Disclaimer: If you are
a viewer that mainly prefers arthouse-type movies, then you might as
well ignore this review. In addition, if you're not able to take a few
sci-fi leaps of faith, ignore this review, as well. We'll both be better
off.
This is the finest action movie of all time. And, yet,
believe it or not, it's not the action in the film itself that makes
this be the case. This is especially odd in a movie with a $100 million
budget (in 1991!), with multiple huge explosions, with thousands of
bullets fired, and scores of stuntmen used.
This movie is what it
is, a perfect 10, because it takes the vision of one of the most
imaginative directors on Earth, and realizes them almost perfectly with
all the tools that fit the task -- actors, stunts, puppetry, models, and
CG. Without the vision, this film would be nothing. Without the tools,
this film would be nothing.
But, a little bit of background is
due. This is the sequel to the Terminator (1984), whose premise was that
a near-indestructible cyborg is sent by evil self-aware machines from
the near future to destroy the mother-to-be of the military commander
who would lead the humans to a victory over the machines. Oh, and this
terminator machine would come from a time of war between men and
machines which followed a nuclear exchange that left billions of people
dead, first. In Terminator 2, John Connor (the commander-to-be) is about
12 years old, and his mother (Sarah) is feverishly trying to prepare
him for his fate, even as she tries to stop the factors that will lead
to the nuclear war and the entire terrible future that made all this
necessary. The machines now send a superior, more intelligent,
shape-shifting cyborg (T1000) into the past, to kill John himself.
Meanwhile, future-John reprograms the ex-evil Terminator (T101) from the
original film, and sends him into the past to PROTECT John against the
T1000.
That's your basic plot. It does involve travel into the
past, so it immediately presents a time-travel paradox which can't
really be resolved. In order to even try watching this movie, you MUST
LOOK PAST THE PARADOX. If you don't, this movie has zero credibility,
and is not worth your time.
What happens after the two
terminators appear in the past is a wild ride rife with macho action,
dark reflection on the nature of man, and a few rays of hope, here and
there. Schwarzenegger (the good terminator) and Patrick (the bad one)
make for such effective foes that the times they meet on-screen are
completely breathtaking (and odd, given that you repeatedly see the
relatively slim T1000 through Arnie through a wall or two). Hamilton, as
Sarah Connor, is a wonderful character -- tough beyond all belief and
completely focussed on preventing the nuclear war and ensuring John's
safety, yet clearly a little out of her mind with paranoia and anger;
amazingly, you see actual character development (specifically, when John
and T101 arrive at Dyson's house to prevent her from doing what she
wants to) in her otherwise 2-dimensional character. And Furlong, as
John, is not bad himself as the extroverted kid who's confused by the
fact that everyone except his mom tell him his entire upbringing was
based on a lie. The bit players all do their jobs well, particularly
Earl Boen who plays the semi-sadistic mental hospital warden that stands
between Sarah Connor and her son (until the T1000 makes a chilling
entrance).
With these players set in motion, it's up to the
script to deliver the real substance of the movie. (One often sees great
performances in mediocre films... here the story transcends the
performances -- an impressive feat.) The script delivers. The film is
absolutely filled with great, classic moments (I counted TEN all-star
ones during my last viewing), and they're evenly spaced through the
movie. I mean, who doesn't cheer (at least inside) when Arnold steps out
of the biker bar, fully clad in leather when "Bad to the Bone" music
starts to blast? The guy absolutely bleeds coolness. And the T1000
absolutely bleeds evil. But, with so many great moments, you'd think the
pacing would be a little uneven... not really! The film shifts from
place to place with an ease that makes perfect sense, never giving you
the time to start being a little nitpicking jerk, always driving
forward, but always doing so thoughtfully and with attention to detail.
Of
course, this wouldn't be an action movie without some action. There's
plenty of it, and it's perfectly done. The CG effects for the
shape-shifting T1000 were cutting-edge for the time, and still look
great (whoever said differently below is simply incorrect) -- even if
they're completely commonplace today. The stunts are completely insane
in scale (at one point, a helicopter flies under a highway overpass; at
another, a motorcycle jumps from the 2nd floor of a building into a
flying chopper). (Probably, only the Matrix and the Lord of the Rings
movies compare in terms of the level of stunt insanity.) And the gunplay
is delivered in perfect Cameron-Schwarzenegger style (as opposed to the
slo-mo John Woo-style) -- you'll see lots of heavy automatic and
explosive weapons, and you'll see them used well. The film is violent,
and somewhat bloody, but ALL of the mean-spirited violence is dealt by
the evil characters, not the ones you root for (Quentin Tarantino fans:
sorry). And then the truly amazing scenes that bypass acting are
shocking and memorable -- just wait until the nuclear detonation
sequence.
I'm not sure what else you would want in a movie.
Probably moral content, and the movie has a very clear pro-human,
anti-war message. The message is a bit stale, and the delivery IS, at
times, a little heavy-handed (and some moments with the T101 seem just a
bit unrealistic, towards the end), but the movie has heart, and that
you cannot deny. Plus, it simply rocks. 10/10
