""The Terminator" is James Cameron's earliest masterpiece."

Rating: 9/10 (11 October 2015)

The whole story of the 'Terminator' franchise never makes any good sense. If I were to judge it in that angle, then "The Terminator" would be a failure. But cut that. Never had before that I thought a story is the most vital element of a movie. "Terminator" is a ballsy, undividedly original 1980s sci-fi action picture. James Cameron's ingenuity, open doors for his outstanding far stretched imaginations for storytelling. Cameron's gifted mind, brought a story that is so fresh and entertaining, into the cinematic legends.
Into the future. Nuclear holocaust strikes, and an artificial intelligence known as Skynet rises up. It deems humanity as a threat and its goal is to wipe out the whole of humanity. Briefly, there is a war between the survivors of the nuclear catastrophe and the machines. A cyborg assassin a.k.a. Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is being sent by Skynet to back in time to eliminate the mother of the leader of the resistance force, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). If the plan is successful, the formation of the resistance force will be halted and fate altered. But to avoid it from happening, a soldier, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is being sent to be Sarah's protector. "Terminator" is obviously a 'Cat & Mouse' story, where the Terminator will only stop living if Sarah is killed.
"Terminator" exhilarates with so much energy that all scenes, and all moments, were only being captured for the fullest. There are no hollow spaces in the film, and nothing declines. It is the sharp and skillful editing that set it to be a piece of bold, entertaining action flick. To put it simply, "Terminator" is a show for great filmmaking. Its performances are proper – Arnold Schwarzenegger is intimidating as the killing machine cyborg and Linda Hamilton excels as the struggled heroine. The supporting casts are solid too, especially from Paul Winfeld and Earl Boen.
It is funny that a woman who does nothing but waitressing is being targeted for extermination. If the Terminator had not been sent, and Kyle Reese never visits that timeline, John Connor, son of Sarah Connor, would not exist. Sarah Connor is a story of a woman who seems scared, weak and incompetent but eventually turns out to be the opposite of her normal self. And Linda Hamilton played her wonderfully well. If there is a message in the movie, it would be Sarah Connor herself. She gives the idea of a person who goes from zero to the unlikely hero, and who ultimately becomes a vital figure would prevent the future apocalypse.
"The Terminator" is James Cameron's earliest masterpiece. Only after years later, he presented the world with several great movies like "Aliens", "The Abyss" and the sequel of this. And too he gave us the two highest grossing movies of all time just for decades later: "Titanic" and "Avatar". He, in the present day, has cemented himself as one of the greatest filmmakers. His contributions like his extraordinary visions for cinema, and his will to entertain audiences, are rarely matched. His "Terminator" might just be the start of that fire.
(Cinematicmadness.blogspot.com) twitter: @Alex_DeSmall