TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY
[Spoilers]
A film review by Jim Griffith
Copyright 1991 Jim Griffith
Well, I went to a sneak preview last night, and I naturally have to say a few words about this movie.
Go see it.
Now.
Drop whatever you're doing, sell your children if necessary, and go and see this movie.
Siskel and Ebert apparently called it "the best action movie since DIE HARD 2" in their review. I don't think they're doing it justice. I would call it "the best action movie since RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK".
I gotta start by commenting on the plot (without spoiling -- yet). The plot was very well done, making it the best *sequel* I've ever seen. The story makes sense, there aren't any gaping logic flaws (if you ignore some of the technological explanations they make), and it fits very well with the original, without being even slightly contrived or generally predictable. While there aren't any violent twists, there weren't a lot of places where they went with what I considered to be the obvious route.
The special effects are superb, and well worth the serious amount of money they spent to make them. Admittedly, I'm sort of biased, since my graphics professor worked on them (Mark Dippe', HI MARK!). Those of you who saw THE ABYSS will recognize the technology involved, and you'll see how far they've taken their techniques. The ABYSS effects were fairly obviously computer generated, although at the time, they were quite impressive. I sat through the movie knowing full well how the advanced Terminator effects were done, and I never consciously thought of them as effects -- they looked real and I took them for reality. In my opinion, that's the ultimate sign of special effects success. The movie is worth seeing for the advanced Terminator effects alone. More than anything, I think this movie really showcases what computer graphics are capable of, and I think this is the first time I've ever seen a computer graphics effect that truly doesn't look like a computer graphics effect. If I seem to be raving here, there's a reason. As far as I'm concerned, this film is as much a pioneer special effects film as either 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY or STAR WARS were.
The characterizations leave something to be desired, I think. At times, Arnold is too much Arnold and not enough Terminator. And the advanced Terminator (Robert Patrick) was far less ... abrupt than Arnold was as the first original Terminator. I think that most of the blame for this lies in the writing -- if Patrick was told "say this line", he had to say that line, regardless of what it did to the character. In terms of the acting, I have no complaints with Patrick. He looked appropriately nasty at the right times, and he was convincing as a killing machine. I think he portrayed the character as it was written. I just think it was written a bit off-base.
As for the character of John Connor, I think he was portrayed well. I would have preferred the character to have been written such that the audience gets a glimpse of the character growing towards the successful rebel that he is as an adult. We really don't see any of that, and I think it's too bad. But as a ten-year-old, he's quite believable.
The interesting character is Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. In the original, she was a strongly sympathetic, somewhat helpless heroine. In this one, she's essentially a psycho. This takes a little getting used to, but it makes for some interesting scenes. A lot of Sarah's character and actions are rather cliche -- I think Linda's watched ALIENS a few too many times. But her character is essential for the movie.
These are really minor nits. The characters are believable in the situations they get into, and that's all that's really required. This movie is no TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, and it doesn't need to try to be.
Now on to some comments based on SPOILERS.
I think the advanced Terminator really didn't use his full abilities until the fight sequences with Arnold at the end. There was a lot that the thing was capable of that it should have done that it didn't. For instance, it almost always attacked in a humanoid form. There were a number of cases where a tentacular form (or even a simple fifth limb) could have accomplished quite a bit, but it wasn't done. Essentially, the advanced Terminator is so nasty that if it can get within three feet of its target, its target is dead. As such, the Terminator's efforts should always have been to get in as close a proximity to its target as it could. When it was in the nitrogen truck chasing Arnie in the truck, it should have oozed into Arnie's truck and attacked directly, rather than trying to run them down. It didn't seemed as focused on its mission -- killing John Connor -- as Arnold's Terminator was in the original.
The advanced Terminator generally wasn't single-minded enough. Arnie as the original Terminator was single-minded. He went straight after whatever he needed to do the job, whether that meant shoving his hand through a guy's chest, blowing away a police station full of 17 cops, or whatever. The advanced Terminator went through a lot of effort to remain within human society, and that seemed strange. It paused far too often for dramatic effect, rather than finishing off its target. I think I counted three instances where the Terminator could have accomplished its mission if it hadn't stopped for a dramatic pause. That kind of ruined it for me -- I knew because of the pauses and who was involved which characters would survive at the end of the film.
Arnie was also too gregarious a Terminator. Admittedly, he was a "learning" Terminator. But he still went in for chit-chat far too often. I think the writers wanted to portray the older Terminator as a sympathetic character, and I'm not sure it worked for the film.
I also had a hard time accepting the nature of the advanced Terminator in general as being realistic, but I'm willing to file that under "willing suspension of disbelief".
Enough said. My complaints are minor and generally technical. As a piece of entertainment, this is the best I've seen in a long time. I've never been to a movie that had me as thoroughly engrossed. Go see it.
Jim
-- Jim Griffith griffith@dweeb.fx.com
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