Review of The Terminator (1984) by Tommy H — 05 Apr 2015

I like this movie more than Judgement day, but I gave that movie a higher rating because of the special effects and action. Terminator is a really neat future noir that takes place in the past. Typically when you watch a pre-Terminator sci-fi you can tell that it's sci-fi right away.

They always have little eccentricities about them, but not Terminator. Everything about this movie seems more realistic than all other sci-fi. Even the time travel and machines seem real because the movie doesn't ask you to believe in those things, instead it only asks you to believe that such things are maybe possible.

I can believe there are machines in the year 2029 right now plotting to come back in time, but once you start going into any kind of details you'll lose my suspension of disbelief. That's all the movie asks you to do.

The special effects here are awesome for the time. The Terminator is a robot so the jerky motion of the stop animation makes the machine actually seem animatronic. But the highlight of the film are the post-apocalyptic flashback scenes.

The story is very inspired. Since the advent of computer technology there's always been technophobes, and for good reason. I would rank artificial intelligence up there with the atomic bomb as possible doomsday scenarios.

Personally, I don't believe computers can ever become self-aware, but a programming error can easily produce the same results. Terminator is one of the best cyberpunk action movies with an important message.