Watching "Terminator" for the first time as a thirty something year old in 2019

I've never watched any of Terminator films. There's plenty of them. I've watched the (what I thought to be) excellent TV spin-off Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but had no interest in watching the Terminator films at all.

For some reason, that has all changed. As a "fan" of science fiction - it is porbably a very bad thing that I haven't seen these films.

Today I'll be going over my thoughts on The Terminatorm the original 1984 film, for the first time in a life time. I know all about the bad one liners - but that's pretty much all I know, beyond the risse of the machines via Skynet.

The titular Terminator is hunting everyone named Sarah Connor. Meticulously going through the phone book, he's after them one by one - until he finds the Sarah Connor, and is rudely interrupted by the person assigned to protect her.

It is at this moment that we learn what the hell is going on. It is impossible to kill the cyborg terminator using conventional means. That is because everyone but Sarah Connor is from the future. Well, one of many futures. It is not immediately evident why Sarah Connor is being hunted by this Terminator - but it is for something that she will do.

The thing is, she's not told what that is, and that is what makes you want to keep watching after half an hour of an ordinary woman's life being ripped to shreds by numerous such revelations. Then there's more action. More gunfire. More ... tension - and a surprising lack of dialogue.

The film features several "flash forward" segments, where we get glimpses of the future, as though they're the past. This is a story-telling element to show the desolate, war-torn world that humanity could descend toward. These segments are incredibly gritty, and paint a desperate backdrop on the present day that the film introduces you to.

There's one thing for certain - it is not an excellent film, but it is certainly an entertaining one - it gets better and better as it progresses through action sequence to action sequence.

In the context of modern action film, you can clearly see the formulaic building blocks and classic sequenced set pieces that put together the story. Some of the visual effects haven't aged well, but for the most part, it is an engrossing watch for a first timer.