blockbuster mayhem for FX junkies

Rating: 5/10 (7 January 2011)

In director James Cameron's blockbusting sequel to his popular 1984 hit the indestructible killer from the 21st century returns to 1990 Los Angeles, this time to protect a future revolutionary leader against an even more deadly assassin, able to change shape at will. Arnold Schwarzenegger has the advantage of superior firepower, but the script wants to present him as a surrogate, cybernetic father figure, softening a role already ideally suited to his limited talents (poor Arnold can't even portray a convincing robot without effort).
The liquid metal computer effects are impressive, and the spectacular action sequences are staged with cold, mechanical precision, turning what could have been a thrill-a-minute adventure into the big-screen equivalent of an arcade video game. In the end the film amounts to little more than a marathon of furious destruction, undermined by some pretentious moralizing and by an absurd streak of pacifism: Arnold's terminator is ordered not to kill anyone, so instead he simply (yuk, yuk) maims half the armed forces of the Free World.