Saturday, May 15, 2010

Terminator 2: Judgment Day Reviewed

By Marcus Sweeney

Terminator 2 - Judgment Day has stood the test of time as one of the most fun science fiction/action movies to come out. The movie takes a premise that is so simple, yet so complex, and blends it with some amazing cinematography. The acting is a little campy at some points, but it only serves to add to the charm of the movie.

The story takes a small group of people, the Conners and the original Terminator, and pits them against a much more powerful force. The T-1000 is as indestructible to the original Terminator as he was to the Conners when he first showed up in the first movie.

The heroes are trying to save the world from a global take over from the soon to be sentient machines. Sarah decides that it is possible to change the future, and goes on a quest to destroy the person that originally designed the terminators. They think that they have won by the end of the movie, but it turns out that they only delayed the, apparently, inevitable.

There are many aspects of fate to consider in this movie. Sarah was fated to be the mother of the savior of the human race. John was meant to be that savior. They never were given a choice in this. Sarah wasn't even pregnant yet when the first Terminator showed up, so she clearly had no idea what was in store for her.

One thing that gets overlooked in this movie is part of what it is saying about the mental health system in the United States. The audience knows that she isn't crazy, but no one in the movie seems to agree with that statement. As far as they are concerned she is completely gone.

Everyone treats her like she is nuts. The filmmakers may be trying to say that this is part of the problem with our system. If someone says something that seems outlandish, it must be mental illness. Granted what she was saying did seem very crazy, and maybe they were trying to point out how hard it was to be Sarah Conner and not really saying anything bad about our health care system, but it seems fair that it could be saying something about both.

There are issues of fate surrounding John so much it seems to stick to him. He doesn't really believe everything that his mom has told him. A part of him does, it seems, but he doesn't really know that she isn't just crazy. It takes the arrival of the robots from the future in order for him to see that he is not actually being raised by a crazy woman.

Strangely, without those robots showing up in Terminator 2 - Judgment day, there would be a very different story. Instead of a story rife with adventure and excitement, it would be a story of a boy being raised by a crazy woman who is teaching him to be a militant. There would be a lot of issues that could follow this, but with the Terminators showing up it ends up being a story that is more action than a sad story of modern day life for a broken family.

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