Not really in the mood for horror stuff right now, so figured I'd start my Terminator marathon. I'm actually pretty hype for watching most of the first four movies, Terminator 3 being the odd one out.
I haven't watched the original
Terminator since I was a teen at my friends house, so practically 15 years at least. It's such a great watch, that early 80's grunginess and action, with this great synthy score to it. Sometimes you just never know if going back to an older film, that it is gonna hold up, and while the animatronic Arnold is a little sketch and the stop motion terminator doesn't hold up the best, I still absolutely love all the practical effects. The police station scene is pretty intense too.
One thing I wish they had made was a proper future war Terminator movie. Like they have the war stuff in Salvation, but not really something that felt like what they tried to show off in the first movie and I believe the second movie.
This is a great watch, it was like going back to Predator and realizing that it is still such a solid action flick. Also kinda neat, but while I knew that Bill Paxton was in this, I didn't remember that Lance Henriksen was also in this, making it two people from the Alien movies showing up in this. Pretty cool!
Terminator 2 is definitely the best of the series. It's really interesting watching this movie right after seeing the first and all the nods it pays to it. Lots of stuff I didn't realize about the film in general compared to when I was kid that I never paid attention to, such as you were supposed to believe the whole time up till the mall scene that Arnie was the villain still and Robert Patrick was to be the human to help. When I watched it whenever back in probably the late 90's/early 00's, you just already knew through pop culture what Arnold was, that he was there to help.
Much like the first movie, the action holds up really well. It's all so good really. Much like the first one, the only real negatives are a few of the effects. The T-1000 and it's liquid body really doesn't hold up super well. It's kinda cheesy nowadays, but it's not all that bad. The movie does drag just a little in the middle after they break out Sarah, but when it's building to such an amazing climax, with the Cyberdyne lab attack leading up to the factory, it's understandable.
Kinda funny how these action series started out so strong, Alien and Aliens, Predator and Predator 2, The Terminator and Terminator 2, getting two good movies, but then mostly tanked right after (Alien 3 being a mild exception for still being alright, just not the best sequel after Aliens). It's pretty downhill after this, though I still have some hope that Salvation will be alright as I remember generally liking it. As for Terminator 3, I mostly just remember it as a real dumb movie that has some kinda cool action scenes strewn throughout, so we'll see how those memories go.
