More than meets the eye

Rating: 10/10 (31 May 2005)

For me this will always be the best of the Terminator films. The second is a great action film, the third is a popcorn flick. But this, the first of them, covers everything that the premise promises. The future, the present, and the strangeness of the laws that might govern time-travel (if it were at all possible). Kyle Reese is a great protagonist alongside Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor. She is very natural and her reactions to the situation she finds herself in are spot on. Biehn's Reese comes off very well too, his calm and collected behaviour in the face of the Terminator shows how much he must be used to such a menace in the time he comes from.
The action in the police station is justifiably legendary. The fact that Arnold's Terminator doesn't break a sweat when breaking into the well-guarded police headquarters and killing so many officers, really manages to drive home the point of what the terminator is. That's in case Reese's previous explanations about the machine didn't convince you. Lance Henriksen turns in a great performance as a real oddball of a character, just over-the-top enough to be plausible. Adding to the realism, this comic relief is taken out during the shoot-out at the police station. Just goes to show that no one is safe from the Terminator.
Like Blade Runner, it's surprising how much better executed this film is compared to the CGI-fests that have taken over the cinema nowadays. The oldies hold up incredibly well in the comparison. The sparse scenes depicting the future are well-handled and the sets in no way detract from the authenticity generated. This film just oozes atmosphere, with it's bluish lights, dark future, and dark streets of the present with tube lights everywhere that throw long shadows. And of course Brad Fiedel's minimalist electronic score captures the mood and everything else perfectly. The musical motifs for the unstoppable terminator and the comparably feeble resistance offered by Reese are all present even in the main theme. I for one never get tired of hearing the same tune repeated throughout the movie, which at one point manages to morph into the love theme.
It's a shame that Cameron didn't stick to making such films as this and Aliens (which is almost as entertaining, though for very different reasons). Titanic, which set out to be a romance, fell far short of it because it was the romance aspect that felt staged throughout. With the Terminator, James Cameron achieves a great balance between menacing action, a believable romance and comedic timing. Perhaps he should return to making films that don't aim for a love story, but end up having one as a by-product. Let's hope we can all put the disaster that was the Titanic behind us and look forward to films of a similar calibre to his earlier works. Regardless of whatever else he does, I'll always be grateful to him for the first of the Terminator movies.