While I could go on here in 1984, I better breeze by now and review just one more: the first in a franchise that started Arnold Schwarzenegger's unparalleled career. So now let's get to reviewing.
Plot time:
We begin with a man appearing naked in the middle of Los Angeles. He walks over and finds three gang members, asks them for their clothes, and then kills them when they refuse. Another man appears in an alleyway, also in Los Angeles. He has a chase with the police but gets away.
We are then introduced to Sarah Conner, a struggling waitress in Los Angeles who lives with friends and is of major importance, she just doesn't know it yet. The first man, a machine that is programmed to kill people, known as a Terminator or T-800, buys several guns and goes around killing the three Sarah Conners in the phonebook.
Sarah hears about the two other Sarahs killed and begins to worry a little. The police also notice this cooincidence and in fear of another death try to protect Sarah. She heads off to a bar as her friends she lives with are killed. She enters into a club being followed by the second man.
The T-800 finds out that Sarah is in the club and goes to kill her. Right before he gets to it, the second man shoots him. He flies back and Sarah and the man run off. He introduces himself as Kyle Reese once he calms Sarah down and after running from cops and the T-800, which is not dead, explains what is going on.
Reese says he is from the future and came back to protect Sarah because her son is a future leader who must be allowed to live. He explains that the Terminator has an exoskeleton that can bleed and looks exactly like skin but a robot underneath. He also says that the world was nearly destroyed when computers targeted the world's biggest cities and the surviving humans fight the war.
The police find the two and take them to the police station. After interrogating Reese and declaring him insane, the Terminator shows up and shoots up the police station, killing every cop. Reese manages to find Sarah and takes her away. Reese is injured but he is able to survive long enough for them to find a hotel to stay at.
It is there that Reese reveals that he is the father of her son, John, and that the real reason for him coming back is so that he can impregnate her so that John can be born. The Terminator once again finds them and the two put up one last chase. Kyle, who has been building bombs, is able to obliterate the truck the T-800 hijacks.
The robot underneath the human skin now chases them as they go into a factory and hide. Sarah is able to defeat it after fighting, but Kyle, who is still suffering from injuries, dies. A few months later Sarah travels around and has her picture taken by a Mexican boy. This picture was in fact used by Reese so that he could find her. A wind picks up and the grandfather of the boy says a storm is coming. Sarah responds, "I know", drives off and the movie ends.
Now for the grading scale:
Acting: 8 out of 10. Everybody does a great job.
Entertainment: 10 out of 10. Totally action packed.
Screenplay: 10 out of 10. James Cameron's first picture written and directed by himself. He did well.
Directing: 7 out of 10. Early Cameron film and it does show.
Technical Credits: 10 out of 10. Most of the credit goes to the realism of the termintor and also to the excellent music.
Genre Fit: 8 out of 10. At times tries to be a little romantic, a little horrorifying, but it is an action picture at its core.
MPAA Rating: 7 out of 10. A little heavy on the violence at times for an R rating.
Stupid Scenes: 10 out of 10. None.
Deeper Message: 6 out of 10. Talks of survival and of preparing for the worst, sort of linked a bit actually to the Cold War.
Beginning: 27 out of 30. Great opening.
Middle: 24 out of 30. A bit slow but that's ok.
Ending: 29 out of 30. A brilliant conclusion.
Final Rating: 156/180 or 87%. An A-, which means its a great start for Cameron.
Replies
I thought that the terminator was a good movie but still kind of chessey and then i think they made 1 too many.