The Terminator is a perfect movie.

Hello everyone! I'm back again. My last review on this sub was a feminist analysis of Ex-Machina.

Now I wanted to a shorter and more direct analysis of the perfection of the first Terminator Movie!

Watching Terminator 1 as an adult has made me appreciate the film in so many ways I didn't realise as a child. When I was a kid I certainly preferred T2 because I loved the action and I love Arnold. I didn't mind furlong's acting because I was vicariously living through him to have a terminator as a buddy. But now I can see why T1 is not only the best film in the franchise but a perfect piece of film making.

I think the most obvious element that almost needs not to be stated is the pacing. This is the best paced movie I've ever seen. It has no fat whatsoever, every second of this film is engaging. It almost makes the film seems shorter than it is, but still ends exactly where it needs to. Watching T2 is a decently paced movie too, but watching it after T1 almost made it feel like a chore at the middle part. Next is the tone. This film actually feels like a nightmare. The kind of nightmare where you are aware you're dreaming but you're afraid you won't wake up from. There is something extremely timesless about the retreaux futuristic elements of the 80s LA cinematography and the masterfully haunting synth soundtrack. It gives this film an 'uncanny valley' feeling in the absolute best way possible. It's similar in a lot of ways to the infiltration of the terminator, just unreal enough to put you on edge until the real horror begins.

The humor in this film is superbly implemented. Nothing campy or obvious just extremely subtle winks and nods to get a brief chuckle, which is clearly made effective by how it cuts the tight tension. I don't need to go into how good the acting or the writing is, but everything is just so believable. Considering the damn near convoluted premise and the very modest budget, what Cameron was able to achieve was masterful.

In my opinion there should have never been any sequels. I'm saying this with full acknowledgement that T2 is probably the best sequel ever made. The franchise was the victim of it's own success and particularly arnold's star power.

By definition the Terminator can't be an 'iconic star role' because it's a mass produced infiltration machine. Building ridiculous storylines about a special robot that's learning to be human or fucking living as one is diametrically opposed to everything the central lore establishes.

Again T-2 is a monumental action movie and a cinematic achievement in a lot of ways. But it didn't need to exist, even if I'm glad that it does.

And yes all the other sequels suck. T-3 is genuinely bad movie. Genysis is somehow even worse. Salvation and DF are disappointing. Stupid and messy, but had some potential.

Submitted May 03, 2021 at 11:56AM by DynamoJonesJr https://ift.tt/339Ni96