Of all the Terminator movies, or any other movie that involves time travel, this one gets it right, probably accidentally! I don't want to get too deep into logical errors involving time travel, but there is a very obvious one that most movies fail to avoid. It's roughly called 'grandfather paradox', but I like to explain it with butterfly effect. You see, every action we make, even seemingly most insignificant, mundane ones, constantly alter the chain of events that lead to the future. Because of this butterfly effect, when you go back to the past, to a time before your own conception, you automatically risk or even guarantee (depending on how far back you've gone) that you will never even be born, that's true even if you avoid doing any action at all, because your presence there alone is a change in the equation by itself. There is actually a very good scene in the Tech noir that you can directly observe this butterfly effect, though it doesn't necessarily have to be observable or easily perceivable to work, the scene I'm talking about is when Sarah accidentally knocks a soda bottle off the table and when she bends down to pick it up, right at that moment the terminator is looking for her, but misses her, because she was bent down to pick the bottle, this tiny accident saves her life. And it's a very beautiful scene, time slows down, the music in the background, it's just so perfect. But as I said, we can't always observe this cause and effect directly and it doesn't mean it's not at work just because we can't observe and understand it. Take this same scenario, where Sarah was saved by the falling bottle. It's also the accumulation of many other choices she's made up until that point and many other things that she doesn't control. The effect is explained as even the tiniest change in the equation may result in huge difference at the end. Anyways... So, what is the solution to that problem of 'grandfather paradox'? Make it a loop, I believe it's called a 'causality loop', this is exactly what this movie does. I don't think they were thinking very hard, but probably accidentally come up with it without even realizing. Because in a movie like that, it really doesn't matter, the point of the movie is not the time travel itself, it's a chase movie. Anyway, I had to get that out of the way.
I believe this movie is a very important milestone in visual effects in cinema. They almost made it perfect, but with a few tiny flaws. They clearly had an amazing model of the endoskeleton, whenever they puppeteered it, and used the close-up shots, it looks perfect! But at other times, when they used the whole thing, I am not sure if it was stop motion or CG or a mixture, it looks bad. I don't think the movie needed those. Similarly, they made a skinned version of the thing, and instead of taking advantage of low light or other tricks, they just fully show it and again, it looks bad. But having said all of these, for its time, the visual effects are insanely advanced.
I read somewhere that Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered for the Kyle Reese part. Imagine what a disaster that would have been. Two mistakes with one stone! Arnold is perfect for the Terminator role and he's not a great actor with a lot of range. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a movie star as long as he's cast in the correct role. He's just perfect as the Terminator. That is another thing the movie did right, I believe James Cameron made sure Arnold was the Terminator. Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn are also great.
There is not really a lot to tell about the movie, it's one of these simple concept movies that are made extremely well and acted and have become a classic, similarly to Alien (1979).
I believe this movie is a very important milestone in visual effects in cinema. They almost made it perfect, but with a few tiny flaws. They clearly had an amazing model of the endoskeleton, whenever they puppeteered it, and used the close-up shots, it looks perfect! But at other times, when they used the whole thing, I am not sure if it was stop motion or CG or a mixture, it looks bad. I don't think the movie needed those. Similarly, they made a skinned version of the thing, and instead of taking advantage of low light or other tricks, they just fully show it and again, it looks bad. But having said all of these, for its time, the visual effects are insanely advanced.
I read somewhere that Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered for the Kyle Reese part. Imagine what a disaster that would have been. Two mistakes with one stone! Arnold is perfect for the Terminator role and he's not a great actor with a lot of range. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a movie star as long as he's cast in the correct role. He's just perfect as the Terminator. That is another thing the movie did right, I believe James Cameron made sure Arnold was the Terminator. Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn are also great.
There is not really a lot to tell about the movie, it's one of these simple concept movies that are made extremely well and acted and have become a classic, similarly to Alien (1979).
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