The Terminator

I'll let you know right off the bat that this is not going to be the most in-depth review you've ever read. I guess I liked "The Terminator," but I was feeling cynical while I was watching it, like I was looking for reasons not to like it. So I'll start with those.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is roughly twice the width and girth of the guy he steals his clothes from.

A cyborg/android that is programmed only to kill would likely not wear sunglasses. The only reason the Terminator wears sunglasses is because Arnie looks to be wearing about 40 lbs. of make-up in order to pull off the "eye missing" face. This is not a scene that could have been taken out though, as it's probably the coolest of the whole movie. Similarly, the Terminator, would likely not hide his guns under a mattress. It occured to me that a killer robot would also not likely bother with stealing leather gloves, but I guess the whole point of the Terminators is that they fit are built to fit in. This makes perfect sense, as an enormously sculpted man with an Austrian accent brings no attention to itself.

Much of the movie is painfully 80's. Most notably in the club scene and when Sarah and her friend are getting ready for a night out on a town, certain aspects of "The Terminator" lock it into a particular decade, whose trends have since become a running embarrassment for anyone who lived through it. While this is no fault of James Cameron's, it prevents the movie from achieving a more timeless quality. The same goes for the music. It may just be personal preference, but it takes a LOT of work for me to appreciate anything with that much synthesizer.

Beyond that, "The Terminator" is a pretty good movie. It's got some cool explosions, and the story (at least to me, having never seen or read the stuff Cameron ripped it off from) certainly seems original enough to keep my interest (especially the who's your daddy twist) (I know I usually overuse parentheses, but twice in one sentence is just absurd). To be perfectly honest, I wasn't completely sold until the end, once Arnie melts and you're left with a metal skeleton that just won't die. Even then, I have seen better action, and have felt more engaged. I can't really decide whether to give this a 3.0 or a 3.5, so I'm going to settle on...

Rating: 3.25 stars