Overrated big time

I saw both in original releases. I really really liked the first terminator. I thought T2 was, whatever, not as good as the first. Plus T2 had all this hype and all this "intellectual" analysis - it was like talking to people who worship the rock bank Rush. I thought Total Recall was the more "makes ya think" film.

People crap on this film all the time! I like this film a lot and hate it when people nitpick it.

I love this movie, I regard it as the definitive action movie.

It's overrated. For me, it begins and ends with the first film.

There's been posts like this garbage for years on this movie. Why not make actual points as to why you feel this movie is overrated? Not that I care to read them unless you actually have fair points.

T2 is overrated in the sense that people say it’s better than T1. T2 introduces a lot more convoluted story elements and felt like the writers had written themselves into a corner. For one, there’s the oft-mentioned plot hole of a liquid metal terminator being able to go back. In that case, why not just send back a swarm of nanobots that can fly through the air like bees and just murder John Connor that way.

Also in T1 it was made very clear that the TDE was destroyed after Reese was sent through, and nothing else could go back. So then we are to believe that Skynet had another time machine as well and had sent back an even more powerful terminator, even though their defense grid was smashed and the T800 was a last resort? It’s never explained how Skynet was able to send back the T1000. And also brings into question why they didn’t send back multiple terminators to kill John.

Thirdly, there is the issue of T2 being too kid-friendly. Now we all know the story reasons why the T800 can’t kill anyone, but at some point it makes the terminators seem not as threatening when we know they can be reprogrammed to be cute and cuddly. Also there was a sense of menace in the first film that everyone’s lives were in danger, that is just gone in T2 when everyone’s lives get spared except for the occasional killing by the T1000. The horror/slasher vibe of the original is just gone.

Sarah also feels like a completely different person now, and it makes sense that she would suffer from PTSD, the character is also more grating and less like able this time around. In a way she’s even more of a damsel needing to be “saved” and told what to do by her 12 year old son. In the original she was simply a regular person with spunk, who managed to kill the Terminator on her own without needing to be saved at the last minute by anyone. Also Sarah is much more butch and masculine in T2, as opposed to the more likeable and relatable Sarah from the first film. (Continued in part II).

(Continued) IMO, T2 is more misogynist in this regard by implying women can only be “strong” by being masculine, as opposed to the loveable feminine qualities of Sarah in the first, who used her intellect more than raw force to survive.

Also Edward Furlong’s performance, while not terrible, does end up dragging the film down somewhat due to his whiny, pubescent voice, and generally brattish behaviour. The film would have been better if John was 17, and played by an older actor in his 20s. That way we’d get a better image of who John Connor is, instead of a petulant brat.

And finally, there is the truth that T2 is really just a big budget remake of the first film. It copies the same plot points and is largely just a re-run of a story we’ve seen before, is in a way we already know how it ends. Even the Cyberdyne subplot is reused from deleted material in the first film. I feel like the existence of T2 keeps the first film forming being a wonderfully self-contained story that never needed any sequels.

Now all this makes it sound like I hate T2. I don’t, I think T2 is a great action picture and a very good movie. But I don’t think it is the best Terminator sequel that could have been made, and in many ways diminishes the first film, or dumbs it down. I think after Terminator and Aliens Cameron has blown his load, creatively, and from then on was a more by-the-numbers filmmaker.

P.S. Also the sound effects in Terminator 2 are simply horrible. By this I mean the sound for the guns. The T1000’s beretta sounds like a silenced pistol. For some reason they also added this sound to Terminator 1 later on.

T2 was a Work of Art, A Winner, Box Office Smash, and a Classic the day it was released.