Seeing the film in today's point of view...

Rating: 8/10 (2 August 2003)

Commenting on this film after watching Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was not easy. I've seen it for seven or eight times before this. So when I sat before my TV to watch it again, just a day after I saw T3 in theatre, it gave me a new idea. That the Terminator (1984) never meant to be a sci-fi eye candy based on raw action, which T2 and more precisely T3 have become. It should be classified into some sci-fi horror to be more perfect. That creepy Terminator model, that gory look of Schwarzenegger, the night based story and especially that background music--- all meant to create a feeling of horror or dark thriller, never a die-hard action flick. I don't know if seeing this film in the perspective of that era, early 80's, could tell a different thing. But to be an action movie in today's eyes, Terminator is not sufficient.
Years before The Matrix presented us the very idea that in near future machines or self-aware computer programs will enslave the human race, there came this thing... SkyNet. Perhaps to deal with this concept was not Cameron's primary goal in this rather low budget superhit. His intention was to make another cult film. Success was much higher than expected, it's true. But that is not my point. I just mean if Terminator was made in late 90's, not back in '84, it would have been a much more different movie. Inevitably the major focus had to be on the basic concept, not Arnold building his muscles in the rooftop. I realise in sudden horror that it might not cast Arnold as well... since a killing machine doesn't have to be a Mr. Universe in figure. And in today's eyes, it would surely be an absurd idea too to an indie filmmaker.
Whether Terminator would succeed if made now as much as it did back then is a different story. All that is important is its effect on filmmakers thereafter. It was a flawed film, true. But it created a genre of its own. It was highly extraordinary, even in the eyes of present-day post-Matrix viewers. That skin-on-one-side look of Arnie's face became a trademark; his "I'll be back" became a legend. This film generated several inspired works but few equals. I know exactly why T2 is a different movie at all. Terminator is a classic of its own kind.