The Terminator - User Reviews

The Terminator is one of the better time-travel films out there that actually deals with the concepts and repercussions of Time Travel rather than using it merely as a plot device, and manages to do so without being overly complicated or tiresome.

It's one of those rare films that's actually *better* than you remember it being: its chilling, suspenseful, gorey and violent but in other moments manages to be thoughtful, funny, engrossing and quite realistic when dealing with the emotions and reactions of the people of our time. The highlight of the film is watching the initially rather useless screamer of a lead character blossom into a tough, smart and determined woman as extraordinary circumstances force her to abandon her humdrum existence and humdrum personality.

It also features some excellent performances from Lance Henriksen and Paul Winfield in a sub-plot that sees the police trying to solve the mysterious ongoing murders of every "Conner, S" in the phone book, which ends in one of the showpieces of the movie when The Terminator takes on an entire police station full of gun-toting cops.

Arnold Schwarzenegger excells as The Terminator, a role that requires him to act almost entirely though body-language alone, an often over-looked feat.

The film begins by intruding catastrophically on the until-now rather sedate, dull - and above all safe - world of Sarah Conner, a rather demure waitress with dating problems and not much else in her life. It just so happens that she is the future-mother of a man who will lead mankind to victory over the war machines we ourselves are destined to create and lose control over. In a last-ditch attempt at success, the machines send one of their own (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to kill all the Sarah Conner's in the city before the right one gets pregnant and gives birth to mankinds saviour. Luckily for Sarah, mankind sends a soldier back in time to find and protect her, and it is through him we get to see glimpses of the horrific future.

Unfotunately, machine is much stronger than any one man, and has no apparant weaknesses: It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

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