jye4ever
Broke and happy
Truly an epic post!I think you probably hit the nail on the head about how trying to emulate the first one would almost certainly lead Cameron to recognizing that he'd end up being forced into nothing more than an inferior version as the end result.
Making a sequel with the same tone, mood, and structure of the first would produce something obviously derivative by nature, so then could only differentiate itself in small ways. Using the relationship between Uncle Bob and John the way he did in T2 was one part of the larger shift in genre. More generally, going to action-oriented thrill ride, it allowed expansion of the intimate man-versus-beast horror aspect from T1 into a bigger and more elaborate storytelling landscape with a very different visceral experience.
He already had the template and proof of concept from having done the same thing with his sequel to Alien. A successful genre shift where he took Ridley Scott's grittier and more focused horror-driven story and shifted some of its structural features into an expanded action-driven premise with more character interactions, emotion-driven themes, and spectacle. Bigger, louder, more fast-paced, and more "heart."
When Aliens entertained the way it did without being held down by restrictions of fidelity to tone and genre, Cameron probably felt confident that he could do the same with T2. He not only carried over the same general approach, but also specific beats like using a kid to provide a different emotional dynamic. Both sequels allowed for an entertaining follow-up without the trappings of too much derivative fidelity to the original premise.
Poor Alien and T1 both will forever be known as inferior products to Aliens and T2 lol
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