The Terminator
James Cameron’s first major movie is arguably his best. It’s the famous story of a near indestructible cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenneger) , sent back in time to the year 1984. His mission is to destroy a young woman called Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who’s unborn son John Connor is due to become a major resistance leader and defeat the machines in a future time where they have all but wiped out humanity and turned Earth into a wasteland.

Sarah’s only hope is Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) a young resistance soldier sent back by John Connor himself to protect Sarah from The Terminator, not knowing that he has a bigger part to play in John Connor’s destiny than he first realised.

This great movie sows the first seeds of Cameron’s auteur traits. His stories are all race against time tales, a story of a group of people who are preparing for, or trying to prevent an oncoming disaster. Sometimes it can be avoided, sometimes it can’t. And this is a theme that runs through all his major movies. He’s also very interested in strong female characters, as Sarah Connor goes from mousy teenager to brave warrior woman throughout the film’s runtime.

His films are also for the most part, nightmares. Ordeals, caused by technology in someway or another. Technology is often the enemy that needs to be defeated, and at the end, after the fighting is all almost over. The only thing that is able to triumph is the human spirit. All present and correct here, in this major Hollywood debut.

This gets a 10 out of 10 from me. Once the movie gets going it does not stop. Schwarzenegger delivers an incredible villain, arguably the role that defines him and his career since. Hamilton is excellent, as is the highly underrated Michael Biehn as the heroic, tragic Kyle Reese who is arguably the character that pays the highest price.

I also enjoyed Lance Henriksen and Paul Winfield as the cops, Vukovich and Traxler. They are the only comic relief the movie really has. They are also appealing characters as they genuinely want to protect Sarah Connor. This, along with their very funny comic banter makes them a welcome lighter element for what is essentially a very dark movie.

It’s a powerful and relentless nightmare, expertly made on a tiny budget by a young, hungry and determined director who really felt he had something to prove. A masterpiece.

Aliens: Special Edition
A huge fan of Ridley Scott’s original, Cameron jumped at the chance to write and direct this sequel, determined to make a sequel which could stand on its own two feet as a film, and not just a thinly veiled remake which so many sequels are. Cameron also saw the opportunity to deliver the kind of movie he wanted to deliver. Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley became his signature strong female character. An imminent explosion becomes a major disaster to be avoided. All the weapons in the world can’t defeat these creatures, and yet a small girl with NO weapons can survive on just her wits (human spirit triumphing over technology).

The story begins with Ripley being found, frozen in hypersleep having been drifting in space for 57 years. Upon revival, she is horrified to learn that the planet LV- 426 has been colonised.

LV-426 is the planet where the alien creature was found in the first place, the one that killed her entire crew in the original movie.

When contact is lost with the colony, Ripley reluctantly agrees to accompany a platoon of marines to investigate the planet LV-426 and see if they can find survivors. They only find one, Newt (Carrie Henn), a little girl who has survived alone since her family were all killed by the alien monsters.

After some extraordinary bad luck, and the villainous machinations of Carter Burke (a brilliantly slimey Paul Reiser), Ripley and Newt are trapped on the planet with the sympathetic Marine Corporal Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn), jittery Hudson (an iconic and oft quoted performance by Bill Paxton), Gorman, Vazquez, and the brave, heroic android Bishop (Lance Henriksen, excellent).

All trapped together in a harrowing ordeal, where they must escape an exploding facility and face the vengeful and intelligent alien Queen.

This movie is just utterly FANTASTIC. It gets 10 out of 10 easily, just for being so badass! The performances are excellent, the special visual effects still hold up today, ticks every box on the Cameron list. It’s more than just a great sequel, it’s just a great, great movie. Action packed, scary and surprisingly touching and emotional, it’s a rare sequel which expands of the original and surpasses it. His first movie made him a name to watch, but this movie IMO is what made Cameron a superstar director. Didn’t compromise, didn’t kowtow, just totally went with his own vision and just delivered a killer, knockout movie.

Like his previous movie, a major achievement.

The Abyss: Special Edition
When communication is lost with a nuclear submarine, the crew of an undersea drilling platform are commandeered to search through the wreckage for survivors. The Foreman of the rig Bud Brigman (Ed Harris) is joined by his estranged wife Lindsey, the rig’s designer (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and Lt Hiram Coffey (Michael Biehn), a paranoid marine who covertly brings a nuclear warhead from the sub back to the rig. Whilst trying to investigate what caused the submarine to crash, they encounter an alien race, living at the bottom of an abyssal trench. Lindsey wants to try and make contact, but Coffey fears them and wants to use the warhead to declare war on them. Meanwhile the aliens, disgusted with the way humans treat each other are preparing to give the planet earth a very stern warning.

Now I said recently that I thought this was great movie, but having watched it again recently I’m afraid I have to take that back. It’s a heavily flawed movie. The character of Lindsay is just so unlikeable, and it’s difficult to respect Bud Brigman’s character since he seems to let her use him as a doormat most of the time. Biehn , in his last major performance in a Cameron movie is truly brilliant.

The idea of filling the crew with a diverse range of characters is admirable, but mostly they seem over-stylised and almost stereotypical. It just doesn’t ring true. It just feels false. Also, the plot involving the aliens isn’t developed enough, and it just feels shoehorned in and seems to jar with everything else. Like a weird mix of “The Day The Earth Stood Still” and “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” but underwater.

There is one truly excellent scene where a character is bought back from the brink of death from having drowned, but that is really the only highlight.

It’s not all bad. A lot of effort and research obviously went into it, even though it still seems to feel stunningly ill conceived. I know a lot of pain and effort went into getting this thing made, and the visual effects are still impressive for a film that’s 20 years old now, but all in all, this is just not a particularly good movie. 4 out of 10.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day – Director’s Cut
Some would say that this is the most iconic film that James Cameron has ever made. Perhaps in some respects that’s true. Schwarzenegger, at the peak of his superstardom gets to return to a more audience friendly interpretation of his signature character. Rather than a deadly indestructible bad guy, he’s now a superhuman good guy. A Terminator captured and reprogrammed in the future by John Connor and sent back in time. Not to protect Sarah Connor, but to protect John Connor himself, now a child (Edward Furlong) from the T-1000 (the brilliant Robert Patrick). A liquid metal beast, capable of squeezing into awkward places and mimicking anyone he comes into contact with.

Connor and his new friend break his Mum Sarah Connor (a returning Linda Hamilton) out of a mental institution and go on the run from the T-1000, whilst on the way, trying to prevent the oncoming apocalypse destined to wipe out humanity.

Now I know that this is highly regarded as a great movie, I however, think it is simply just a pretty good movie, and that’s it. It’s a successful sequel in how it expands on the themes from the original. It’s relentless, exciting, and thrilling, and having the Terminator as the good guy puts an interesting spin on things, but just a few things bug me.

Like Sarah Connor’s escape from the (supposedly) high security mental hospital. She gets beaten, sexually abused, ridiculed, forced to take medicine that puts her in a doped out state, and is horrified to be told that she is going to be there for another six months. And yet, escapes with ease after having a dream where Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn returning for a cameo) tells her John Connor is in danger. With nothing but a paper clip. With all the bad treatment she’s been subjected too, why didn’t she just escape before if it was that easy?

The plan to change history. Wouldn’t it make everything they’ve suffered through to get to this point worthless?

Seeing as a T-800 Terminator is supposedly near indestructible, and the resistance in the future has limited resources, don’t you think it seems a bit too easy the way they can just reprogram one and send it back as a good guy?

I don’t want to get too caught up in the negatives though, cause like I said, I still think this is a pretty damn good movie. The idea of the Terminator learning the value of human life and sacrificing himself for it is quite poignant, and plays well into Cameron’s themes of humanity triumphing over technology. The action sequences are stunningly well mounted and conceived, the T-1000 is a terrifying villain, and the visual effects are still state of the art.

So all in all, a near enough complete return to form for Cameron. 8 out of 10

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