I'll Be Bare

Rating: 8/10 (2 October 2009)

One of the most amazing aspects of 'The Terminator,' was the story. Despite the extremely low budget, and the equally low-budget feel of the film, the movie had an extremely well thought out story. This is evident when they took this film into three additional sequels, made a mega-star out of Schwarzenegger and even produced a short-lived TV series. Unfortunately, despite the quality of story and the sci-fi aspect of the plot line, I viewed it more as a horror story than an action picture it was meant to be. I think it was the genre of films produced back on and around 1984. Only this one stood out, with solid performances by Hamilton, Biehn and, of course, Schwarzenegger. In the defining movie based on man vs. machines (tell me the makers of 'The Matrix' wasn't thinking about this movie throughout), comes a 'Judgment Day' apocalyptic war when machines take over in 1997 and man spends the rest of his days fighting the mistake we made. Back in time comes a "terminator" to kill the mother of the resistance leader in a valid tactical move, but thankfully, the leader also sends someone back to protect her – giving us valuable information in the process. While some of the graphics (and hair, oh, God, the hair) were extremely dated (also see: the closing, when Schwarzenegger finally loses his skin), the movie holds up very well, even 25 years later. And it's all thanks to the interesting and original story as well as the acting. Many imitated this movie; none came close to the heart of 'The Terminator.' I even loved the ending. Of course, it opened the doors to sequels, but if it ended with the storm coming, it would've been okay. They produced a quality product that honestly didn't need a continuation.