This summer will be 20 years of Terminator 2: Judgment Day!

I remember when T2 came out in the summer of 1991, that it had seemed so long since the first Terminator. The world and film seemed to have changed so much. The difference between Terminator and T2 in terms of how they look and are shot and the effects are astronomical. Part of that is budget, of course, part of that is the incredible growth of the effects industry during the time. The first Terminator came out in 1984. The seven years between the two films seemed long, and looking at the differences in the two, it seemed like eras had passed.

And now it's been 20 years since that 2nd film came out. And the amazing thing is, in terms of it's effects and how it looks? It still holds up. Maybe it's blind nostalgia, maybe it's bias...but I think the film could've come out last year the way it looks and I still would have been impressed.

The first time I saw the film was at a drive-in...the opening feature was Toy Soldiers with Wil Wheaton! Of course, I saw it a couple more times in regular theatres.

What are your memories of seeing T2?

 

The first time I saw T2 was at my friend's birthday party. There were about six of us, and we managed to snag a rental of the VHS. We had pop, hot dogs and pizza. It was such a big deal. I was eleven at the time. All of us were blown away by it.

 

T2 was one of the first rated R movies I was ever allowed to see, for a sleepover. As such, as a kid I thought a movie being rated R meant lots of male nudity

 

T2 was actually my introduction to the series. I hadn't seen the first one in 1984, and my best friend, who also missed it in '84, but had seen it on VHS sometime around 1989 or so, raved about how good it was and we HAD to go to see T2 in the theater. He swore up and down that I would love it and would want to see the tape of T1.

What can I say? He was right.

Oh, we were both 21 at the time, if we're sharing that.

 

When I first saw it in the theater, I liked some parts but hated the relationship between Arnold and Furlong. It really irritated me that Arnold was the 'hero' and was allowed to shoot tons of people as long as he just shot them in the legs and didn't kill them. Like some sort of attempt at making the extreme violence more morally tasteful or something, whereas the first film was more honest about being a brutal scifi action film.

Years later I came around to it, I own it on BD and like it, although not to the degree that many seem to. But thinking back to seeing it for the first time in the theater, that aspect really pissed me off and it's what stands out for me most about the experience. I was 17 though and I blame it on hormones.

 

One of my favourite movies of all time.

And thanks, T'Baio. Now I feel as old as fuck.

 

I think that a large part of that is Cameron's directorial talents: his movies are wonderfully immersive, fully grounding you into the characters' own takes on the worlds around them while always moving the story forward. T2, for instance, has slo-mo shots, hand-held cameras, reverb sound effects... tricks that weren't new at the time and have been used in great quantities since, but Cameron gets the maximum effect from them each time.

It's subtle stuff, and unless a director really calls attention to his own craft (viz., the long takes of Atonement and Children of Men, both wonderful films), it's easy to miss, particularly as movie frames become ever busier, more colorful and faster-cut. Even Avatar's biggest fans will surely agree that the script was less than masterful, but I think many missed how well-directed it was amidst the hubbub of it all. When Quaritch enters the scene, and all we see are his boots, to the way the voiceover echoes the blurring of the human and Na'vi worlds that Sully experiences to... well, etc. Cameron is a first-rate filmmaker, and perhaps nowhere are his gifts on better, purer and more sophisticated display than in Aliens and T2.

 

I recognize the technical achievements and some excellent action sequences, but I just cannot like this movie. It is why I never watched T3 or 4.

 

20 years? This cannot be!

This has always been one of my favourite movies, and it's still an impressive movie. The reflective metal looks quite dated and CG by today's standards, but there are a lot of other aspects of the CG that still hold up very well.

 

I think this was truly a game changing action movie, but I don't really like it that much in retrospect. If they removed all the sickening sentimental crap, it would be much better.

 

I saw T2 at the Paramount theatre in Edmonton, which had the largest movie screen in Western Canada--the same place I saw The Empire Strikes Back and Aliens.

It was awesome.

And now, twenty years later...

 

Yeah, it sucks to see these places with character close to the impersonal megaplexes. The drive-in I saw T2 at is still there, but the regular theatre I saw it at a couple times closed down a few years ago.

I love the signage at that place, Goliath.

 

I went to that theater once.

I'm also very, very depressed now.

(Angsty, aging sigh)

 

T2 struck me at the time as no more than Terminator done over with a lot more money and less edge. Ahnuld don't play bad guys no more, ya see.

 

I think the first time I saw this was when it was on TV for the first time. My cousin, who is about 3 years older than me, was crazy about it. It also helped that Guns N' Roses was heavily involved with the soundtrack (even making a music video for it) and he worshiped them at the time. I believe I was 9, and my cousin was 12. He was the perfect age to love this movie and thought it was awesome. Personally, I thought it was the scariest thing I'd ever seen.

I especially remember the scene in the hospital where the T-1000 creepily moves through the bars. He was one terrifying motherfucker. It was only when I rented "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" as a teenager that I realized it is one of the most perfect movies ever made.

After I bought and watched the movie a whole bunch of times, it was even more of a revelation. It was then I knew that I have to call it one of my top ten favourite movies of all time. Part of me wishes I'd been old enough to see it in theatres, but maybe it's better that I didn't because I probably would have been traumatized.

This movie kind of makes me wish the Internet didn't exist, so I didn't have to spend the last few years appalled learning about all these people who don't like it, or even more laughably, think the first one is better.

I rented the first one years after seeing this, and while I was impressed by how well done it was for the time, the jump in quality with its sequel was immense (actually, I love that word 'astronomical' for it...couldn't possibly put it better than that). This movie eats "The Terminator" (and every other summer blockbuster since 1991) ALIVE. Truly a towering achievement in the history of cinema.

 

I saw T2 at a little theater in Waterville, ME, while I was on a day off from the summer camp I worked at nearby. I was not overly impressed my first time seeing it, but I think it had more to do with the rock hard seats and the bland popcorn.. I just couldn't get comfortable watching it and that distracted from my overall enjoyment.

 

The first time I saw it was in 1999 at an ACM party. I had not seen the original. I thought it was pretty awesome, though. Later watched the original and I think they're both excellent films, but for different reasons.

The effects in T2 still hold up, as far as I'm concerned.

 

No, and no.

 

By coincidence, TV4 in NZ are playing it this Friday to celebrate the 20th anniversary!

I love it. It's an amazing film each time I watch it. It doesn't lose it's impact despite knowing each line and when the 'splosions happen.

I remember watching it in Social Studies class in 1992 (or maybe 1993) on VHS, as it was towards the end of the term and the teacher said we could pick a movie. We got told three times to turn it down - each time the teacher turned it back up again!