The Terminator (1984) Review

Terminator is directed by acclaimed director James Cameron and is about a Terminator, which is basically a cyborg, coming back in time to the year 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, while a human soldier from the future also comes back in time to protect her

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The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, and Michael Bien as Kyle Reese. With the film being only 1 hour and 40 minutes long, the duration was fine. The film is all action, which means it doesn’t need to be any longer, because any longer then the film drags. I believe the films sole purpose was to be a great action film, nothing else not romance or drama, no, just an action film. Which it achieves, many viewers might say that the love connection between Linda Hamilton (Sarah Connor) and Michael Bien (Kyle Reese) was a big part of the story. I’ll agree that it is a big part but it is not presented as a big part in the film, they only had one romance scene and that was it. The story is straight forward and doesn’t ask questions, it just gives the viewer’s action. For me this wasn’t a big deal because I wanted to watch this film so I can just see people get shot and stuff get blown up, and I got that, so I’m satisfied. But for others who do want more than one element then it might be boring for you, and a little repetitive.

The acting from the main three actors was satisfying, it didn’t blow me away where I could not stop thinking about their performance, they all did their part well. But Arnold’s performance is more of the memorable ones out of the lot, maybe because in the film he’s a man (or cyborg) that has little words, which is credit to his acting ability because he fits the Terminator character so well ,but when he does open his mouth magical one liner come out (“I’ll be back”). And let’s be honest we know Arnold more than anyone from Terminator because of his one liners. Going back to the other characters, I actually thought that Sarah Conner was going to be some whiny person that does nothing but whine, so I give credit to James Cameron and the other writers for not going down that road and making Sarah Conner likable.

What I did find a shame was that we didn’t see more of the Terminator without its artificial flesh because it looked awesome. I wanted to see it hold a gun or crush someone but to be fair watching the terminator walk, I don’t think they could have pulled it off. I’m not faulting the special effects team because probably back in the 80s the terminator walking would have look real (maybe).    

I enjoyed this movie as I went to watch it wanting all action and I got that, I did not care that the story lacked any other element. If you are wanting to watch this thinking you’ll challenge your mind or get a dialogue based movie then you probably won’t enjoy it, but for me I found entertaining and will give it 8.5/10