Sometime in the past year or so I finally watched The Terminator (1984; currently ranked 226 on the imdb top 250) and I thought it was on the good side of okay. The story was interesting, Arnold's character was interesting and knowing that this series would spawn sequels and TV shows was an interesting thought. Yet, having watched the higher ranked Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), it's clear to me how this film is ranked higher.
Watching an action film from a pre-CGI error has risk -- you'll either be amazed realizing non of it's computer generated or disappointed when it seems (by modern standards) very amateur.
In this case, save for a couple scenes (I think that hot metal at the end is water with red lights shining on it), the effects are stunning (Robert Patrick's T-1000 metal bending self). But even more than the effects it's the stunts the motorcycle/truck chase for example really brings an intensity to it that pulls you in (couldn't help but think of Mad Max, just less weird).
But, in many ways James Cameron's story, which deserves a great deal of credit, has an emotional heart that is found in this film that wasn't nearly as clear in the initial film. The turn in developing a Terminator character who was a good guy worth rooting for was genus. Not to mention was the creation of an action film that asked the questions "Could a machine be a friend? And does the answer change if the machine, although it has AI abilities, follows your commands?"
Currently quite high on the imdb.com top 250 films, I'm glad that I snagged myself a library copy of this film and finally cross it off the list of imdb.com top 250 films I haven't watched.
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