Terminator 2: Judgment Day

by

Brad Fiedel

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Be warned, this is not a traditional sounding soundtrack to say the least. The opening song of this cd is probably the most normal of the disc. I think it's safe to say it's the "terminator" theme.

I'll describe the entire soundtrack's overall feel to me in one paragraph -

A mix of synthetic low atmospheric drones and squeeling sounds that combine to make menacing tones ( mainly used for the T-1000's music ). Eerie churchbell loops , synthetic snaredrum marching music with sampled cellos and live(?) dissonant horns. If you watch the movie and then listen to the soundtrack you'll like it alot better.

One of the best things I liked about the soundtrack though is that what I thought ( when I watched the movie ) were sound effects dubbed in were actually part of the soundtrack. Like the part where the terminator pulls the wheel out the T-1000's hand in the truck and it flips over the sound of the metal squeeling on the ground is actually part of the soundtrack! It's really amazing that such a bizzare and eerie soundtrack worked for this movie so well.

I give it 5 stars for it's originality and excellent continutity with the movie.

The theme for Terminator 2 is really good. The only bad part is that it is way underused. Instead, most of the music is mainly filler music that while supporting the action on screen, doesn't quite stand as an outstanding listening experience. Brad Fiedel, as in the first Terminator film, scores this one all on synthesizers for that futuristic and metallic sound. While that is fine and dandy, and orchestra would have really added to the music. The 5 note thematic motif is found in "Main Title", a hint of it in "John and Dyson in the Vault", and the end track "It's Over". "Sarah on the Run" is a decent action cue with racing synth percussion. "Escape from the Hospital" utilizes the T-1000 sound, which is low droning noises on the synthesizer. "Sarah's Dream" is a schizophrenic cue with a lot of strange noises and funky synth sounds. "Trust Me" is a cool action cue with hard hitting metallic percussion. The rest of the music has really nothing that great worth mentioning, except the final track, "It's Over", which contains a different theme which is good, but it's the last track so that's it. Still, a decent 53 minutes worth of music (or noises in some cases) that is way, way better than the first score, which was terrible in my opinion.