T2 betters all of the first Terminator film's effects, visuals and action sequences. That's literally why Cameron and Co. came back, to make a bigger, badder Terminator film (that and the clamoring for one and all that $$$$$$). I thought they succeeded.
It expands on the story. In the original, they cut out all of the "No Fate" scenes with Kyle Reese and Sarah where they planned to prevent the future from taking place.
In T2, that's the back bone of the story, going to meet Dyson, take out Cyberdyne, etc. That's all new and well done. I don't see how that isn't "imaginative" or new. We never saw Skynet or John Connor in the first, the second introduces us to them. We get to see the results of Sarah's great arc between the first and second film. We get to see a bigger and better Judgement Day. Arnold is arguably better as the T-800 the second time around, even if he isn't the film's villain. They somehow managed to expand on a character that was pretty much a one note cyborg. The T-1000 puts the original 1984 Terminator to shame with it's MO and kills alone.
The criticisms are superficial to me. If you like one, I don't see how you couldn't possibly like two, and vice versa. Now the other ones, yeah, I definitely get that, I feel the same way. But these gripes against T2? What else would people have wanted out of a sequel?
Pretty huh?
