

Despite the greatness, there is one thing I do not really understand here and that is how James Cameron, the mastermind could have made such a BIG, HUGE, ENORMOUS mistake in his story as I (obviously) witnessed. I mean, there are some minor things in this film that I think are not too good, like the fact that Cameron makes us believe Sarah is 29 in this film and John is 10 (which would have made Linda Hamilton 18 or 19 in the first movie!!!!), but this is really a FAULT and a big one. It is BIG in a sense that it could have been avoided easily, without ever hurting the film at all, whereas overlooking this fault, it kind of hurt the film from my view (if you did not notice THIS mistake, do not worry; I've seen this film about 8 times). Here it comes (BEAR IN MIND, THERE COULD BE SPOILERS HERE) : Remember when driving into the desert somewhere with Sarah (Hamilton) and John (Furlong), the Terminator (Schwarzenegger) tells them all about Skynet and how 3 years from then they will develop something leading to the nuclear blast in August 1997? (If you don't fast forward to that part). This is not possible within the story sketched, because the film takes place in 1995. Therefore something happening three years later (1998) could not have influence on something in August 1997. The big question now is, how the hell do I know this film takes place in 1995? Well, in the beginning when the T 1000 (Patrick) steals the cop car he looks up info about John Connor and when you look closely at the screen it says: Age: 10 and Date of Birth: something, something 1985. Well it hurts me to say this but this is a pretty obvious mistake, that could have simply been avoided by making Arnold say: 'In two years.' instead of 'In three years.' (POSSIBLE SPOILER END). Normal people might not spot this and I hope not to have sc..wed up somebody's film experience, but I just have always felt that there was something wrong with this films timeline. But now that I've finally spot it, I can enjoy this film at ease and admit that it is, in no way worse than it's predecessor, rather just not as original anymore, because when you see THE TERMINATOR shortly before this one, you just notice that there are a lot of similar scenes in both movies plus it is not as magic and amazing as it was before (that goes for every monster, machine or dinosaur sequel). Despite all that I can recommend everyone to go see the ULTIMATE EDITION, for it will bring you the MAXimized T2 film experience as it was meant to be.

8 out of 10