Without Cameron touch, movie seems mechanical

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2003)

I can't really say I was disappointed. The movie turned out much like was expected for any Summer movie action sequel. I saw this movie expecting big explosions and cheesy one-liners, and it certainly delivered. But as a moviegoer, that doesn't do it for me. I like a good story to back up the action, and I did think I could get that from a Terminator movie, as has happened in the past.
That's why this movie needed Cameron. It's Cameron's story. Without him, this movie falls flat. It all feels too uneventful for a movie about the arrival of Judgement Day, the most important day in human history. This whole movie takes place in only one day. In that one day two Terminators come and go, a military secret is exposed, John Connor leaves his life as a recluse and regains his passion for saving the world and falls in love with a previously unknown character, Kate Brewster. That's the most disturbing part of the movie - this new character that turns out to be one of the most important aspects of the human resistance. Coincidentally, she was in fact a part of John's life before and could have just as much been a part of T2. But she wasn't, and we have no reason to care for her. Not only that, but she seems all too willing to take on her role as a leader. At the beginning of the day she was running an animal clinic and she happily engaged. At the end of the day, her fiance has died (which she gets over quickly), she falls in love with another man she barely knows, and she has an overwhelming fervor to lead the human race. It doesn't work. This can't be what Cameron envisioned for his characters. Don't get me started on the stupid comedic one-liners that feel sorely out of place for a Terminator movie.
Overall, this movie left me wanting more from it. I can't say that the ending wasn't a bit emotional, but it would have been so much more so with the inclusion of the original score. And let's not forget James Cameron.