Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

The special effects aged a bit, but the intensity's still there. The action's real. I can see why this is still a classic.

The trucks. The explosions. The liquid nitrogen. The fire. The bad dream. Dyson's final moment in the lab. The moment where Arnold walks out of the elevator. The early scenes at the asylum, and arcade. The iconic intro.

There is just so much good direction here, and the soundtrack plays along perfectly. Fades in at the right time. Builds up. Takes a break. Comes back. Like when Arnold goes rampant with the minigun.

It builds up to that moment, and then pauses as it all goes silent, and then comes back with an added intensity when the big teams swarm the place.

Considering David's overall so calm and collected character it feels like his moments of 'Come on! Let's go! Oh shit!' are a little exaggerated. On two occasions. But that's the only bit of possibly unbefitting acting or dialog I can find here. It's all so... perfect. Minute detail. Chaos. Mayhem. The way the camera pans, or sometimes sways, and seems to enhance the sense of reality with less smoothed-out movements.

I wonder how they managed some of these scenes technically too. The blastwave was so perfect. The liquid nitrogen freezing - that bit looked pretty real too. A lot of details here I wouldn't have expected to see in a movie from this time, or expected they'd still hold... even the intro - a glimpse into the dystopian future where mankind's been entirely wiped out - is alright.

It probably is the best Terminator movie of the lot. Still. Now and forever.

Need to watch the first one again too...

 rated 5/5: friggin awesome