Help saved sci-fi from Star Wars (spoilers)

Rating: 10/10 (9 July 2002)

Terminator deserves an award for the impact it made to sci-fi--albeit good and bad. Star Wars demolished the genre that Kubrick slaved to change, making space operas more important than thinking at the box office. With Terminator we abandon droids, galactic empires, the Force, and all that other pissant elementary school dung and get down to business, pronto. Many films are hailed "cool", but intellectuals get their brains working and reject is as garbage. Terminator is one movie that'll please both smart & stupid, the darkness gives the sense of evil everywhere while an electronic score enhances the feeling of man at the mercy of machines. Arnold, limited actor he is, reigns king of deadpan brutality. When he puts a shotgun shell in someone's chest or rips their heart out--he doesn't smile, frown, or flinch, his performance is robotic--AND IT WORKS! The nightmarish future scenes make Mad Max look like Teletubbies (interesting how many set pieces were reused in T2). While the futuristic Hunter-Killers seem fake, their machined ruthlessness causes fear. The cyborgs slay like Judas, betraying our emotions into believing only what's human, then whipping out the laser cannon and perforating us. As in almost all his work, James Cameron has women become strong. Little is spent worrying with that and more on the story--making it one of the best low budget movies that does a lot with little. In a 150 MILLION dollar film, do they care where the cash goes? No, and we spectators wind up with "Wild Wild West", "Pearl Harbor", and "Waterworld" (not bold moves for the studios)! In a $6 million film like this, togetherness is key. WARNING! DON'T CONTEMPLATE HOW TELEPORTING IN TIME TO CHANGE THE PAST IN ORDER TO SAVE THE FUTURE WORKS!! You'll go cuckoo and wind up in an insane asylum.