01/30/10 - The Terminator

The Terminator (1984, 108 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/

This movie is a rewatch of a movie I have already written about. The previous post is here:
04/25/09 - The Terminator

Well, I'd like to take back a lot of the stuff I said in those comments to be honest. The Terminator is not an action movie. Okay, well maybe it is for like the last ten minutes. But up until that point it's a thriller and suspense movie. I think when I watched The Terminator the first time (all the way through) back in April that I was watching it for the wrong reasons. The Terminator isn't meant to be watched to be compared to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. However, I'm of the opinion that overall this feel of suspense isn't that great. I mean, there's a couple great scenes though - mainly the TechNoir shootout and when it's revealed that the Terminator has killed Sarah Connor's mother and has been talking to her on the phone - but I just don't feel much happens in the movie. Overall, it's just somewhat boring.

As for my thoughts on the movie, I really didn't say much in those comments. I guess because that was when I was putting down like one thought per movie whereas now I write multiple paragraphs. Anyway, I do like how emotionless the Terminator is. I read he has less than 20 lines and I like this aspect. It places him more distant than the humans and works for the character.

The special effects for The Terminator look quite dated now. 1984 was quite some time ago and some of the eye shots, robot shots, and futuristic shots look bland compared to modern stuff. I mean, I guess it looked great at the time - I haven't seen enough special effects heavy movies from the early 1980s to know - but now it's bad. I can't take off points for this though.

Overall, I gave this film a 7/10 again. The Terminator introduces some amazing characters and concocts one of the strangest and most unique plots I've ever come across (that also makes some sense). It spawned one of the best sequels of all time and two other movies and a television series. Obviously, The Terminator is a very good movie but it has too many flaws for me to push it into great status.