I'll Be Back...to Review Terminator 2

(#17) Watch 25 Classic Movies

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
2. A Streetcar Named Desire
3. It's a Wonderful Life
4. Some Like it Hot

5. The Terminator

My first thought as Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on the screen was, "Why have I seen Kindergarten Cop but not The Terminator?" But really that is what this list is meant to do- correct all my little cultural faux pas. 

Awesome:

Less awesome:

My second thought was, it is 2013 and we are not yet at war with machines, so this movie got it totally wrong. That's good news. 

I'm going to assume that most people are generally familiar with the plot- the Terminator (a cyborg) is sent to kill Sarah Connor so that her son won't grow up to be salvation of humans in the future. Kyle Reese, a soldier from the future, is sent back in time to save Sarah by Sarah's future son John. Then of course they fall in love in a matter of hours and Kyle becomes the father of Sarah's future son (mind blown! classic time travel). 

This movie is classic in many ways. First of all, it is an interesting time piece of the 1980s, both in how they acted and how they saw the future. When Sarah slips into a techno club to avoid the man who is following her (who turns out to be Reese), I said to Ronnie "Isn't it funny that this is how they actually dressed? They're not wearing costumes to represent the 80s. This is actual 80s." Not to mention the prevalence of payphones, the lax gun-purchasing laws and the idea that in just 40 short years we would be at war with robots.

By the way, we are now closer to the robot era (2021ish) than we are to 1984. Think about THAT.

It is also a classic because of the lines. "I'll be back," of course. And "Come with me if you want to live." Several others that I associated with this movie I was surprised to find out actually happened in Terminator 2. More on that later in my next movie entry.

Also, God bless 1980s graphics, but I could not have sat through a whole movie with that skinless cyborg who shows up at the end. I mean, come on. We all know its not real.    

I'm so terrified...that people actually thought this looked real in the 80s.

All in all, the movie was pretty awesome, but I'm sure you all already know that since I'm the last person on Earth to see it. I thought the time travel was tastefully done, fairly straightforward and not too scientific. Arnold was the perfect villian, the slow-moving yet deliberate type. And Sarah was actually a pretty decent heroine- reluctant at first, but calm and capable throughout the film. 

I've heard that the Terminator franchise is actually one of those rare series where people actually prefer the second installment. So that review will be coming up shortly.