This weekend my girlfriend and I will indulge in what has become something of a tradition for us -- binge marathon watching a series of films. We've already done the Mad Max trilogy and the original Star Wars films and this weekend we're going to take a plunge into the first three Terminator films (I didn't particularly care for Terminator: Salvation).
Oddly enough the first movie came out 30 years ago, and after reading the typically terrific British Film Institute treatise on all things Terminator, I think I'm fairly convinced that it is one of the best and most influential films of the 1980s.
Of course, the word "best" can mean many things to many people -- just as I feel like "favorite" is complicated.
That said, I do think the original is one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made and I'm actually fairly comfortable arguing that the 1984 flick is the superior film even if its sequel far outpaces it in terms of action and effects. The sentimentality of the second one has always tarnished it in my mind. That whiny Edward Furlong...need I say more?
I haven't revisited the third installment in a long time but I remember loving it a lot more than other recent attempts to reboot moribund franchises.
I appreciate that they adhered to the timeline of the first films, that it was mean and violent and R-rated (unlike the Die Hard movies which were no longer Die Hard movies after 1995, or when John McClane stopped officially having hair).
Is it on par with the first and second, of course not, but it is no debacle.
I'm exciting to revisit these action thrill rides and relive my youth, except ironically I was never allowed to see the first movies in their heyday because of my strict parents.
One of my most amusing childhood memories is trying to fit in with all the other boys in third grade who'd already gone and seen T2 and were all quoting and referencing it. I, having not been allowed to see the movie, simply quoted lines from the commercials I knew.
While my classmates were recalling the shape-shifting T-1000 and the amazing chase scenes that occur early in the film, I pathetically would chime in with "remember when Schwarzenegger said 'hasta la vista baby'," which inevitably was greeted with an eye roll and "yeah, everyone knows that part."
It's crazy to think that everyone knows The Terminator now. It's crazy to think that Schwarzenegger was 36 years old already when he got the part that made him a legit movie star. It's crazy to think that they're still planning to reboot this again when they pretty much have already achieved perfection.
But I digress.We will continue this conversation when I have revisited this trio in full.
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