James Cameron's 'Terminator': a review

This is a review of James Cameron's 1984 science fiction film 'Terminator' starring Arnold Schwarzenegger 

Some films age like wine: the older they get, the better they get. It's hard to believe that James Cameron's 'Terminator is pushing 35 years old. Terminator's lean script, staccato editing and direction, and its human driven storyline are what allows it to survive amongst modern films that benefit from superior technologies like CGI, motion capture, and now 3D-motion photography. Everything's relative and, in 1984, Terminator's special effects were extraordinary. For instance, there's a scene in a motel where the Terminator attends to some gunshot wounds he suffered. Using a box-knife, he opens up his forearm to readjust a broken piston rod. Then, he stabs the box-knife into his eyeball and plucks the soft gelatin organ out of his head. In the ragged and empty mouth of his eye-socket, a hard shiny light zooms in and out. This was scary back in 1984. Today, a five-year old could see through these transparent effects.

Plot: The Terminator is a cyborg from the future that travels back in time--forty years--to kill a woman, a waitress, whose unborn son will save mankind in near the future. But the true magic about this film is that despite its concept, it is a human story 1st and an action film 2nd.

Terminator is James Cameron's best movie. It has the perfect atmosphere; most of the action is at night. The big `70's cars in the Terminator's chase sequences are reminiscent of the big cars in The French Connection's chase sequences. Unlike T2, where there's a lot of exposition between action scenes, Terminator's action scenes erupt out of nowhere. I could go on and on but the bottom line is that Terminator will be around long after most of today's science fiction rip-offs are obsolete.