|
Directed by: James Cameron Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick This is a review of the version of T2 on the Artisan “eXtreme DVD” release of the film, which differs from the theatrical version, and is the only version of the film available new in the US as far as I know. The changes between this cut of the film and the theatrical version are fairly modest: 16 minutes of footage were added in about a half dozen places. The results of these additions are mixed, but mostly positive. They do throw the pacing off a little in one or two places, and make an already fairly long movie even longer. But on the upside, many of the scenes improve the movie, mostly by making it clearer why certain things happened the way they did. If after watching T2 you wondered why the T-800 is smarter in this movie than the last one or why the T-1000 screwed up so they could tell it from Sarah Connor at the end, this version of the film will fill in a few of those little gaps. And since the quality of the scenes is consistent with the rest of the movie (both in terms of acting and image quality), they blend into the theatrical cut seamlessly. So, overall, I would consider the extended version a slight improvement over the original theatrical cut. And that makes this version, like the original theatrical cut, an extremely good movie. James Cameron (as director & co-writer) was really firing on all 12 cylinders with this film. The acting is way beyond what you normally see in this type of movie. The plot, while an outrageous sci-fi apocalypse, is actually pretty clever in how it twists around various aspects of what happened in The Terminator to give us something new. The visual effects, a combination of CGI, models, puppets, makeup, and blowing the poo poo out of a lot of real things, all look great. T2 makes many big-budget movies made 10 years later look like crap visually, thanks to better artistic talent combined with using the right effects tool for the job, instead of just jerking off with the CGI for everything. The mix of action, humor, apocalyptic dread and sheer badittude is spot on. People think that if you make an action movie with an implausible premise (e.g. time-traveling death robots), you can just be lazy and let everything be stupid and implausible for no reason if enough things blow up. T2 doesn’t do that; once you accept the premises of the movie, which like most sci-fi are pretty outrageous, everything that follows makes sense. That is such a simple thing, but think of how many big action movies make no goddamn sense. I don’t mean that they are implausible story-wise, but rather that they aren’t even internally consistent in their fantasy setting… dumb poo poo is done for no reason, or just happens arbitrarily because the writer was a moron who created a dead end in the plot he had to write himself out of with arbitrary crap. T2 is the antithesis of this view of making action movies. It is an all-around really sound movie, that just happens to be a sci-fi action flick. And that, ultimately, is why it blows 99% of the action movies made right out of the water. Technically, this DVD is very good, maybe the best I’ve seen. The image quality and sound are the best I’ve seen and heard on any DVD. I can’t say enough about how great this DVD is in this respect, and this is compared to other current DVDs viewed on the same 52” HDTV through the same upconverting DVD player. The extras, however, are for the most part very lame. Disc 1 does have a pretty good James Cameron & William Wisher (co-writer) commentary track. But all of Disc 2 is a waste of time, except maybe the HD version of the film, but that is only playable through Windows Media Player. The documentary is lame, it is just a poorly edited short where everyone talks about how cutting-edge the CGI in T2 used to be. Yawn. Naturally, this gets a 5/5. The DVD itself gets a 5/5 for image and sound, and a 3/5 for everything else. RATING: 5 PROS: Extended version is, overall, a bit better than the theatrical version, which was already great. Picture and sound on this DVD version are simply fantastic, and it includes a good commentary track by James Cameron & co-writer William Wisher. CONS: A couple of the extra scenes throw the pacing off a little. Most of the DVD extras are weak filler. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/ sean10mm fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Jul 18, 2005 |
#
?
Jul 18, 2005 02:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 10:01 |
|
|
I saw this movie for the first time when I was 6-7, and through the hundreds of times I've seen it since, it remains my favourite action movie of all time. I still find it hard to believe that those special effects are going on 15 years old.. most action movies these days don't look that good. 5.5
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2005 09:02
|
|
|
This was my first R-rated movie. It was awesome to me as a kid back then, and it still holds up today not only for nostalgic value, but as a really solid action flick. This new cut is definitely an improvement over the theatrical and the effects haven't aged one bit in the past 15 years. PROS: - Extra scenes add a bit of neat depth to the film - DVD commentary from James Cameron and William Wisher is usually very interesting. - Arnold Schwarzenegger's best non-cheezy performance - Just an overall solid action/sci-fi movie CONS: - William Wisher will be about to make a great point on the commentary and then James Cameron will butt in with something useless to say. - The scenes in the desert still drag a bit OVERALL: - 5.5 - A very solid action sci-fi movie and one of the best I've seen in either genre.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2005 20:23
|
|
|
I'm going to rate the movie in itself 5.5, because it is hands down the film of the 90's. However, the re-edit, while good, had a few flaws. For example, an added scene with Miles Dyson, while needed, ended up to be completely out of place and broke the flow of the movie. An added dream sequence in this movie also fell short of expectations. However, most of the other scenes that were added, especially the ones featuring Sarah and Arnie, go a long way in contributing to the plot, so I'll give the re-edit a 4, but make no mistake, this movie rocks no matter what.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2005 04:07
|
|
|
To summarize, T2 is an awesome flick. T2 - The Extended, Extreme,  edition is better. I find it a little annoying that there have been something like 4 (possibly 5) DVD editions of this movie (Original, Special Edition, Ultimate Edition (which I have), and then the Artisan Extreme Edition), but the Special Edition cut is definately worth seeing. In addition to the clips already mentioned, I especially dug the scene where Sarah and John remove the CPU and reset the learning switch - makes the previous scene where they are discussing it in the car make much more sense The other thing that really helped out as far as the extended scenes are the scene that was previously mentioned in which the T1000 starts glitching near the end. I actually really liked this because it showed that despite being extremely tough, the T1000 wasn't invincible except for hot stuff. I'd give the original cut a 4/5. The exctended though, get's the whole shabangabang - 5.5/5
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2005 06:40
|
|
|
I'd give a 5 to the theatrical, but the Special Edition gets a 5.5. It is hands-down the better version of the film, it adds a bit of depth and some nifty scenes that really shouldn't have been cut -- pacing be damned, the movie is long in any regard and Cameron does a great job of keeping you entertained throughout its running time. From the looks of things the Extreme DVD doesn't have the awesome 80-chapter "Data Core" supplement, nor the 3rd version of the film (which features the T1000 search Johns room and a lovely ending, but is still nice to have) that the Ultimate Edition had. Note, the extreme edition also has the theatrical version as a easter egg. Go right 5 times from Sensory Control. frumpsnake fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Aug 17, 2005 |
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2005 08:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 10:01 |
|
|
'Terminator 2: Judgement Day' is a superior movie to 'The Terminator', to be quite frank. While the original movie was a well-made, fun, sci-fi action thriller, T2 improves on just about every aspect. The superiority of the special effects is a given, and isn't really fair since T2 is about seven years younger, but even so, I believe T2 outperforms T1 in terms of characters/acting and plot. In the original, it's pretty much a straightforward story of a robot coming from the future to assassinate Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese is sent by the human resistance to intercept this attempt. What follows is just a series of chase scenes as Kyle tries to protect Sarah Conner from the Terminator, finally climaxing where they manage to crush it in a factory. T2 could have very easily continued the formula by just having another Terminator come from the future and try to kill Sarah and her son. James Cameron and William Wisher even talk about this on the DVD. But fortunately, they decided to use their imaginations a bit and try to actually expand the story, not just have a rehash. And because of this, I think the story of T2 is stronger than in T1. Like I said, T1 just has the humans running away from Arnold Schwarzenegger for two hours. In T2, however, Sarah, John, the T-800, and later, Miles Dyson, actually take steps in stopping SkyNet from loving up the future. It's a much stronger narration than the first movie, since the characters make more choices and are far more active. Also, having a Terminator be a good guy helped a lot in having character interactions and development. The Terminator in the first movie was just a boring badguy, but here, the character has more of a personality. The T-1000, the villain of T2, is also a bit more interesting than the T-800 of the first movie, and not just because of its cool morphing powers. It seems more human, more sentient. This movie isn't flawless. The CG effects of the T-1000, while groundbreaking in 1991, look kinda crappy when compared to today's stuff. And the catchphrases don't age well at all ("Hasta La vista, baby", "No problemo"). But despite this, T2 is an extremely well-executed film that is suprisingly deep. Well, maybe not DEEP, but you can't deny that there are some themes and messages woven into the narrative. We all have choices, and nothing is set in stone. At any time, even right now, we can change ourselves and things around us. Nothing is inevitable, and nothing is ever over. Not bad at all, I'd say. Finally, this movie is probably THE best use of Arnold Schwarzenegger ever. As for the "eXtreme DVD", it's a good buy. The commentary with James Cameron and William Wisher is very interesting and entertaining. Also, there's a neat 30-minute feature where a bunch of filmmakers talk about how CGI and special effects have changed filmmaking. James Cameron, Stan Winston, and Peter Jackson are just a few who appear in the documentary. Plus, there's a kick-rear end metal cover. 5.0
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2005 02:45
|
|
