heywood on 15/3/2017 at 12:28
I realize everyone has different tastes, but IMHO Terminator is just an above average popcorn flick that has trouble standing out in the sea of 80s action movies. I wouldn't even rate in the top three Schwarzenegger movies.
Alien is the standout film of its genre and a genuine classic.
Vivian on 15/3/2017 at 13:51
The alien was designed by one of the wierdest surrealists of the last millennia. The terminator is a big metal skeleton with a gun.
Renault on 15/3/2017 at 14:19
Alien holds up a little better, but I still view Terminator as a classic, at least in the Sci Fi field. It suffers a bit because of the 80s fashions (Linda Hamilton's hair, dance club scene) and because it was more driven by special effects (which of course look horribly dated now). But it's definitely a landmark film, and I wouldn't compare it to other 80s B movie stuff like Commando or Escape From New York or Scanners (I like those movies too, but not in the same way).
So where does the original Predator stand in all this? Another fun movie, but undoubtedly a level or three below the two movies being discussed.
Pyrian on 15/3/2017 at 15:51
I have a particular fondness for Predator. I certainly prefer it over Terminator 1 or Alien 1, but I'm not a big "horror" guy anyway; those movies fall a bit flat for me. An alien species whose cultural predilections not only exist, but are actually crucial to the plot? Heck yeah. I like the fact that their technology is just "good" - he's hard to see, not invisible. "If it bleeds, we can kill it." I dunno, the whole thing feels more grounded and less "magical" than the others. I mean, I like the big industrial space freighter and the android, but the Alien itself doesn't seem fussed with any basic laws of physics/chemistry, and of course time travel is just kind of bleah in T1.
icemann on 15/3/2017 at 15:54
Quote Posted by Vivian
The alien was designed by one of the weirdest surrealists of the last millennia. The terminator is a big metal skeleton with a gun.
Well to quote James Rolfe (aka Angry Video Game Nerd) (and I'm agreeing with him that the first movie is a slasher horror) -
Slasher villains always wear something to hide their true face, but the Terminator wears an actual face to cover his artificial identity. And that as (at that point in time) it had not been done before made this movie very unique. Unlike your B movies with only half half plots, the Terminator's is fully fleshed out.
It also features fantastic scenes like
the part at the bar, the police station shoot out, when he shows up at her place, the bit where she calls in to her parents hideaway cabin but the Terminator got their first and killed her parents and speaks with her mothers voice. Just a brilliant movie. And note that I re-watched this about 2 months ago. Still holds up. I'd also note to advise to be sure to watch a version with the original sound effects in there. In newer versions they fucked up the shotgun sound effects for some odd reason.
I far prefer it over Alien any day. That is just my opinion though. Note that I am a HUGE slasher horror fan, though this movie lacks some of that whilst having some of the other slasher aspects like seeing through his eyes, whilst seeing him talk as well (very uncommon in slashers besides Nightmare on Elm street) and unlike Alien you have stuff happening right from the get go, where as in Alien it's not until a fair bit in.
All that said, that is just my opinion. I'm not claiming I'm right, but just telling it as it is for me. And for me Terminator 1 is better.
If this was out of Terminator 2 and Aliens I'd have a very hard time picking which is the better flick. Both are fantastic equally in my eyes.
Renault on 15/3/2017 at 16:36
I just watched the opening to The Terminator on youtube. I'd say it's still a fairly powerful scene, even with special effects that are over 30 years old. I wouldn't dismiss it as just a bunch of goofy robo tanks by any means.
Pyrian on 15/3/2017 at 17:13
Any votes for Robocop? :D
Starker on 15/3/2017 at 18:10
I don't know, they all seem kind of pulpy action/horror movies to me in retrospect. I wouldn't really say any of them has more "class" than Robocop. And personally I prefer it that way.
Actually, let me go even further and throw in The Thing for good measure.
Btw, holy hell is Robocop violent. I had almost forgotten how brutal it is.
Vivian on 15/3/2017 at 18:17
RoboCop is fucking rad. Way funnier and more subversive than alien or terminator or predator (which has literally zero subtext beyond sort or vague failure-of-masculine-ideal sort of shit). Paul Verhoven is safe.
Sulphur on 15/3/2017 at 18:31
Eh, Alien did a few things that the others didn't. While all of these movies succeed as entertainment, Alien manages to thread in reproduction as a weapon, structures an entire sequence (from the moment they enter the Space Jockey ship and you subconsciously realise they're descending through an alien womb, and they find the eggs, and later the alien erupts out of Kane's chest) as symbolic of a fertilisation cycle, rummages your psychology for an incredibly personal fear of your own body being violated (regardless of your gender), and puts all of this together with a slow, atmospheric buildup that plays each part against the other in a way that cumulatively magnifies all of them to very powerful effect. This is to say nothing of its bleak views on corpocracy or the ridiculous amount of skill with which every constituent part of it was constructed.
T1 was a pretty good genre hybrid of slasher movie plus science fiction-y elements, Predator was a decent survival romp, and Robocop did the corporate capitalism commentary with black humour well, but they're all adjuncts to the kind of movie Alien was. And I say this as someone who prefers both Aliens and Terminator 2 to either Alien or T1 because I'm an unabashed action movie fan.
