Welcome back to “A Look Back With Oscar” where this column is all about taking a look at movies and video games from the 70’s to the late 2000s and see if they still hold up today.
With the Terminator franchise seemingly being over, what better way to wash away the embarrassment of “Terminator: Dark Fate” than to watch the very first “Terminator”?
The original concept for “Terminator” actually began with Director James Cameron, who had a dream when he was ill about a machine wielding a kitchen knife and coming out from an explosion.
The concept was also inspired by the movie “Halloween” since the concept for that film involving a murderer hunting its victims fit in with his idea.
The plot is a unique concept: in the year 2029, a great battle is happening between machines and mankind.
The machines controlled by Skynet knew that the war would be won by humans so in their last attempt to destroy mankind they sent a Terminator model T-800 to the year 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, the woman who would give birth to the leader of the human resistance, John Connor.
Knowing what Skynet’s plans were, John sent a human soldier, Kyle Reese, to find his mother and protect her while also finding the T-800 to eliminate it.
Now with the future in stake, Kyle and Sarah must stick together to take down the Terminator and preserve the future.
The plot was pretty unique for the time as not many films had used time travel as a plot, with small flashbacks in the future giving us a clear view of the future when AI takes over.
It gives a haunting vibe to a world where this may happen if people aren’t careful.
The casting choices for the film was great as each actor and actress gave off an outstanding performance.
With Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was an incredible casting choice for him to play as a “Terminator.”
Someone as intimidating as him when he was in his prime was fit to play the role, making the T-800 more menacing.
Michael Biehn played his character, Kyle Reese, really well, giving us a character that’s a better dynamic of his life and shows how messed up his future was.
Linda Hamilton played her role as Sarah Connor well, giving off a sense of fear and uneasiness and later on more courageous as we see how her son was able to lead the humans to victory.
The cinematography and special effects were outstanding to see with most scenes being shot at night.
It gave it a sense of uneasiness and suspense, knowing what may happen to make the audience more afraid.
The makeup and animatronics used in the film gave off a sense that there was a machine underneath the Terminators’ skin.
The action was great with the famous police station shootout being the highlight of the film.
The stop motion parts of the T-800 gave off an otherworldly sense, knowing that stuff like this shouldn’t be made, made it more terrifying.
There are some problems with the film like with the pacing in some scenes being slow and fast in some parts.
As well as giving us small and quick scenes of the future, as it would have been nice to see more of that.
But still, “Terminator” is one of the cult classic films of the 80’s and stands out as one of the greatest films of all time.
This film gets a five out of five stars, a classic that many will remember for many years to come.
