Media Review 32: Terminator 2

This film combines different elements: Fast-paced action, family issues, and an emphasis on teenage individuality. These elements have been seen before: Family issues in ET, fast-paced action in Star Wars, and teenage individuality in Back to the Future. Terminator presents a much darker vision, however, making all of these elements much less family friendly. This violent film makes the earlier films (all with serious content) look like kids movies. In terms of characters, this film relies heavily on modern archetypes (and some stereotypes) like the Badass Biker, the Dirty Cop, and the Teen Rebel. I think these fairly static characters make room for the intense plot. Overall, this film is an excellently crafted sci-fi with some great special effects.