My Review of Terminator 2: Judgment Day · 8:31pm Jun 4th, 2023
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, everyone! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for today! This afternoon, I will be reviewing the second installment of the Terminator franchise entitled: Terminator 2: Judgement Day! Now, this is by far one of the most well-written science fiction movies I have ever watched. This is slightly better than the first movie because it has more lore, more world-building, and character growth. It even has some creative twists within the story that captures the interest of the viewers and takes them to a much different perspective on the terminators in general.
In this movie, we see that Skynet has sent a second terminator to go after John Conner; this time, it is sent to the same timeline where John is a little kid. In this story, another terminator is sent to protect John from harm as he is the key for humanity’s salvation.
The way they wrote this script was quite brilliant. As I mentioned, it had a good flip-of-a-coin moment during the first quarter of the film. Instead of Arnold being the bad guy again, he becomes a good guy and protects John! It’s almost like James Cameron thought to himself, “What if Arnold was a good Terminator?” But he didn’t do this just for the sake of it; he made sure it would make sense for the story, and he executed this concept quite well.
The T-1000 was a formidable antagonist in this movie. Not only was he an updated model from the future but also quite a monster too. He displayed some subtle hints of sadism when he tortured Sarah to get to John and when he taunted her by wagging his finger. Robert Patrick displayed his ruthlessness and intelligence flawlessly.
Sarah Connor became even more badass than before. Despite being held within an asylum, she still kicked ass and manifested how determined she was to protect John. Linda Hamilton did a great job in this movie, and we get to see a realistic take on her traumatic experiences from the first movie. Yeah, she was a lot more violent and fierce, but considering her situation, it was definitely justified.
What I liked even more was the fact that Arnold and John get to have some chemistry and screen-time together. Although Kyle was no longer there to be his father, the second terminator served as his protector and father-like figure…at least towards the end of the movie. That’s how I saw their relationship.
And speaking of John, he was a pretty decent character. He wasn’t ground-breaking or anything, but he did have some cool moments throughout most of the movie. Edward Furlong did pretty well, in my opinion.
As much as I enjoyed the movie, it isn’t entirely perfect. The only flaw is the pacing thereof. But that might be because I only watched the director’s cut of the film, not the theatrical version. It has some unnecessary scenes that didn’t need to be in the movie such as T-1000 killing a dog and randomly searching though some stuff, and a couple scenes with John and Arnold. That’s it. Other than that, this was amazing.
The action scenes are cool, the acting is flawless, the choreography is great, and the soundtrack is as awesome as ever.
Lastly, I enjoyed the ending…the one where we only see what the road is taking us. Judgement Day has been stopped, but it has an uncertain future for both Sarah and John. Whatever may come their way, they will be ready. And Sarah got to appreciate the terminator after witnessing how capable it was to understand love and goodness. If a machine can do that, then so can we. That stood out to me the most.
With that said, I give this an 11/10. I regret not watching the theatrical cut back when it was on HBO Max (now called Max) because I’m sure it would have gotten a 12/10. Screw you, HBO Max, for taking it off the platform!!! Regardless, I still watched the movie on there even if it was an extended version.
Peace out!
(Thumbs up)
I am just going to pretend that the bright future in the alternate ending is the true conclusion of the movie and that NONE of the events taking place in the next four sequels ever happened.
The only Terminator sequel that exists to me