Terminator II

(1991)

Directed by: James Cameron

Cast:

Terminator: Arnold Schwarzenegger
T-1000: Robert Patrick
John Conner: Edward Furlong
Sarah Conner: Linda Hamilton

This is arguably the best terminator in the series. Terminator one established the story and characters while the third was in many respects a re-make of the second. For those of you unfamiliar with the terminator series the story pretty much goes like this: sometime in the future mankind will develop an advanced defense system, however they make it too good and it becomes self aware, eventually turning on its creator - humans. Thus a war between mana nd machine ensues. The machines in the first movie send a machine back in Time to Kill the leader of the human resistance: John Conner. The humans send a soldier of their own back in Time to protect the mother of the Human savior. The strange paradox is that he ends up becoming the father of John Conner. If you’re not the type of person that gets hung up on paradoxes such as these and can stand a bit of science fiction than you may just enjoy these movies.

Terminator II takes place a few years later. John Conner is now a street savvy boy. His mom Sarah, is in mental ward because of her beliefs about he upcoming apocalypse. The action starts when a new Terminator, a more advanced model, is sent back in time to kill John. The humans have captured a cyborg themselves and reprogram him to protect John. He is sent back in time also and the chase begins.

Terminator two is full of action and some funny moments. Thanks to Industrial light and magic the effects are amazing, considering this was 1991. The action itself is not all nonstop but it has a good pace none-the-less. Mr. Schwarzenegger plays his part very well as does his evil opposite: The only thing that gets me (besides the obvious paradoxes) is Sarah Conner’s incessant narration - at least it seems incessant and totally unnecessary to me.

In the end thought the thing that stuck out most is the almost fatherly relationship between John and the Terminator. In our day and age machines aren’t that intelligent as for us to get so attached as to develop a relationship (even though we may spend more time among them than other humans on occasion) but it is possible in the future that it could happen. Though it is anyone’s guess if they’ll have Austrian accents or not.
3 Stars