'The Terminator' has classic action thrills that will please most, if not all

Rating: 10/10 (2 July 2015)

In the early 1980s, James Cameron came up with the idea of the film and when his agent told him it was a bad idea, Cameron fired him. Originally, the film was to include two Terminators, one of which would have been a liquid type (later used in T2). He later changed it to just one. He sold the rights to Gale Anne Hurd for $1. Literally. Anyway, in 1984, the film was released to rave reviews. By that, I mean it has an 8.1 on IMDb and a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. If that's not rave, I don't know what is. So, let's see if the critics are right or if they're just nutcases.
The Terminator follows unassuming Sarah Connor as her life is turned upside down by a man claiming he's from the future to protect her, and a man who is part cyborg whom is trying to kill her to prevent a future war from ever beginning.
To be honest, until today, I had never seen any of the Terminator films. I had heard many praise them and had heard a lot of good things about them but had never seen them. Now that I've seen one, I can definitely say that all the things people have said about the Terminator films being good are true.
The acting is pretty well done from everyone. Arnold Schwarzenegger has that robotic feel to him already so he obviously does a great job as The Terminator, saying some truly hilarious lines like the scene where he says "Fuck you, asshole." Just brilliant. Michael Biehn does a great job as a man coming from the future to protect Sarah Connor at the advice of her future son, John Connor. Don't expect me to explain that one to you, go watch the movie. Linda Hamilton does a great job as well portraying the woman trying to come to grips with what a man from the future is telling her, believe me, I know how weird this sounds, haha. Paul Winfield and Lance Henriksen do good in their somewhat-limited roles as the detectives assigned to Sarah's case.
The music by Brad Fiedel is awesome. The music over the opening credits is really cool, and although it's expanded upon a lot more in future sequels, the original ain't bad either. The cool thing about the score is that it's not just the big action sounding score, it has some emotional music in it too. Always nice to have diversity. The visual effects are great in this film, especially for a film released in 1984. At the end of the film, the film uses stopmotion and other effects to great lengths. It all looks quite natural and works very well.
The cinematography from Adam Greenberg looks awesome, and makes the film look the part of a basic chase through the streets of Los Angeles. It's pretty darn cool. The script, too, is written very well, written mainly by Cameron (even though Hurd got a writing credit too), and is very tight. It manages to restrict the film to it's chases and a few different places where the characters spend anywhere from 5-10 minutes. It's very cost-effective, especially since the film was only made on a $6.4 million budget.
Perhaps my only problem with the film (I know, shocking, I have issues), is that the first thirty minutes or so before the club scene are a little slow-moving and it really does take a while for the film to kick into gear. It's not a big problem, really, just me nitpicking, but it did bug me a bit.
Overall, The Terminator is a fantastic action thriller. While the film's first act moves a bit slow, the effects are ahead of it's time, and the acting, music, cinematography and script all are just as fantastic. I'm so excited now to watch the next Terminator film, especially since I just saw a fantastic one, and people say the next one is even better. If you haven't seen The Terminator, please check it out, it will be worth it, I promise.
10/10. | Grade: A