After producing two more smash hit films; Aliens and The Abyss, director James Cameron returned to film the sequel to the film that had initially kick started his career.
The 1991 sequel to The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day was a huge box office success, grossing more in US cinemas in its opening week-end than the first film had in its entire run. The film also broke boundaries in the special effects industry with Industrial Light and Magic providing at the time ground breaking computer generated effects for the liquid metal T-1000 (Robert Patrick).
The film brought back together almost all of the old crew except of course for Michael Biehn who�s character was killed in the first film.
Brad Fiedel was rehired to score T2, bringing along his original sounds for the original film to the second. In more ways than one this was a disaster.
By this time recording technology had advanced a lot as had synth tech which means that the T2 score is a lot clear and crisper sounding than T1. For T2 Fiedel could easily have opted for an orchestra to score for the film but he stubbornly held on to synthesised scoring for this film although to his credit he does introduce and make heavy use of a choral section in this score which in several cues prevents the score from fading completely.
The main title of T2 is a much fuller sounding piece than in T1. Fiedel has significantly changed the theme to accompany Arnold Schwarzenegger�s role change from Villain to hero. Rather than the dark sounding instruments of T1 the T2 theme is performed primarily on synthesised strings and later flutes of some kind. The chorals add great depth to the piece and allow the orchestration to maintain that heroic feel to the theme. The staggered 5 note percussion motif also has a going over with more power and drive behind it and more of a climax. The revamped main title is a very promising start to the score however the rest feels nothing short of an electronic mess.
Fiedel employs lots of unconventional percussion throughout the score that end up being sound effects rather than music. A lot of the music there is boring as hell, especially the chase music in �Helicopter Chase�. A few of the action cues in the middle of the score such as �I�ll Be Back� and S.W.A.T Team Attacks hold some excitement and a sense of purpose but are no reason for purchasing the CD. Fiedel seems to be at his best in this score with heavy use of conventional percussion and synth strings.
The quieter moments are equally discordant or drab as the action music and hold none of the emotion that the first film�s character cues did.
During the last 4 tracks the score does pick up a bit, mainly due to the use of the choral element and a welcome return of bits of the theme interestingly arranged in �Terminator Revives� and �T-100 Terminated�. Also �Terminator Impaled is an effective and exciting track. In these final tracks before �Its Over (Goodbye)� Fiedel manages to shake of the discordant tendencies of the score and produces 3 full and exciting tracks.
�It�s Over (Goodbye)� including the end titles is despite being a shadow of the main titles, enjoyable. The string opening is at first an effective lament but that quickly breaks down but then the second full performance of the theme eventually kicks in. The theme is played at a much more subdued pace and is more of a lament. Whilst this doesn�t offer one last pounding performance it does offer a new look at the theme that although in places doesn�t work eventually comes together for a satisfying climax to the score.
As unlikely as it sounds however this drab score may have as much to do with James Cameron as it does with Fiedel. Cameron wanted less melody in the score and more of an underlying feel to the music (Which accounts for the lack of theme). Also the score that exists on this CD is Fiedel's score after mixing into the film. So one has to wonder just how much of the guitar solo was cut from the Desert Suite and equally how much was cut from the good action cues such as "I'll Be Back". Are we missing the whole picture here? Was it James Cameron's editing that made this a boring score with only brief moments of excitment? Or can this really be all Fiedel did? Given the evidence at hand, probably a bit of Fiedel and alot to the editing.
Overall T2 has, apart from the opening and climax, very VERY little to recommend it. One of its main problems is that being a synthesized score it just has no power behind the performances. Also a lot of the music is to uninteresting to be anything but boring.
Much of it is a discordant electronic mess filled with industrial noises of machinery and otherwise very drab underscore. For me the pick up of quality and excitement at the end was too little too late and so this has to go down as the worst Terminator score out of the 3.
*
2. Sarah on the run (2:31)
3. Escape from the Hospital (4:34)
4. Desert Suite (3:25)
5. Sarah's Dream (1:49)
6. Attack on Dyson (4:07)
7. Our Gang goes to Cyberdyne (3:11)
8. "Trust Me" (1:38)
9. John and Dyson into the Vault (0:41)
10. Swat Team Attacks (3:22)
11. "I'll Be Back" (3:58)
12. Helicopter Chase (2:27)
13. Tanker Chase (1:42)
14. "Hasta la Vista, Baby" (3:02)
15. into the Steel Mill (1:25)
16. Cameron's Inferno (2:37)
17. Terminator Impaled (2:05)
18. Terminator Revives (2:14)
19. T1000 Terminated (1:41)
20. "It's Over"(Goodbye) (4:36)
