"You've been targeted for termination." A genuine 100% classic.

Rating: 9/10 (19 December 2007)

The Terminator starts in the future post apocalyptic year of 2029 where the machine has taken complete control & are engaging in a war intent on wiping mankind out, after realising they have lost the war against mankind the machines send a T-800 cybernetic terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to 1984 Los Angeles where it is programmed to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) the mother of the leader of the resistance who in the future will defeat the machines. At the same time the resistance is able to send back a protector for Sarah, a soldier named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) in an attempt to prevent her termination by the killer cyborg. The streets of Los Angeles become the fighting ground for the very future of humanity as Sarah must survive or all hope for mankind will be lost...
This English American co-production was co-written & directed by James Cameron & has gone on to become widely acknowledged as just about the best sci-fi action film of the 80's & maybe even to this point it hasn't been bettered, it's an iconic film with many moments that have become part of pop culture & the amount of killer robot flicks that have followed is also a testament to it's popularity & influence. The script by Cameron & producer Gale Ann Hurd is a terrific action packed thoughtful & intelligent sci-fi thriller, it has a great pace about it with plenty of car chases, shoot-outs, fights & futuristic battle scenes to satisfy most action junkies & plenty of robots, an extremely well thought out time travel story that makes perfect sense & an underlying message about putting too much faith in machines & computers in an era when the modern PC hadn't even been invented & I guess Cameron just saw the way things were going. There's so much to enjoy here & so little to not not like, from exciting action set-pieces set both in the present & the future, some great special effects that hold up pretty well even today, a really good solid sci-fi story which is well thought out & easy to pick up & understand while still managing to be gripping & a really fast pace which simply doesn't allow the viewer to become bored although there's still enough meaningful character development when needed for you to care for them & what happens to them. An almost perfect film & an absolute classic of the genre or indeed any genre, one of the best films ever made. Period.
Director Cameron has since gone on to become one of the biggest director's in Hollywood with a string of huge films like Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), True Lies (1994) the the most successful film ever made to date Titanic (1997) while The Terminator was his second full length feature film after the OK horror sequel Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981) & he does a great job of making his small budget go far. From the action scenes to the special effects The Terminator is an impressive film even today, OK some of the stop motion terminator effects aren't the best they still at least look alright. The film is very violent with lots of gun-play, there's also some gore as the terminator has to get rid of his damaged eye by inserting a scalpel into it & plucking it out, he also has to slice his arm open to repair some mechanics.
With a supposed budget of about $6,400,000 this didn't have a particularly big budget but the film doesn't suffer as there's still more car chases, shoot-outs, special effects & fights than a lot of much higher budgeted Hollywood stuff from the time. The music is great, the effects are good, it's well made & the production values are high. The acting is very good all round, apparently only paid $75,000 Schwarzenegger is perfect for the role & he gets to say his trademark 'Ill be back' for the first time on screen.
The Terminator is a solid gold 100% classic & it's as simple & straight forward as that. There quite simply isn't anything that I don't like about this film, definitely recommended. Followed by the equally as brilliant Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the not so brilliant but still enjoyable Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2008) while a third sequel Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (2009) is apparently in production.