This 35th anniversary screening of James Cameron’s blockbuster turned out to be very different to what I had expected, but I had a great time regardless.
I have no one but myself to blame for the wrong expectations. This was supposed to be my first time watching a classic film with a live orchestra, an experience that’s become very popular in the recent years but one I had resisted so far. And what better way to kick it off than with one of the greatest sci-fi action movies ever made, and one of my personal all-time favourite films? “Arts Centre Melbourne presents: Terminator 2: Judgement Day” was all that I needed to see in my inbox to get a ticket.
I really should have read the rest of the email to know what I was signing up for, because this event wasn’t just a simple re-watch with the music reproduced faithfully by an orchestra. Instead, the screening was accompanied by a brand new re-imagined score by the Belgian electronic musician Peter Van Hoesen, and a laser show. I got the feeling that I was in for something unexpected when sinister red beams pierced the Hamer Hall and, instead of an orchestra, a group of shadowy figures took their places behind the futuristic-looking podium.
Terminator 2 is of course a stone cold classic, with some of the greatest action sequences, most iconic characters and performances, and a story that feels even more eerily relevant in this age of AI. More than thirty years on, its portrayal of a nuclear holocaust in Sarah Connor’s dream still chills me to the core. Its ground-breaking special effects blew my mind back in the 90s, and also left me with the nightmares in which Robert Patrick’s T-1000 would emerge from my bedroom floor. Isn’t childhood magical?
I haven’t re-watched the movie in a while, and I was reminded of quite a few things: how charismatic and likeable Arnold Schwarzenegger was in his prime, and how damaged and unhinged Sarah is in the sequel, something that often gets overshadowed by her status as the ultimate badass female action hero. I loved how gritty and grimy the urban and industrial settings felt compared to the sterility of most modern movies. Most of all, I was reminded that, before he retired to Planet Pandora, James Cameron was a king of economical screenplay and tightly plotted action, with creative visual details that stick with you even decades later. There’s no real narrative need for a shot of roses getting crushed under the feet of T-800 as he moves to protect young bratty John Connor, but this is the kind of flair that makes a scene so memorable.
Inevitably, I thought that the new techno score couldn’t hold a candle to the original soundtrack, a mountain of a task if there ever was one. This was most felt during the movie’s emotional moments, when I thought back longingly to the original music and the extra power it lent to the scenes (I still teared up a bit during the molten steel finale). However, I still appreciated a different flavour of this reinterpretation that made the screening more than a night of pure nostalgia, a colder flavour perhaps but not without its own atmosphere and intensity that worked well for the action scenes.
I have nothing but good things to say about the impeccably designed laser show, perfectly in sync with the score and mirroring the action in a fun way without being obnoxious. When the human resistance battled the machine host in the movie’s prologue, blue beams shot out to match the lasers onscreen. The best-received moment happened during the scene in which Sarah is stalking the unwitting future creator of Skynet, with a red beam shooting from the back of the hall to match the mark of her sniper rifle. I now want to re-watch T2 with the score intact, but this was definitely a unique experience.
P.S. I can’t believe that, after seeing the movie a million times, this was the first time I fully registered that Arnie’s T-800 loses an arm very much like his evil predecessor in the first Terminator. Whatever happened to that lost arm??
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