Originally written June 15, 2009

The Terminator is absolute perfection in the sci-fi action thriller genre. It’s really hard to put into words the effect this movie has on the viewer. It keeps you absolutely enthralled throughout the whole movie. I have to say that I deeply respect the work of James Cameron, the writer and director of the movie. He can make a damn fine movie.

The Terminator has a lot of time traveling aspects to it. In the future, in the year 2029, there is an ongoing war between the humans and the machines. The world has been destroyed, and only a few survivors are left, fighting for their planet. The humans have won the war, and now the machines come up with an idea…reshape the future by changing the past.

And so thus, The Terminator (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is created. He’s sent back to the year 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (played by Linda Hamilton), who’s the mother of the human resistance leader John Connor. By killing Sarah Connor before John Connor was born, John will have never been born, and so he could never lead the resistance against the machines. John sends back soldier Kyle Reese (played by Michael Biehn) to protect his mother against the deadly killing machine, The Terminator.

I actually think it’s absolutely genius, and it created a great tale to see. It’s pulled off perfectly, too. It’s interesting as hell to watch these characters interact in the movie. Absolutely brilliant.

Aside from the wonderful plot, the movie has great action scenes in it. It’s not like the action scenes were as high of quality as Terminator Salvation, but that’s because this is a lot older, so it’s a bit outdated. Still, considering this movie was made 25 years ago, the special effects are great for its time. I thought the action scenes were highly intense, and I really enjoyed waiting for what was going to happen next.

Oh, and the tension that is built! It’s incredible. This really keeps you on the edge of your seat trying to guess what will happen next, no joke. I wasn’t bored once during the movie, and wondering when The Terminator would show up next was always a treat.

The mood was mainly set by the excellent soundtrack. I really have to commend the movie for this, because the music in the movie really was awesome, and it sets the mood, tension, and dramatic buildups perfectly. I forgot how good the music was in movies of the ’80s.

All in all, I absolutely love The Terminator. No complaints about it whatsoever, I consider it a perfect sci-fi action thriller movie.

5/5

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve re-read my review of The Terminator, which is one of my favorite movies. This review was written 10 years ago, when I was still just starting out writing reviews. Therefore, I hope you’ll excuse the difference in style and word choice to some of my modern reviews. However, I still agree with what I said about the movie, and so I don’t feel the need to write a new review of it. I’ve edited this review so that confusing parts of it made more sense, but other than that this is just a raw form of an old review I wrote. If I feel the need to write a new review for The Terminator one day I will, but as of right now I don’t feel the need to since I still agree with the review, even if I think my writing skills have improved in the 10 years since. Thanks for understanding 🙂