directed by James Cameron, 1984
Reason the first: "It is low budget, consequently with bad special effects". Personally, I like the special effects. I like stop motion animation. I like good model work-and the model work is exceptional.
Second reason: "Not enough action scenes." There are less action scenes than T2, I admit. But T2 seems to hinge on action scenes, which are hugely overblown and excessive. T1 has one great centrepiece-the police station massacre. This action scene is simple, unpretentious, and utterly utterly spellbinding.
Third reason: "It is very 80s, and looks dated". It is dated, yes, but this does not work against it in the way that it does for, say, The Lost Boys. It features ordinary people of that period-not everyone wore excessively ridiculous clothes and styles. Also, the music is actually very good. I am not a fan of 80s music, but this is actually great-the Terminator theme song here is better than anywhere else-mournful and haunting, not melodramatically orchestral like in T2.
Special mention #1 mention must go to the scenes set in the future. These are brilliant, oozing with atmosphere. In T2 the human fighters are a tightly regimented band of marines running around in uniforms. Here they are dressed in rags, living in holes in the ground, and eating rats. The effect is startling and scary, and the grainy nature of the picture works well.
Special mention #2 goes to Arnold Scwarzenegger. His performance is fantastic, and is what makes the film so great. His utter emotionlessness is the key; in the sequels the Terminators occasionally showed flashes of emotion, to their detriment, but here he is totally inhuman. This purist approach, which includes giving him only a handful of lines, actually makes the one hint of him being something other than a monster (when he smoothes down his hair) work well.
His lines are excellent, and not at all cheesy-even the infamous "I'll be back." When this was written it was not a cheesy catchphrase, just another line that works well in the context of the scene-and it shows. It became cheesy when it was used in every film Schwarzenegger made over the next fifteen years.
I hope when you see it you recognise that almost all of the criticism levelled against it is unfair. If you have a piece of criticism that you think it deserves, let me know.
P.S, It sounds like I don't like T2. I like it very much, but it gains more praise than perhaps it deserves compared to the original.
*****
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