Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Terminator 1 and 2 were the first great comic book movies

Just watched Terminator 1 again–how awesome! Not quite as good as Terminator 2, which is probably one of the top action movies of all time, but still great, maybe top 10-20. As I was watching it, I was thinking that a lot of what made the movie so appealing is the character of an unstoppable super man (or in this case, robot). Much better as a bad guy than as a good guy, because the unstoppable good guy is boring (see: Superman). Isn't this the prototype for all the modern day comic book movies? One of the things that makes comic book movies exciting is the epic battles between the comic book characters, both doing incredible things, and waiting to see who breaks first. Terminator 2 is still amongst the best (if not the best) in this regard. Another cool thing is that the Terminator movies did this with much worse special effects than we have today, especially Terminator 1, which looks prehistoric. Practically expected claymation sometimes. But it's still awesome. Compelling movie action is more about engendering fear, suspense and relief than just special effects. Still, Terminator 2 would just not have been as awesome without the (for its time) unprecedented special effects, which have aged remarkably well.

NB: Yes, I realize that the original Superman movies came out before T1. But they just weren't as good. And that's a fact. You know it, too.

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