Among the Best

Rating: 9/10 (8 April 2013)

The Terminator launched an era of sci-fi action and endless copy cats that never lived up to the originals. The film sets a lone soldier Kyle Reese who is sent back through time to protect a woman Sarah Connor who has a important destiny in the future. His opponent is a half human half machine programmed to kill Sarah at all cost. The film is both quite violent yet blends a romantic story within it's plot that is touching and central to the story. For a film of the middle 1980's the visual effects are still good yet somewhat dated but when this film first appeared they were amazing. Stan Winston was a master of animatronics and makeup effects and his work shines here. Arnold Schwarzenegger comes off well as the emotionless machine and is well balanced by Micheal Biehn's passionate Reese. Linda Hamilton completes the trio and does solid acting as a confused and scared Sarah Connor who finds her world and reality crumbling as the film progresses toward it's conclusion. This film defined Arnold as action star and coined one of the most well known one liners in Hollywood history.