Book Review: the Second Rebel by Linden A. Lewis

Posted on February 5, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The First Sister was part of 2023’s winter holiday book exchange and it ended in such a way that I was curious about the rest of the series. As I found both at a brick and mortar shop, I decided to give The Second Rebel (science fiction, 504 pages) by Linden A. Lewis a chance.

“Astrid has reclaimed her voice and now seeks to bring down the Sisterhood from within. But she quickly discovers that the business of politics is far deadlier than she ever expected. On an outlaw colony station deep in space, Hiro val Akira chases the rumors of a digital woman who could be a dangerous ally in the rebellion. Meanwhile, Lito sol Lucius, continuing to grow into his role as a lead revolutionary, is tasked with rescuing an Aster operative from deep within an Icarii prison. Back on Venus, Lito’s sister, Lucinia, must carry on after her brother’s disappearance and the accusation of treason by Icarii authorities. She keeps her nose clean … until an Aster revolutionary shows up with new about Lito’s fate and an opportunity to join the fight.”

THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW

My original comments from my book review of The First Sister are still very applicable here. In fact, I think I’ll just copy my opening paragraph from that.

“I have a lot of thoughts about this book and I’m not quite sure which ones will actually show up in this review. As a general rule, I tend to not write up reviews for books not to my taste with living authors, as I understand how hard writing novels is and how much words can cause damage, even words on a tiny website with no influence. So while I have read the entire Red Rising series by Pierce Brown, you will not find any reviews to that series here. When the First Sister arrived as part of the winter holiday book exchange and the comment on the back indicated if you enjoyed Red Rising, you would enjoy this book, I was immediately leery.”

This book takes the truly terrible future for women and actually makes it worse, which is mildly surprising. So while women are mentioned in a variety of roles, as Daggers, Rapiers, wealthy-born artists, actresses, etc., the vast majority of the poor and less fortunate women in this series are now being stolen as part of trafficking rings to grab young girls, drug them, and put them into low-level brothels with the funding and backing of high-level members of the Sisterhood.

I think what this book and series does accomplish is to shine light on how any human society will prey on the down-trodden, poor, societally unacceptable, and “other”. The good news, though, is when evidence of those crimes is presented to the mass public, many people rise to demonstrations, demanding accountability for those crimes. But if this series continues to follow the trends of our current real-world, those in power who order all these atrocities will face no actual repercussions from their damaging actions. Those in power can destroy entire cultures and civilizations and shrug it off because at the end of the day, they still have power, money, resources, and influence.

Now. This book is still the second book in a trilogy. And most second books are the dark and hopeless part of the story, where things are supposed to be extra grave. Things aren’t supposed to go well, because if they did, why would there be a third book? This book (and this series in general, to be honest) continues showing the darkness of humanity’s future. If you enjoy books where your main characters struggle with absolutely everything in their entire lives and things get continuously worse for them, and if you like reading books where those in power use and abuse everyone without money or those they designate as “lesser” to them with no hopes of low-level people living free and authentic lives, then this book is definitely for you.

I think I still need to reserve full judgment until I finish reading the entire series, but I think this would be a two on my rating scale. Without knowing how the series ends and addresses a lot of the over-arching concerns, I don’t know that I would read it again.

Lewis, Linden. The Second Rebel. Skybound Books, 2021.

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Movie Review: Back to the Future

Posted on February 3, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

This weekend’s movie was Back to the Future from 1985.

“Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.”

I’m not quite sure why I’m on a kick of watching movies from the 1980s right now, but I was heavily motivated to watch Back to the Future today.

This movie was such a unique story for when it came out. It provided a look at questions many of us have about the history of where we came from; not a broad picture of where we came from in the perspective of humanity, but where we as our individual selves came from. What were our parents like? How has my neighborhood changed?

One of the more interesting aspects of this movie is how several small changes can make such a huge impact. The movie starts with a look at Marty’s life, where his parents don’t seem to actually get along very well, his older brother works in fast food, his sister doesn’t seem to have a job, Biff just wrecked their car, and Marty himself isn’t seen very highly by anyone.

But then when he gets back to the Future (1985), his house is very nice and well-kept, his brother is wearing a suit to the office, his sister works at a boutique, and his parents are very much in love. Even Biff, instead of still being a bully and a supervisor to George McFly, now seems to run his own auto-detailing shop. George actually submitted his science fiction work and published his first novel and Marty actually has the fancy black truck he was eyeing.

I think the really hard part would be how Marty remembers a world and past that never happened and he has no one he would be able to talk about it with. I can see this would probably create a significant amount of issues for him, as he would probably remember his life growing up differently than what actually happened. It’s possible he might even question his sanity. Even being friends with Doc Brown wouldn’t help, as Marty changed his life and history, too. When he meets Doc Brown, he’ll already be living in a changed past.

Overall, this movie is a low three on my rating scale. I’m glad I bought the 25th anniversary box collection but I don’t need to rewatch this too frequently.

Back to the Future. Directed by Robert Zemleckis, Executive Producers Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall, Produced by Bob Gale and Neil Canton, performances by Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Universal Studios, 1985.

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Book Review: Wings of Fire: Legends: Dragonslayer by Tui T. Sutherland

Posted on February 2, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

Having just finished the Wings of Fire dragonet prophecy quintet, I then decided to read Wings of Fire: Legends: Dragonslayer (young adult fantasy, 484 pages) by Tui T. Sutherland.

“Ivy doesn’t trust the Dragonslayer. He may be her father and the beloved ruler of Valor, but she knows he’s hiding more than the treasure from the sand dragon he killed two decades ago. Leaf doesn’t trust dragons. They’re the reason his favorite sister, Wren, is dead, and now he’ll do whatever it takes to slay even one. Wren doesn’t trust anyone. She swore off humans after her village tried to sacrifice her to the dragons. She only has one friend, a small, wonderful mountain dragon named Sky, and they don’t need anyone else. In a world of dragons, the humans who scramble around underfoot are easy to overlook. But Ivy, Leaf, and Wren will each cross paths with dragons in ways that could shape the destiny of both species. Perhaps a new future is possible for all of them … one in which humans can look to the skies with hope instead of fear.”

I think I made the right choice by reading this immediately after Wings of Fire: the Brightest Night because the events especially of the last book coincide nicely with the events in Dragonslayer. It’s very, very interesting to see this story from the perspective of the scavengers (humans) and to know that the dragons they keep interacting positively with are, in fact, our five dragonets of prophecy. It’s even more interesting to know the dragonet prophecy about having the five dragons be one from the MudWings, one from the SeaWings, one from the NightWings, one from the SandWings, and one from the SkyWings, but that the Talons of Peace used a RainWing instead of a SkyWing, but the SkyWing was still part of the prophecy! It’s just that no one knew that.

Sky and Wren both remain hidden for most of their lives and it’s not until after the events of The Brightest Night we even learn the SkyWing egg, stolen and dropped into the forest, actually survived the fall and hatched into an adorable baby dragon, taken care of by a young scavenger who was sacrificed by manipulative con-artists to prevent her from being trouble for them.

But their very existence, and their friendship, creates rifts neither of them, let alone other dragons, know anything about. And the same is true for the dragonets of prophecy. Clay saves Leaf way back in The Dragonet Prophecy and then Leaf is able to get the treasure to return to Sunny in The Brightest Night, which then gives Sunny the idea to follow Rose’s lead during the SandWing queen battle and dig up the Eye of Onyx, which stops the war.

I spent a lot of this book hoping the dragonet quintet someday gets a chance to sit down with Wren, Sky, and Rose and all of them share their stories. I would be highly amused to also bring Deathbringer / Murder Basket into the conversation, as I think that would be hilarious.

Overall, this is one of my favorite of the Wings of Fire books and it’s an easy four on my rating scale. I’m happy I own it and will continue to keep rereading it in the future 🙂

Sutherland, Tui T. Wings of Fire: Legends: Dragonslayer. Scholastic Press, 2020.

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Book Review: Wings of Fire: the Brightest Night by Tui T. Sutherland

Posted on January 31, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The fifth and final book of the Wings of Fire Dragonet prophecy quintet is Wings of Fire: The Brightest Night (young adult fantasy, 308 pages) by Tui T. Sutherland.

“Sunny has always taken the Dragonet Prophecy very seriously. If Pyrrhia’s dragons need her, Clay, Tsunami, Glory, and Starflight to end the war, she’s ready to try. She even has some good ideas on how to do it, if anyone would listen to her. But shattering news from Morrowseer has shaken Sunny’s faith in their destiny. Is it possible for anyone to end this terrible war and choose a new SandWing queen? What if everything they’ve been through was for nothing? Buried secrets, deadly surprises, and an unexpected side to scavengers are all waiting for her in the shifting sands of the desert, where Sunny must decide once and for all: Is her destiny already written? Or can five dragonets change their fate and save the world … the way they choose?”

THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW.

I think this is definitely my favorite of these first five books, as I really appreciate Sunny as a character. We see that she’s not just this super positive, always “sunny” person and that she actually just really wants to help all the other dragons.

One of the things that really stuck with me was when she’s kidnapped by the NightWings so they can take her to Burn for a bounty and they see what her friends have to say about her when they can’t find her. They talk about how she’ll take care of Starflight no matter how upset she is, and how she’ll be happy no matter what and probably even forget about the prophecy in like a week. Even the NightWings who captured her comment on how her friends don’t seem to think much about her intelligence.

It’s like. Just because she believes the best of people and she finds the positives in any of her situations, it means her friends don’t think she has any intelligence and can’t take things seriously. Even from the very first book, the other four dragons don’t tell her they are thinking about escaping from the guardians the Talons of Peace left them with because they don’t think she can keep a secret.

Sunny knows she doesn’t have time to go back to her friends and get help and that she needs to deal with the three NightWings who are going to sell them out to whichever of the three SandWing throne contenders will pay the most for their information, so she follows them, steals the Obsidian Mirror and even leaves a super cryptic message which winds up scaring the NightWings, and follows them to the Scorpion Den. She does all these brave, smart things and none of her friends are there to see it or to help her.

But it’s while she’s on her own that she actually meets both her mother and her father, with her mother being the only one of the dragonet parents who desperately missed and searched for their missing eggs. Sunny’s mother, Thorn, is not what Sunny would have expected, but it’s still really awesome to get to see them interact.

So after everything Sunny goes through, she is definitely the hero of this story. It’s her idea that saves the day and it’s her compassion and ability to look beyond how other dragons / people see each other and their place in the world that allows her to look at the scavengers in a different way; those same scavengers that wind up saving the day. She gives everything around her the chance to communicate and that leads to unearthing the Eye of Onyx, which decisively ends the war and fulfills the prophecy.

I think it’s interesting to look at this story from the perspective of prophecies, as there probably was a bit of real prophecy involved, but also a lot of individual choices of dragons who wanted the prophecy to be real. Most of the dragons they encountered really were exhausted of fighting and desperately wanted peace but none of them felt as though they had the individual ability to make that peace happen. They all needed an outside source to prove that peace COULD happen.

Overall, this book is my favorite of these first five books, rating a solid four on my scale. I’m very grateful I purchased this book and will continue to reread it in the future.

Sutherland, Tui T. The Wings of Fire: The Brightest Night. Scholastic Press, 2014.

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Book Review: Wings of Fire: the Dark Secret by Tui T. Sutherland

Posted on January 29, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The fourth Wings of Fire book is Wings of Fire: The Dark Secret (young adult fantasy, 295 pages) by Tui T. Sutherland.

“The mysterious NightWings keep everything hidden, from their home and their queen to their allegiance in the war. Now they’ve kidnapped their own dragonet of destiny, and Starflight is finally meeting the rest of his tribe – whether he wants to or not. The NightWings have also kidnapped several innocent RainWings, now trapped in teh dark, barren, miserable place that is the NightWing kingdom. Starflight wants to help the RainWings, but he’s busy saving his own scales and trying to find a way back to his friends. The fate of two kingdoms rests in his talons, and with no one to save him, Starflight will have to find a way to be brave … before it’s too late.”

I’m going to be honest – until this book, Starflight was not my favorite character. He still isn’t, but the neat part about having every book from the perspective of a different dragonet is how much broader an understanding of each character is provided within each story. From my perspective, Starflight hasn’t been a particularly useful dragonet of destiny before this book. The good news is he doesn’t complain much but the bad news is he doesn’t really do much, either.

With the Dark Secret, Starflight is shown to be a fairly relatable character, as he often just doesn’t know what actions he could take that would actually benefit the situation. He’s not much of a fighter because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone and would much rather spend all his days studying and learning so he can provide knowledge to his friends when they need it.

Spending more time with the alternate dragonets of prophecy was also a very eye-opening experience for Starflight, as I think it really demonstrates to him that he and his friends are definitely not safe and can be replaced at any time and there truly is a plan to replace him and all his friends.

And then there’s the whole part about how he meets his father and finds out his father is responsible for kidnapping and torturing the RainWings and Starflight really doesn’t know what to do about that, as he is young and powerless.

I think this book is a really good example of learning how you can take even small steps that turn into big steps to do the right thing, even if your first small steps to those bigger steps are behaving in a way people you admire behave. In fact, that’s one of the best examples of surrounding yourself with friends who are different than you, with different strengths and weaknesses. He imagines what his friends would do if they were faced with the same situations and it helps him to make decisions and move forward.

Overall, this book is probably one of the more depressing ones in this series, as it shows how really crappy environmental conditions to lead to a lot of really bad group decision-making. I think it’s more a low three on my rating scale, but I’m still glad I bought it and will continue to reread it in the future.

Sutherland, Tui T. The Wings of Fire: The Dark Secret. Scholastic Press, 2013.

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Movie Review: Terminator: Dark Fate

Posted on January 27, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

This weekend’s movie was Terminator: Dark Fate which is probably my absolute favorite movie out of the entire Terminator franchise.

“Decades after Sarah Connor prevented Judgment Day, a lethal new Terminator is sent to eliminate the future leader of the resistance. In a fight to save mankind, battle-hardened Sarah Connor teams up with an unexpected ally and an enhanced super soldier to stop the deadliest Terminator yet.”

As with Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Dark Fate doesn’t shy away from nudity, either male or female. And it starts so, so slowly. We start with the familiar scene of Sarah in the psychiatric ward, telling us about the nuclear war in August 1997. As this movie came out in 2019, we all know the future dreamed up by the first two Terminator movies obviously didn’t happen. So opening the movie with watching the T-101 come out of the ocean and shotgun young John was certainly a shock. And then, twenty years later, we’re taken to Mexico City, where we meet a naked woman who falls from a weird event on a bridge.

We then get a very nice scene with a brother and sister and their father at breakfast, on their way to work. And that’s honestly one of the very last slower, less threat scenes we get for quite some time. This movie just doesn’t stop, but all the action makes complete sense for the story.

It’s also honestly very, very refreshing to see the difference in Sarah Connor from the very first movie to now. It’s also really fantastic to see older actresses staring as action heroes. And also non-white, non-native English speakers as main characters in a franchise this huge.

So I won’t give away too much of this movie, other than to say it’s one of my very few five stars on my rating scale, which is as high as I rate things. I am extremely grateful a friend recommended this to me, as I’m ecstatic to rewatch it very, very frequently.

Terminator: Dark Fate. Directed by Tim Miller, Produced by James Cameron, performances by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna, and Diego Boneta, Paramount Pictures and Skydance and Twentieth Century Fox, 2019.

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Book Review: Wings of Fire: the Hidden Kingdom by Tui T. Sutherland

Posted on January 26, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The third book in the Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland is Wings of Fire: the Hidden Kingdom (young adult fantasy, 296 pages).

“The dragonets of destiny aren’t sure what to expect in the RainWing kingdom – Glory hopes to learn more about her family, and since the RainWings aren’t fighting in the war, all five dragonets think they might be able to hide safely for a while. But something deadly is stalking the peaceful kingdom, and the dragonets soon discover that RainWings have been mysteriously disappearing from the forest. When the RainWing queen won’t do anything to find her missing tribe members, Glory and her friends set off on their own rescue mission – which leads them right back into enemy territory …”

One of the interesting parts of this series I haven’t mentioned yet is how at the beginning of each book, there’s a map of Pyrrhia, as well as the NightWing Guide Dragons and every time I open these books, the urge to color everything is very, very strong. While I acknowledge that these books are mine, as I did in fact buy them, I’m still weirded out by the idea of “harming” a book. But I also did buy the official coloring book many years ago and I could just color that, but I don’t get the same burning desire to color the actual coloring book as I do to color the books of text. I am amused by this and perhaps will use the coloring of the front colors to actually color inside the books themselves one of these days.

But anyway.


This is easily my favorite of the Wings of Fire series so far. Glory is a very relatable character to me, as she’s motivated in this book by a severe sense of responsibility. When they arrive in the RainWing kingdom, the RainWings are so relaxed and chill that they don’t even know their own friends are missing. Glory is furious because she believes that someone should care if dragons are kidnapped and tortured, as well she should be.

By the end of this book, the dragonets of prophecy have met all three of their options for the SandWing throne and none of them would be very good queens. The queens are all brutal, manipulative, petty, and self-centered, which barely scratches the surface of their flaws and insuitability for ruling their respective dragon tribes. Even more, we see more of how the war is impacting all the dragons from all the tribes and how so many dragons don’t know what they’re fighting for or why and just want to go home to their families. Even though this is a fantasy series about a bunch of very young dragons, the horrors of war are accurate.

Those who order war are never those who pay for it.

I’m also interested in the alternate dragonets of destiny and the intrigue behind the prophecy. As much as Clay, Tsunami, Glory, StarFlight, and Sunny might disagree, especially in the first book and part of the second book, they are a family. The alternate dragons show that just because you’re raised together doesn’t make you a family, but the actual dragonets of prophecy have several options to split up throughout these three books so far and they still keep sticking together.

Overall, this is definitely a low four on my rating scale. I’m glad I purchased it and will continue to reread the entire series.

Sutherland, Tui T. The Wings of Fire: The Hidden Kingdom. Scholastic Press, 2013.

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Book Review: Wings of Fire: the Lost Heir by Tui T. Sutherland

Posted on January 24, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The next book to continue my reading of The Wings of Fire series was The Lost Heir by Tui T. Sutherland (young adult fantasy, 296 pages).

“She can’t believe it’s finally happening. Tsunami and her fellow dragonets of destiny are journeying under the water to the great SeaWing Kingdom. Stolen as an egg from the royal hatchery, Tsunami is eager to meet her future subjects and reunite with her mother, Queen Coral. But Tsunami’s return to the home she never knew doesn’t go quite the way she had always imagined. Queen Coral welcomes her with open wings, but a mysterious assassin has been killing off the queen’s heir’s for years, and Tsunami may be the next target. The dragonets came to the SeaWings for protection, but this ocean hides secrets, betrayal – and perhaps even death.”

I think it was interesting to see things from Tsunami’s perspective, as it’s definitely vastly different than Clay’s perspective from the previous book. While Clay was loyal to his friends, he struggled most of his book to deal with the belief that he was supposed to be some sort of violent killer because he supposedly attacked the other eggs immediately upon hatching. Tsunami, though, feels as though protecting her friends means being willing to conduct violence upon their behalf. This was shown in the last book where she was put in Queen Scarlet’s arena of death and forced to kill another SeaWing, Gill, who had been deprived of any form of water for months, which drove him mad. Tsunami was forced to kill Gill in the arena, but at least she made it quick and minimized the spectacle portion of her time in the arena as much as possible.

So Clay protects his friends by physically shielding them, as he is the largest of the dragonets, and Tsunami protects her friends by removing threats to them.

At least in the beginning.

That’s one of the great parts about this series – we see the dragonets, who really are very young with limited experience in the world, have to learn and grow. As the book continues, Tsunami spends more time thinking about what actions would actually be best instead of just jumping into the fray. We even see her start thinking about how to solve issues non-violently. We see her stopping and thinking and this is a really important development.

I’m also enjoying how the series shows us that our daydreams are often not as beneficial as the life we currently have. All five of the dragonets were taken from their tribes as eggs and therefore have no concept of what their lives are supposed to be like, but at the same time, they have all wished to meet their families.

Clay was disappointed to find his mother sold him for two cows and while his siblings would have loved him as part of their combat wing, that wasn’t actually the best option for either group, as he hadn’t been with them for the last six years and his own tribe of mismatched prophecy dragonets needed him. He already had the family he needed.

Meanwhile, Tsunami learns that being royalty isn’t nearly as inspiring as she thought. Her mother is so overly protective that she has her daughters attached to her via a harness so they have no life, time, or socialization of their own. Tsunami just wants to be free to go where she wants and to help her friends, which she realizes she can’t do if she’s put on the queen’s leash. Even though her mother loves her, it would be a prison, just of a different sort.

Overall, this book is going to join the first book as a high three or low four on my rating scale. I’m glad I purchased it and I will continue to reread it in the future.

Sutherland, Tui T. The Wings of Fire: The Lost Heir. Scholastic Press, 2013.

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Book Review: Wings of Fire: the Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland

Posted on January 22, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

Since I very much enjoy books about dragons, one of my librarians recommended The Wings of Fire books to me. The first book in the series is The Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland (young adult fantasy, 304 pages).

“Clay has lived his whole life under the mountain. The MudWing dragonet knows that war is raging between the dragon tribes in the world outside – a war that he and four other dragonets are destined to tend, according to the mysterious Prophecy they’ve been taught. The five “chosen” dragonets were stolen from the their homes while they were still in their eggs – and hidden away for years – all to fulfill the Prophecy. But not every dragonet wants a destiny. And when danger threatens one of their own, Clay and his friends may choose freedom over fate … leave the mountain … and set the dragon world on a course that no one could have predicted.”

This book is an excellent beginning into the Wings of Fire series, as Clay is a wonderfully caring and loyal dragon, which is different than most modern depictions of dragons. From the very beginning, it’s obvious Clay is protective of his friends, extremely gentle, and also very young, as most of his thoughts when left alone are about food and being hungry.

I’m not actually going to say too much about the characters or the story, as I think this is a pretty fast, pretty good read all on its own.

Instead, I will talk at least a little bit about how much depth and planning must have gone into this entire series. So far, the Wings of Fire series is three books of five (so fifteen total) plus two legends books. There’s also graphic novels and coloring books. As a very interesting note, I actually purchased the coloring book several years ago without knowing anything about the series because I very much enjoy dragons and a dragon coloring book looked like a lot of fun! (Yes, I am a fully fledged adult and yes I still like coloring and yes I still like coloring dragons 🙂 )

Every book has a completely different main character, which provides a variety of different perspectives to an ongoing storyline, all of which is interconnected. I think the amount of planning, plotting, and general synchronization for this kind of world-building is really fantastic.

Overall, I enjoyed this book so much that after I finished borrowing it from the library, I went out and purchased the entire series so I can reread it whenever I wish. I’d say it’s definitely a high three or a low four on my rating scale.

Sutherland, Tui T. The Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy. Scholastic Press, 2012.

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Movie Review: Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Posted on January 20, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

This week’s movie was Terminator 2: Judgment Day, to continue with my Terminator binge 🙂

“A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.”

My version of this movie is the “eXtreme DVD” director’s cut version with 16 minutes of additional scenes not found in the theatrical release. And I can tell you right now that those 16 minutes were cut for good reason before Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released in theaters and I think the next time I’m at a used movie store, I’ll see if I can find a “normal” version of this on dvd so I can buy that and maybe switch out this one.

Some of the extra scenes include:
-Extra time of Sarah hallucinating in the psychiatric facility, which I did not feel were helpful to her character development.
-Extra time with Miles Dyson and his family, which were interesting to show how dedicated he was to the project but not overly relevant to the plot.
-Extra time with Sarah and John in the abandoned garage. This scene showed how the T-101 taught John how to disable and reprogram it, which helps with questions about how he knows stuff in the future, but John’s little outburst about how he’s supposed to be the leader of the future and Sarah should do what he says just really pissed me off.
-No one needed or wanted to see the dog, Max, brutally murdered by the T-1000 after it kills Janelle and Todd. Like. Seriously. No one needs that. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you’re watching the extended director’s cut, skip the part where the T-1000 goes outside.
-Tons of little extra bits, like the T-1000 after the big rig explosion, and the T-1000 shaking off its shapeshifting.

Even though this is the director’s cut (which I do not enjoy), this movie is still one of my top favorites. The story is fascinating, the effects are a great mixture between computer and real effects, the characters are well-developed and consistent, and this movie does what the Terminator didn’t – it ends at a point of hope for the future of humanity. Sarah, John, Miles Dyson, and T-101 were able to change the future. They saved the world. And now two are dead and Sarah and John are on the run and can’t ever return to the United States. They can never tell anyone what they did because no one would believe them and they have no proof that their actions will actually change anything. But there’s that hope that they did, in fact, save the world.

Overall, this movie is easily a four on my rating scale. I’m happy I own it (but I’ll be happier once I own a theatrical release and not the director’s cut) and I rewatch it constantly.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Directed by James Cameron, performances by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Robert Patrick, Artisan Home Entertainment, 1991.

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