Rating: B+
Dir: James Cameron
Star: Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick
When he said, “I’ll be back”, he wasn’t kidding – though it did take the best part of seven years, and twenty times the budget, before Arnie would don the shades once more. As with Aliens, Cameron shows his knack for simple yet hugely effective twists in a sequel. The central concept is almost unchanged, except that this time, Schwarzenegger is the hero – given his rise to stardom, it could hardly be otherwise. Robert Patrick plays a more advanced cyborg, trying to kill the now-teenage John Connor (Furlong); his mother Sarah has been locked in the loony bin for babbling about Terminators, nuclear war, etc., so needs freeing too.
It’s now six years after the nuclear war predicted in the film was supposed to have taken place. Hard to remember there was once a time when morphing effects seemed fresh and new rather than cliched, in the same way that bullet-time also does these days. As a result, the sections that work best are largely those that don’t lean entirely on CGI: the Cyberdyne shootout and freeway chase, for example. Still, the finale in the steelworks retains its power to impress, and when the good Terminator makes his courageous sacrifice, it is perhaps Arnold’s finest moment. The sequel might break less ground than the original, but for sheer spectacle, easily surpasses it, undeniably assisted by Brad Fiedel’s excellent soundtrack. As an aside, the supporting cast includes Vasquez from Aliens and George Mason out of 24 as John’s foster parents – now, that’s what I call a dysfunctional family…