My friends watched T1 and T2 this week, one of them had never seen the original and the other hadn't seen T2 since he was very, very young. They both agreed that the first Terminator was better, scarier and more original, which I have been saying for my whole life. I hadn't seen the original in a few years now, and based on my friend seeing it for the first time as an adult and being really impressed by it I decided to see it again and try to look at it fresh (I've been watching it since I was 5, which is arguably far too young to have seen it, but meh). And damn, is that just a weird, original film, one that straddles the line between paradoxical sci-fi storyline, comic book action film, and believable human drama. It's a strange, compelling, over the top film that is actually quite dark and intense in places. First film to ever give me nightmares as a child!

My friend who watched them for the first time summed it up like this: T2 is a better action film, but it comes across as less original because it is like watching the origin of all the action tropes we have come accustomed to; and the special effects don't have the wow factor they originally did. The original, on the other hand, is very bizarre and unique, and very compelling and scary, and unlike any other movie he had seen. This is a very useful way at looking at the two in my opinion. It goes against the common sentiment that had been in place since the 1990s, but I've noticed that as more and more films draw influence on T2--and not the original--that first film really has begun to stand out more and more as the gritty, quirky, masterfully made film that it is. Time magazine did list it on their top ten films of 1984 back in the day!