Arnie's Best

Rating: 9/10 (24 June 2003)

It's been a while since I last saw this movie. With T3 coming out soon, which thus far I've no desire to see, it's had me remembering the first two installments of this series. Both are well done, but there are a lot of reasons I prefer this original movie.
1. The freshness of it. Arnold Schwarzenegger was relatively unknown (except for Conan the Barbarian fans)as an actor. James Cameron was unknown as a director. Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn were all unknowns. It is a straightforward story with incredible tension.
2. Arnold makes a better bad guy than good guy. This is my biggest reason for preferring the original. Arnold doesn't say much more than a dozen words. Being unknown, he's viewed less as Schwarzenegger playing yet another action role, and more as the character himself - a superstrong, persistent, unstoppable terminator with no conscience.
3. The dark tone of the film. T2 is a load of fun, but it's a blatantly intended summer film. It's choreographed with scenes that just pack it in for the box office. Terminator is anything but this, being sinister and foreboding. It's my impression that this was a nice personal project from Cameron that started this franchise when it had as much success as it did, but even more so when Arnold's box-office status really took off.
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I have two main drawbacks with this film. The special effects with the bare terminator were probably cutting-edge at the time. But it looks so much like a cartoon super-imposed in the wide-angle shots.
Then there is the paradox of John Connor's conception. It's not enough to diminish the entertainment value of this movie, but this one absurdity stands out since everything else (given a 1984 viewpoint of world history and politics) seems at least possible. It does make for an entertaining twist to discover Kyle Reese as the father. But it can't help but rack your brain to think... how can John Connor send Kyle back on this assignment, if he has not yet gone to conceive him? But I know by now this is a tired argument. Like I said, it's still highly entertaining, but sticks out as the biggest absurdity
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One last interesting note is the inclusion of Franco Columbu as the future terminator, who in real life was one of Arnold's best friends and bodybuilding competitors.