 The 'Terminator' franchise is full of ups and downs, but no matter how you feel about any of them, the fact of the matter is that 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' is the perfect 'Terminator' movie, and no matter how they try, it will never be lived up to by any further sequel. You can watch this on the big screen today, and thanks to its big budget of practical effects, it still, after damn near 30 years, holds up as one of the greatest action films of all time.
Real quick, this is the sequel to the first film, and to me, the pair stand alone. The first film has Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) running for her life from a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who has been sent back in time to kill her, therefore killing her chances of one day giving birth to the man who would save humanity - John Conner (Edward Furlong, though not in the first film). All the while, she's protected by a soldier named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who was also sent back. The second chapter, here, finds Sarah Conner in an asylum, due to her proclaiming that the world is gonna end by 1997. The film takes place roughly around 1995, due to John being ten years old here (according to a police record), running around and causing trouble. In the same spirit as the first film, a new Terminator gets sent back, known only as the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), this time targeting John, himself. In response, a T-600 is sent back to protect John - the same type of Terminator who was once sent back to hunt down Sarah. Eventually, the T-600, Sarah and John find themselves working as a team against the T-1000; a liquid metal, shape-shifting Terminator, in order to save humanity from an eventual apocalypse. What more could ever be said about 'T2'? It's simply the pinnacle of everything a good action movie should be. Practical explosions, snappy dialogue and one-liners, and most importantly, it develops its characters very well. Sarah, being the perfect example, is a completely changed character here, making her the bad ass we all love her as today. Even the T-600, a machine, begins to develop things like understanding, and compassion, and you totally buy into it, the way its executed. Of course, the real star of this movie is the special effects though. Imagine the fact that this 1991 movie has CG animation that looks better than a lot of the CG you found when it really blew up (late 90's/early 00's). I'm happy to be able to say that I've actually seen this on the big screen twice now, and it holds up incredibly well. It's the perfect balance of action and drama, and Schwarzenegger in his prime is always awesome on the big screen. It stands among history's action genre as a solid gem, and if you're an oldschool action fan who somehow hasn't seen it yet, you simply must fix that. It's a personal favorite, and I just cannot praise it enough as a God among action movies.
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 Wherever you might stand as a DC fan on the current DC Universe, most fans would agree that the 'Dark Knight' trilogy was Batman in his prime. These films were well-cast, well-acted, and provided us with countless hours comedy on YouTube. Christian Bale's Batman was cool but, let's just accept at this point, pretty goofy at the same time. His voice speaks for itself (pun intended). But nevertheless, it never stopped these movies from being one of the most solid trilogies out there.
'The Dark Knight', itself, stands as not only one of the best 'Batman' movies, not only one of the best comic book movies, but one of the best movies out there in general. Winner of two Oscars and a Golden Globe, Rotten Tomato critic and audience ratings of an equal 94%, a Metacritic rating of a must-see 82, and it currently stands at #4 between 'The Gadfather: Part II' and '12 Angry Men' on IMDb's Top 250. So its done pretty damn well for itself over the past 10+ years. 'Batman Begins' is essentially a long, drawn out and really well-made origin story, but 'Dark Knight' is where things take off. Lawyer Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) has recently been elected as Gotham's new District Attorney with a plan to take down the city's organized crime syndicate. However, Batman (Christian Bale) kinda interferes with his plans, taking things into his own hands as the vigilante he is. Along comes the real star of the show, The Joker (Heath Ledger); a criminal mastermind with very little empathy, plotting to take the rug out from under Dent with a series of crimes, using money he has stolen from the mob, who he has under his thumb in no time. These crimes are primarily aimed at both Harvey Dent and Batman to see what kind of people they are, as two head figures of the city - a DA with a plant to clean up the mob for the "good of Gotham", and the masked vigilante who has so recently been dubbed a mysterious "hero". The film works great whether or not your a fan of Batman, as it's a story that leans heavily on human attributes and having to make difficult choices. I feel that the feel of the movie is something relatable to anyone. It gives us both sides of the coin that we crave between Batman and the Joker as well, seeing Batman as a "knight" for good and justice and Joker as the essence of chaos and, pretty much just evil. As mentioned before, the real star of this movie really is Heath Ledger's Joker. At the time, Jack Nicholson simply couldn't be touched for that role, at least as far as movie Jokers went. Along comes the guy we've pretty much only seen in teen movies, the late Heath Ledger, fully delivering on his performance and departing us on the highest of notes. This Joker has that perfectly profound dark sense of humor we wanna see, perhaps the prime example being his "pencil trick", which you may very well know even if you're one of the few people who may not have seen this one. At the same time, however, when he wants to get creepy, he really does manage to get creepy, reminding us full well that he's still a psychopath. He's just a really smart, really charismatic one. I think that in the grand scheme of things, this is perhaps the most recent "part 2" that truly outdoes its predecessor, which is already awesome in its own right. This really is a solid trilogy altogether, and if you're somehow a Batman fan who hasn't gone through it yet, you should fix that. I dunno what else to say about it, it's one of the best comic, crime, action, drama, suspense movies in existence. Even if you can't get past some of the more extreme moments, the story is fantastic, and it remains a personal favorite.  I thought I'd cover another month full of fun action, and I figured I'd go with sequels, or "part 2s" that, according to many, manage to outweigh their predecessors. Combined with a replay through of PS4's 'Spider-Man', I really wanted to revisit 'Spider-Man 2', which many consider the best of the original, or Raimi trilogy.
If I'm perfectly honest, I still lean towards the first one, myself. But the idea that this is a sequel that does a better job than the origin story is completely understandable, and I recognize I'm in a minority. I kinda see the two films as equals, but each delivering something making me appreciate them individually. I would say that as far as getting things to feel like a 'Spider-Man' comic book unfolding on the big screen, this one nails it the best. The first one did a better job of making things feel like an epic movie version of 'Spider-Man'. As far as the third one goes, we're gonna pretend that it doesn't exist because it's pretty much the 'Batman & Robin' of the 'Spidey' franchise altogether. Of course, this is all just humble opinion, so one might not view them in the same differing lights that I do. But again, if this one nails the comic book feel the best, shouldn't that be the best reason to appreciate it as still one of the best comic book movies of all time? The story picks up where the first one left off, which can be read about here. Two years have passed, and Peter Parker's (Tobey Maguire) still trying to use his great powers for great responsibility. But it's interfering with his day-to-day life because crime never sleeps. He's falling behind in school, and can't commit to his friends, namely Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) who just wants him to attend her new play, as she's since become a Broadway actress. Meanwhile, Harry Osbourne (James Franco), now head of Oscorp's genetic and scientific research division, sponsors a project on fusion power, headed by Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina). During a demonstration using mechanical arms with an artificial intelligence, an accident occurs, breaking the arms' inhibitor chip, which gave Octavius control over them. Now, the arms controlling him, he becomes Doctor Octopus, hellbent on funding another experiment, hoping to show the world that one can create a self-sustaining fusion reaction. Most of this one represents that first example of the superhero trying to balance his two lives. Does he do what's right for him, or does he do what's right for everyone else? At the time, it was a fascinating take on a comic book movie, bringing in some real world problems instead of having it a simple good vs evil story. Yeah, the first film did that too, but so much of that was already familiar. There's even a great scene in here where it's Peter talking to an imaginary Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) about the downside of what his superhero life has become. He has no time for the other people in his life that he loves. Even with Mary Jane aside, he still has to take care of Aunt May (Rosemary Harris), and try to be responsible with things like jobs, which we see him struggle with as the film opens. The film is well-balanced, keeping the deeper side of it contrasted with the fun comic book action we came to see. It's slow in parts, but when the action picks up, it's a lot of fun. Perhaps the most memorable fight takes place on a speeding subway train, and it was enough to earn the film an Oscar for its visual effects, against films like 'Prisoner of Azkaban'. As a whole, this is a great follow-up to its predecessor, and to this day has one of my favourite endings - before post-credit stingers were a thing. It's truly sad that the studio had to put their hands so deeply into the third film though, because the ending here still represents a whole lot of promise lost. In this day and age, we have a new, very much appreciated Spider-Man in Tom Holland, who plays the perfect combo of Pete and Spidey, and has pretty much been embodied in the role now. It's fun looking back on Tobey, but it's not the same now. You see someone who was in his late 20s at the time instead of the teenager that Holland eventually made him. Also, the dated melodrama of some of the dialogue here can be a little tough to get around at times. But at the same time, that's just Raimi's Spider-Man, which at the time I DID consider awesome. I guess with so many different incarnations, this has just become kinda dated. Nevertheless, if you find yourself curious about looking back at the 'Spider-Man' of the early '00s, it still totally holds up for what it is. While today's 'Spider-Man' is very much its own thing, these first couple of movies will give the hardcore comic book fans something a little closer to what they might want to see. For my money, the new Spidey has been the best Spidey, but if that's not quite the Spidey you want, this is where you want to look. |
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