A massive accomplishment!

Rating: 9/10 (26 June 2012)

The Terminator is a perfect example of what James Cameron can do with a limited budget, and when he's not relying on special effects. There's lovely bits of character development littered through it as well, not in your face back story, just stuff that make the characters a bit more human (well bar Arnie obviously). I think what makes it such a great film is the fact that it doesn't rely on massive special effects to make it good. They really do play a back seat role, and the fact that it's just a really simple narrative makes it work very well. It's more of a violent game of cat and mouse, with a massively overshadowing sense of no hope. The plot is well thought out, and the characters are very believable. There's no doubt in my mind that Arnold Schwarzenegger is a terrible, terrible actor, but the thing about him in the Terminator series is that you just don't care. The main reason being is that he's playing a cyborg, and isn't supposed to show any emotion. I think what this film managed to do very well, which I think lacked in all the other films, is the genuinely chilling atmosphere. I think the soundtrack plays a really big part in this, it sounds like a violent, orchestrated game boy soundtrack. There's something just so fitting about it.
I really love Judgement Day, and find it the best in the series, for the mere fact that it feels a lot more entertaining, and even though it's a massive blockbuster movie, Cameron (before he got bad) managed to perfectly balance action and drama. The first one however, I think is a massive accomplishment and I part of me loves just how independent it looks. It was made with a budget of 6 million, and I really do feel that more movies today would benefit from having a really stripped back budget, just so they can concentrate on character development and atmosphere rather than shooting and explosions and putting everything on the screen with SFX.