It Can't Get Bigger Than This!

Rating: 10/10 (29 September 2008)

Sequels suffer from a problem. They are always made under pressure to keep up to the success of the predecessor. And also, they are scrutinized much more and often compared to the predecessor. The Terminator 2: Judgment Day not only soaks all the pressure but actually creates a movie that stands out its own as one of the best movies ever made in the history of Hollywood.
The role has been reversed. The Terminator i.e. Arnold is no longer the bad guy. He is now a reprogrammed cyborg sent by the human resistance to protect John Conner as he is being stalked by a more advanced cyborg, the T-1000, played by Robert Patrick. And boy oh boy, the T-1000 is great. He can take shapes and is almost invincible. "Almost" is the keyword here, of course. The T-1000 is light-weight and hence more athletic. None could play this role better than Robert Patrick. The perfect pleasant yet straight look in his face, his athletic body makes him the ideal T-1000.
The story goes by smoothly leading from one event to another in perfect harmony. The action sequences are extremely convincing. At no point of time, one gets the feeling that there is too much exaggeration and that the movie makers have been carried away in the process of making the action scenes. The chase sequence involving the rescue of John Conner by the Terminator is among the best done scenes ever.
The movie takes one step further. It showcases John Conner developing a strong relationship with the Terminator and this relation is unique in the sense that the other person cannot simply reciprocate it. And it shows Artificial Intelligence trying to reason out human emotions but with not so much success. Arnold does this bit perfectly, mimicking all the various emotions of the people he sees around and also finding the right time to use all the slang that is being taught to him by his boss i.e. John Conner.
The music score adds magic to the movie. As the tension builds up in the movie, the music does everything to convince us the height of the situation. The sound effects also play their role. With a good music system, the movie easily convinces us that indeed a bullet has been shot, a bike has been started and a rod has just pierced the metal skeleton of the cyborg. The one-liner that was made famous in the previous movie does not find some cheap place here but there is a different one-liner altogether that is introduced, well timed and equally cool.
The movie just fails to disappoint. A perfect 10 for this movie. It shall forever be among the best movie of all times for a very long time to come.