When I was about eight years old, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (also known to us back then as T2) was the R-rated movie that even the protective dads would let their sons watch, purely because it was considered so incredibly awesome. I still remember the day my dad conceded and pulled out his Laserdisc of the film and didn't even make me close my eyes during the bloody parts (of which there are actually only a handful). At the time this movie was made, it was the most expensive ever, running a tab of just over a hundred million dollars, a sum that has since been far surpassed. Now, nearly twenty years later, a reassessment of T2 reveals a pretty standard action film that is one cut above average.

The backstory of the Terminator series is that in the year 2029 the world has been turned into a battleground in a war of machines against humans. In this film, in order to gain an advantage over the humans, the machines have sent an android, the T-1000, back in time to kill the humans' leading military figure, John Connor, when he is a teenager. The humans, in response, have sent an android of their own (a copy of the "bad" robot from the first Terminator). The catch is that the enemy robot is not just a robot -- he is a virtually indestructible, shape-shifting "liquid metal" robot, a machine that can morph into anything (or anyone) it touches and that reacts to physical trauma by quickly forming back into shape. Young renegade John, his survivalist mother, and the Terminator have to fight off the T-1000 and simultaneously sabotage the company that, in the future, is inadvertantly responsible for the war against man.

This is an action movie, and it succumbs to a number of action movie clichés, such as characters stopping and looking back when tey think they've escaped a pursuant, waiting until they are caght up with before turning and running again. You will also see lockpicking with a paperclip hidden inside a mouth, and, yes, vehicles will explode when they crash in this movie.

There are also some problems with actions that do not make sense, especially concerning the two robots. For instance, when the Terminator busts up the patrons of a bar to take some clothes and a motorcycle in the beginning of the film, he finishes off by stealing the bartender's sunglasses. Why would a robot want sunglasses, especially at night? Also, there is one point when, for dramatic effect, the T-1000 stares quizzically at his own hand morphing back into a hand after being changed into a blade, as if it was a novelty, though to him it is exactly what should be expected. These are some problems that cannot be simply explained away.

But the film also surpasses some clichés. Take gunfights, for example. Now, granted, when real humans are involved, the movie does fall into humans-cannot-be-hit-with-bullets mode, but when it's our robots fighting, the exact opposite occurs: they hit each other every time. The difference is that these two are essentially impervious to gunshots. The Terminator is made of a metal that easily deflects bullets, though tears in his outer flesh do result after such shootouts, and the T-1000, even when shot completely through by a shotgun, simply morphs back to normal after any type of injury. The fights between the two, are ultimately inconsequential, taking place only so as to assassinate/protect John Connor. Basically the entire setup of the film is just an excuse to watch two invincible androids toss each other through walls, and it works.

The concept of the T-1000 also helps the film out quite a bit. Not only is it a neat idea to have a robot made out of a form of metal that can take on liquid properties and that has the ability to transform his arms into blades or his whole body into the likeness of another person, but his sheer resilience and relentlessness also heightens the action over that of many action-oriented films. In most action movies, if the main characters excape into an elevator, and the doors shut, they have escaped. Not so in T2. Even after the elevator doors shut, and the T-1000 pulls them back open with pry-bar-arms (prybarms?), and is shot point-blank in the face with a shotgun, and the elevator gets away, he opens the doors again, jumps down the shaft, slices through the elevator's roof, runs out to the parking lot, chases the car down the street, latches onto it with those crazy arms, busts the rear window out, and doesn't give up until finally he is shot off the car and has no chance of catching up again. Phew. It's tiring just to write about.
You can expect the same level of intensity any time the two robots are fighting it out. It's only when more humans -- particularly cops and security guards -- get involved that the old action film clichés kick back in.

Director James Cameron also has a nice visual technique at work in T2. Almost all action scenes take place in dark, silver-blue environments, often at night. The feeling is both oppressive and slightly depressive. It also reminds the viewer of the opening scene of the war against the machines, a scene which also uses a dark, blue-hued, doomsday color palette. By connecting the later action sequences to this scene, they are given more gravity, forcing us to feel the impact of the enormous potential consequences that extend beyond the scuffles.

At the end of the day, T2 is a good action film, but it is nothing beyond that. There are a few short attempts to add some depth to the film, such as John's attachment to the Terminator as a father figure. "In an insane world, it was the sanest choice," his mother explains. But the movie, as if suspecting that it will not be taken completely seriously anyway, quickly drops these issues and moves on so that we can get back to more explosions. I think if it had examined these issues a bit more, we would have a longer-lasting film on our hands. As it is, the reputation of T2 is mostly due to the fact that it was such a blockbuster in its time. It was the movie that parents broke their rules to let their kids watch. Those same kids are now becoming parents themselves, and I don't think most of them will care enough about this one to break whatever movie-content rules they have come up with.