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Sometimes writing an original review for this site can be a bit difficult. The reason for that being that when The Vocabulariast and I write up a review for the same movie, we usually end up having the same problems with the film. There are many people out there that believe that we are basically stealing each others reviews and either making it sound smarter (in Vocabulariast’s case) or dummying down the review (which is my case) to make it appear as our own review. This isn’t true. We actually take the time to do our reviews; it’s just that we end up having the same opinions about the movies. With that being said, let us move on to the movie review, which coincidently enough is another movie that The Vocabulariast already reviewed… Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Ah, but there is a twist here; this review isn’t for the regular version of the film. This review is for the extended version of the movie that comes on the Ultimate Edition and Extreme Edition DVDs.

After failing to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in the first Terminator film, Skynet has come up with another plan to get rid of that pesky fucker known as John Connor (Edward Furlong). This time around, Skynet’s plan involves sending one of their latest killing machines, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), back in time to kill John when he’s an annoying little brat. However, unbeknownst to Skynet, The Resistance led by Future John sends back a protector of their own; much like they did in the first movie, but with one little catch… this protector is a reprogrammed Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger). The rest of the movie has our hero characters running and occasionally fighting the T-1000 and trying to track down, and kill, the man responsible for Skynet, Miles Dyson (Joe Morton).

Much like the first film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a top notch film. Cameron’s direction is still great. The acting and chemistry has actually improved (even in the scenes with Biehn in the extended version). Furlong, even though he’s annoying as shit, does a solid job in his first movie as John Connor. The writing has some continuity problems, but they aren’t anything that is going to leave you sitting there scratching your head… mainly because you’ll be too busy feasting on the special effects in the film to give a shit about the continuity problems. If I say so myself, that was a great teaser to lead us into the special effects part. The effects, whether it is the CGI or just stunts, are insanely awesome. So much so that Bill Hicks went on to say that people on their deathbeds should be in movies so they can die in a spectacular way. And no one out there wouldn’t tell me that they wouldn’t want a glorious death instead of a boring “oops, shit the bed” death.

With the praising aside, T2 does have its problems, which oddly enough come from Arnold. The first is the major problem; and that comes from them making his Terminator a gigantic, muscle bound pussy. Arnold goes around this entire film and kills… no one. And I say no one because I don’t count the T-1000 death scene. The character is called a Terminator… they’re programmed to TERMINATE things… Hell, at one point in the movie, John asks him if he actually has to kill and Arnold replies with, “Of course, I’m a Terminator.” You can’t have a character called a Terminator and not have said Terminator kill anyone… that’s just stupid. The other problem is that Arnold is basically, and it’s really made apparent in the extended version, the comic relief in this movie. The problem with this, probably because this isn’t an Ivan Reitman film, is that Arnold isn’t really funny in his scenes. Instead of being funny it just gets really awkward and in one case in the extended version, where Arnold has to imitate a smile, pretty scary.

Many people, who aren’t Armond White (who thinks Salvation is the best in the franchise), hail this as the best in the franchise. Granted the film is top notch and is beautiful to look at, but, personally, I enjoy the original movie more than this one.

Final Synopsis: It’s a great movie, but it made the Terminator a pussy… get it and compare this one with the original and tell us which one you like more.

Points Lost: -1 for pussifying the Terminator, -1 for Arnold’s awkward and sometimes scary comedic moments.

Lesson Learned: Arnold looks like a horse when he smiles.

Burning Question: If you were on your deathbed and were allowed to have a spectacular death in a movie, how would you want to go out?

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Ultimate Edition)
8/10

Tags: 1991, action, adventure, Arnold Schwarzenegger, edward furlong, edward furlong's screechy voice, james cameron, jenette goldstein, joe morton, killer cyborgs, killer robots, latest movie reviews, linda hamilton, nikki cox, recent2, robert patrick, sci-fi, sci-fi movie, science fiction, science fiction movie, xander berkeley