Growing up, movies like The Terminator were not ones that I was allowed to watch. Especially when I was a kid because they're R-rated and my parents rightfully decided that R-rated movies were not suitable for kids to be watching. In fact I didn't even see it during my stays in the hospital unlike Batman Returns, Super Mario Bros., and the few Disney movies that we didn't own on VHS when I was a kid. Even as a teenager I didn't have much interest in seeing the Terminator movies. They always seemed to be more style over substance and while they were technical pieces of art, they held no appeal for me.
Sitting down and watching the movie on VHS last night was a bizarre experience. Despite the movie being part of our collective consciousness, I didn't know a thing about the movie aside from the general plot of killer robot going back in time to kill the mother of Humanity's saviour and a soldier going back in time to protect her from said killer robot. I also knew two lines from the movie. "I'll be back", which is probably Arnold's most iconic line ever, and "Come with me if you want to live" spoken by Michael Biehn when he meets Linda Hamilton for the first time. That's about it.
It's a good movie, though the special effects don't hold up well after 36 years. There's just something missing. I'm not sure I can really articulate what's missing, only that there's something missing. The story is decent enough, and the character of Sarah Connor is iconic. But the movie feels rather emotionless with nothing for me to grab onto as cool or necessary. Like did we really need the scenes of Arnold killing the other Sarah Connor characters or Sarah's roommate, Ginger and her boyfriend Matt? I guess it shows that he is dangerous and can't be reasoned with, even though nobody from 1984 actually tries to reason with him, but it does nothing to further any of the characters. Like Sarah should be angry that Ginger is dead. Instead, it gets glossed over after Paul Winfield's character, Lieutenant Traxler, informs her of their deaths.
The cast is phenomenal in this movie. Aside from Arnold, Paul Winfield, Dick Miller, Bill Paxton, and Brian Thompson are the only actors I have any familiarity with. I've seen Arnold in Batman & Robin, Winfield in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Dick Miller in Small Soldiers, Bill Paxton in Thunderbirds (2004) and season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Brian Thompson in a second season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where he plays a Klingon, and the pilot episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But of I am completely unfamiliar with Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. They do a really good job of playing their characters, Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, and I love the chemistry between the two of them.
As I mentioned before, the special effects do not hold up very well in 2020. Before I sat down to watch the movie I was warned that the special effects don't hold up, but I don't think I was prepared for just how much they don't hold up. They don't make the movie unwatchable, but they are pretty bad in comparison to other movies that came out in 1984 like Ghostbusters, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I've also heard that the effects in Terminator 2: Judgment Day are a lot better, but that's almost an unfair comparison to make because of course special effects are going to be better in 1991 than they were in 1984. That's a given.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Objectively The Terminator is an iconic movie that has a lot of cool scenes. Subjectively though, this movie isn't for me. It's good and I'll probably watch it again at some point, just because I enjoyed watching it despite my problems with it. It's never going to be my favourite movie of all time though and it didn't make me want to rush out and buy the second movie any time soon. I'm giving The Terminator 6/10 stars. The action was fine, but the movie felt emotionless to me and there just wasn't enough for me to really latch onto. I totally understand why people love the movie though and who knows, maybe one day I'll watch Terminator 2: Judgment Day and it'll make me appreciate this movie just a little bit more.
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
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