Fantastic movie, one of my favourites!

Rating: 10/10 (13 February 2009)

This contains Spoilers.
The Terminator is one of those movies that was great for it's time. The special effects are quite outdated by todays standards, but I try to look past that and focus on the fact that for the time, it was good and it was acceptable. It must have been great to have seen this movie in the Cinemas back when it was released.
The Terminator plot is, at heart, a simple one, but many twists usually make it more complex, thus make it more compelling to watch, in my opinion. It's typically about the Present and the Future. The main character in this movie is Sarah Connor, who leads a simple life, but is going to be thrust into a life she never anticipated and I'm sure never wanted to have happened to her. A terminator from the future is sent into the past to kill Sarah Connor, which in turn kills John Connor, her unborn child. John Connor leads the resistance in the future and ultimately leads Humankind to victory in the war against the machines. The humans, who found out that they sent a Terminator in the past to try and kill Sarah Connor, which will wipe John Connor from existence and mean that the Robots will win the war, send a human Soldier, Kyle Reece,, to protect Sarah.
From then on, the movie gets interesting very fast. Unlike the sequels to this movie, this one is more violent and has a darker tone about it than the other movies have. In this movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger is the Terminator, like in the sequels, but this time he is bad, not good. It seems like a very slim chance that Sarah and Kyle can beat it, since it is two humans versing a machine, which is nearly indestructible (or would seem so if you were in a similar situation and tried everything against it). They eventually beat the Terminator, but not before Kyle Reece dies.
One of the twists in this movie is that Kyle Reece is the father of John Connor, and when you think about it it gets very complex and still gets me thinking as to how it might be. This movie makes you think in a way, and it's a different kind of action movie, if you focus on the story that is and not just the guns and pretty explosions that occur occasionally.
The music is pretty good. While not the best in terms of composing (it's very improvised therefore there are some times when some sounds do not sound right at all), it fits the movie. The use of synthesizers was a great touch, although at the time, synthesizers were prominent in most movies so it was kind of expected. Some of the music is upbeat, some of it a more darker tone and some of it is romantic, soft music, such as the Sex scene or for an upbeat scene, when Kyle is having a nightmare when he is in the future and is fighting versing the Machines.
The movie is well done, and although some things might be quite outdated by todays standards, you should still check it out.