July 3, 1991 -- ``Terminator 2, Judgment Day'' is reportedly the most expensive film ever made, at least in 1991 dollars, and all the high-tech, high-cost special effects really show.

A big crowd packed the Wyo Theatre Tuesday night for the special sneak preview of the show and there were a lot of oohs and ahs. The movie reportedly cost $100 million, $17 million of that for special effects. Industrial Light and Magic did the honors, including the latest in computer-generated images.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was also the star of the original ``Terminator,'' reprises his role in the original with a twist. Reportedly Schwarzenegger was paid $15 million for the sequel. That's more than twice the cost of the original film.

James Cameron directs the sequel as he did the original, but was also producer and co-writer. Linda Hamilton also reprises her role as Sarah Connors from the original.

For those of you who are not familiar with the original 1984 film, here's a brief description. Following a nuclear war, the machines who started the war work to wipe out the remaining humans, but the humans fight back, led by John Connors, Sarah's son.

When the machines are nearly beaten they hit upon a plan to use a time machine to achieve victory. They send a robot disguised as a man to the past to kill Sarah Connors and rob the humans of their future leader.

The humans seize the time machine and send their own agent back to protect Sarah Connors. In the sequel we learn that a second robot was sent back at a later date to wipe out Connors and her son. John Connors sends a robot back in time reprogrammed by himself to protect his child self against the new threat. Very simple.

It turns out that the new threat is an advanced robot made of a kind of Silly Putty metal that can turn itself into any shape, including nasty knife-like appendages.

It also turns out that the reprogrammed ``good'' robot, covered with a human-like skin, sent back to defend the Connors is non other than Schwarzenegger who was the villainous robot in the first film.

The Silly Putty metal robot is the recipient of the computer-generated graphics and they are quite realistic, if that's the right word. In addition to all the great special effects, there's a lot of stunt work. For an example, one of the robots rides a motorcycle through the window of a tall building, goes flying through the air and he grabs onto a helicopter flying by.

Despite all the special effects and stunts, it is the character development and the nice way the three principal actors work together that makes the film effective.

Schwarzenegger is taught by the young John Connors, played very well by newcomer Edward Furlong, to become more and more human-like as the film develops. Their scenes together are very effective. Linda Hamilton is a bit much. In the original movie she displayed an appealing vulnerability. This time she's Ms. Rambo and overacts a little bit. Robert Patrick plays the bad robot.

In the end, however, you end up caring about these people, and even the cyborg, Schwarzenegger. The acid test is, is this as good as the original film. The original was a heck of an action movie. The sequel measures up very well. It should be the smash hit of the summer. This film rates an A.

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