Ahhh so many of my questions are answered after finally seeing the first Terminator movie! I have seen the second one about a dozen times, and I had only a vague idea about the plot of the first one. Again Schwarzenegger dazzles with explosions and gunfire, and with minimal dialogue (probably a good choice). His mission is to travel back through time to assassinate the mother of John Connor so that he will never be born and grow to become the leader of the human rebellion in the future. This hunt takes the audience through two hours of dark and suspenseful scenes with near death escapes of John’s mother, Sara Connor. The special effects are not as impressive as in the second film, but they are still good enough to make viewers get lost in the story. I think James Cameron chose his shots wisely because he lets you see just enough detail to be convincing, but leaves some to the imagination, whereas in T2 they go overboard with letting the audience see everything because they had the technology to do so. Sometimes this “less is more” nature about a film can enhance the experience, and I think it has an effect in T1.
The weirdest aspect of T1 for me was the fact that Schwarzenegger’s character was evil, as opposed to him being the hero in T2. My familiar idea of the “good” terminator made it hard for me to make the transition to rooting against him, but the character Kyle Reese has very likeable qualities to take his place. However, there is that whole mind game of John Connor sending Reese back in time who actually ends up impregnating Sara Connor with John!!!!!! Anyway, overall the film was entertaining and I recommend seeing it whether you have seen T2 or not. This film is definitely an 80’s sci-fi icon.
1 comment:
T1 does have a lot going for it, but since you saw T2 a number of times do you now feel that the ending of T2 is awfully similar to the ending of T1? I would have thought that Cameron would have done some different things with that second film.
And as for T3, I liked it a great deal, especially its ending. None of the explosions, etc. A really cool way to finish off the trilogy.
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