← Back to Reviews
in
The Terminator
Set in the 1980s, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is stalked by a humanoid machine sent from the future. Her only hope and help, is a man called Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), also sent from the future, to stop the machine. If Sarah dies, the human race will become extinct as her (as yet unborn) son will become a freedom fighter and leader of the human resistance, in a war between man, and an entire army of these humanoid machines.
James Cameron’s sci-fi horror is a masterclass of how to make an expensive looking sci-fi, on a shoestring budget. Written absolutely perfectly, Cameron has made a well-established piece of movie history. A modern day fairy tale almost.
Being that the concept of The Terminator machine itself came to Cameron in a fever induced nightmare gives me at least, a respect for the depths of the human psyche and for Cameron’s imagination.
The film does suffer from slightly dodgy special effects. The stop-motion Terminator was mediocre at best even for the standard of the 80s.
What really makes the film’s effects a success though, is Stan Winston’s prosthetics on Arnold Swarzenegger.
By today’s standard, again, they are fairly rudimentary but they still work. You genuinely believe Arnie’s face is coming off.
Mix to that, not just the way the movie is written, but the way the movie is made. The direction, scene placing and overall aura of the subject matter are a joy to watch.
Hamilton, Biehn, Swarzenegger are all fantastic in their roles.
Hamilton is beautifully lost in the series of terrifying, far-out events and eventually becomes a tougher person as the movie progresses.
Biehn’s rough, tough, emotionless soldier of the future becomes more human-like as he spends more time with Connor.
Arnie is wonderfully wooden as the over-6-foot 500lb non stop killer machine.
All in all this fantastic roller coaster is one for the movie history books.
My rating 90%
Set in the 1980s, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is stalked by a humanoid machine sent from the future. Her only hope and help, is a man called Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), also sent from the future, to stop the machine. If Sarah dies, the human race will become extinct as her (as yet unborn) son will become a freedom fighter and leader of the human resistance, in a war between man, and an entire army of these humanoid machines.
James Cameron’s sci-fi horror is a masterclass of how to make an expensive looking sci-fi, on a shoestring budget. Written absolutely perfectly, Cameron has made a well-established piece of movie history. A modern day fairy tale almost.
Being that the concept of The Terminator machine itself came to Cameron in a fever induced nightmare gives me at least, a respect for the depths of the human psyche and for Cameron’s imagination.
The film does suffer from slightly dodgy special effects. The stop-motion Terminator was mediocre at best even for the standard of the 80s.
What really makes the film’s effects a success though, is Stan Winston’s prosthetics on Arnold Swarzenegger.
By today’s standard, again, they are fairly rudimentary but they still work. You genuinely believe Arnie’s face is coming off.
Mix to that, not just the way the movie is written, but the way the movie is made. The direction, scene placing and overall aura of the subject matter are a joy to watch.
Hamilton, Biehn, Swarzenegger are all fantastic in their roles.
Hamilton is beautifully lost in the series of terrifying, far-out events and eventually becomes a tougher person as the movie progresses.
Biehn’s rough, tough, emotionless soldier of the future becomes more human-like as he spends more time with Connor.
Arnie is wonderfully wooden as the over-6-foot 500lb non stop killer machine.
All in all this fantastic roller coaster is one for the movie history books.
My rating 90%
