Terminator 1 vs. Terminator 2

[Mop Jockey]

Which do you prefer?

Why?

[Fronzel Neekburm]

I prefer 1. A nice, nasty slice of apocalyptic 1980s no future dystopia. Also a role model for how to make a great action film on a tiny budget.

 

#2 is pretty good too. That is one of the few films I can think of that uses CGI in a meaningful way (by using it for special effects that would be quite impossible to pull off with regular visual effects).

[JimmyTwoBucks]

I love both and they're pretty different styles really... at the time I preferred 2 and it had a big

impact on me when I was a kid, but if I had to choose now I may end up going with 1 just because

it's so raw and direct.

[Datadog]

Both are pretty awesome. I prefer 1 when I'm in an "80's synthesizer" kind of mood, and 2 whenever I get Guns 'N Roses stuck in my head. But I will lean toward 2 for having that scene where the T-1000 walks through the bars. Gives me chills everytime.

[Frede]

I'm surprised to see so many (well, okay, two) people going with the first one. I agree with everything said about it. It's a brilliant piece of sci-fi storytelling. Some of the effects obviously betray the shoestring budget, but the film is so good on the whole that it never matters. It's such a shame James Cameron descended into CGI nonsense and never came back, because he used to be brilliant.

 

I also like Terminator 2, but the extended version is far superior to the theatrical cut. If you haven't watched that version, do it. You won't regret it.

[tomimt]

I've always preferred T1 over T2 simply because T2 isn't very durable as a movie. It really doesn't hold up well on multiple viewings, where as T1 works very well because of its simplicity.: it just is more entertaining of the two. I actually have the exact same issue with Aliens, which was a movie I liked a lot as a kid, but as I got older I just kinda got bored with it, where as Alien just keeps draggin me in time after time thanks to the murkier phsycological levels it has.

[MusicallyInspired]

Judgement Day. 1 had more in common with a typical 80s horror/thriller movie, which is a neat concept, but I prefer the action of 2. Also, as much as I appreciate what was accomplished with the simplicity of the first one, I love the score of the second. Similar to how I prefer Aliens to Alien. Though I do like Alien more than Terminator 1.

[Fronzel Neekburm]

Somewhat off-topic (but hey, it‘s still Cameron, right?), but mark me up as another fan of Aliens. Sure, it doesn‘t have the claustrophobic horror of the original. Perhaps it‘s best viewed as its own thing. I didn‘t care for it much when I first saw it as a kid (Too gung-ho. Too military porn.), but now I consider it one of the most wildly entertaining flicks ever made. It relentlessly keeps piling on the insane mayhem while Horner‘s thundering score plays in the background. And if you thought that planet getting nuked and Lance Henriksen being ripped in two could not possibly be one-upped in awesomeness, just wait for the wrestling match between the alien queen and Ripley in a MOTHERFUCKING MECH! „Get away from her, you BITCH!“ How can you not love this film?

It‘s also one of the few films where the director‘s cut is actually an improvement. And of course Sigourney Weaver is fucking terrific! (Watch her in „Death and the maiden“ if you get the chance.)

[tomimt]

Neither directors cut is IMO an improvement really. The things they add to the movie are things the movies really do not need and directors cut for Terminator 2 adds some pretty cringeworthy things in it. It's not like with Blade Runner where the directors cut makes the movie actually more interesting.

[Fronzel Neekburm]

Neither directors cut is IMO an improvement really. The things they add to the movie are things the movies really do not need and directors cut for Terminator 2 adds some pretty cringeworthy things in it. It's not like with Blade Runner where the directors cut makes the movie actually more interesting.

C'mon, there's tons of great stuff in the Aliens DC: Ripley finding out that her daughter has long since died, Bill Paxton acting all badass around Ripley (which makes his turn into a total wimp all the more effective), Ripley's short moment of hesitation as they first enter a building on LV 426, that nice edge-of-your-seat moment where their defense turrets run out of ammo, that nice moment near the end where Ripley and Hicks exchange their first names. Whenever I watch the theatrical cut of Aliens it feels like there is something missing.

 

Can't speak for T-2 (been too long since I last saw it) and Blade Runner (I like all the versions).

[tomimt]

Only scene of those that really adds something to the movie is the Ripley's daughter bit, as it defines more why her motherly instincts flare so much around Newt, but the other stuff is pretyt much filler, that don't fix the big issues I have with the movie. For that the marines should be completely re-written.

[Fronzel Neekburm]

For that the marines should be completely re-written.

Oh, yeah, these guys are definitely annoying (with the possible exception of Biehn's character)! Like I said, I couldn't stand the gung-ho posturing. But that just makes them getting rekt for the rest of the movie all the more enjoyable.

[Frede]

Neither directors cut is IMO an improvement really. The things they add to the movie are things the movies really do not need and directors cut for Terminator 2 adds some pretty cringeworthy things in it. It's not like with Blade Runner where the directors cut makes the movie actually more interesting.

But John being able to tell the T-1000 and Sarah apart near the ending doesn't make any sense in the theatrical version. In the director's cut, it's revealed that the T-1000 has started to malfunction on account of the sudden temperature shifts it has experienced, and John spots its feet melting into the floor. In the theatrical version, he takes a chance and has a 50% chance of shooting his mom.

 

That alone makes the DC worthwhile for me. Cause I never understood that scene in the theatrical version.

[tomimt]

I've always took the "chose" scene as that no matter how good the terminators were mimicking humans, they always felt off, especially if you knew the person they were trying to mimick. There's really no reason to offer any other explonation to it, just as there's no real reason to offer any additional explonation why Ripley's mothery instincts light up when they find Newt from the base.

[MusicallyInspired]

You're one of those silly "less is more" people, aren't you? :p

[tomimt]

Yes I am. I can proudly say I don't need everything to be spoonfed to me. Just the big chuncks. Pre-chewed if possible.

[Fronzel Neekburm]

Kinda on-topic: I recently got one of dem Chinese bootleg DVDs of T1 in a Beijing supermarket. The thing contains what I presume to be a Mandarin dub that was made for the black market way back when. And it's the most awesome thing I've ever seen/heard! They didn't have access to a clean SFX&music-track, so in many cases the Terminator theme is looped throughout entire scenes. They even added a heavy reverb to the T-800's voice, so that even the thickest peasant knows that this guy is actually a machine.

 

Best of all: It doesn't have the godawful new sound effects that the studio added for the 5.1 mix found on the DVDs and Blu-rays.