Although the first act is somewhat constricted by hardwaring of the story arteries, chunks and bursts of raw, quirky human behavior ultimately burst into this carnage colossus. These small, funny, odd moments do much to soothe us from the bombast, as well as clue us to the film’s ultimately optimistic vision.
Still, the bulk of Terminator 2 is the war between the two Terminators, and Cameron and his ace crew have marshaled all the forces of special effects technology, as well as motorcycle maintenance, to accomplish this staggering one-on-one blowout.
Throughout, state-of-the-art technical contributions thunder like explosions. Adam Greenberg’s torrid cinematography; Conrad Buff, Mark Goldblatt and Richard A. Harris’ kinetic cuts; Joseph Nemec III’s visionary production design; together with Brad Fiedel’s heart-pounding score and Gary Rydstrom’s percussive sound design infuse Terminator 2 with a power and force a quantum leap beyond its generic peers.
The players, astoundingly, more than hold their own against this torrential visual/aural onslaught. Schwarzenegger is not only back, but he’s more imposing and heroic than ever. His comic sense, once again, is one of the strongest parts of his arsenal and often helps to save the action from its massive musculature. Furlong’s nervy performance as the nervy 12-year-old savior catapults the story to its fullest human dimension, while Hamilton is superb as his gutsy mother.
