The Terminator 1 - VFX review

Movie - The Terminator
released - 1984
Director - james cameron
Cinematography - Adam greenberg
VFX - Fantasy II
Animatronics - Stan Winston

No this isn't the well known Terminator II judgement day! this is the original not so tech involved original movie which started a franchise! Terminator 1 is not the all shining technologically advanced movie you will want to see, but it uses animatronic puppets cleverly mixed with CGI to some extent.

This shot is the deal breaker that shows the then (1983) state of the art animatronics used in the industry. James cameron pulled this feat with the assistance of Stan Winston & the team. the shot which shows the Damaged terminator fixing himself is pretty nicely pulled when it comes to mixing of shots. Actual hand is shown until Arnold cuts it open, but ones that initial cut is shown the shot moves to the facial expressions & the tools, this is an interesting way of making the viewer wanting to see what's actually going on and that they forget the puppet (fake) aspect due to the built up curiosity. But when the mechanism of the hand is shown with shining metal covered with flesh & blood, it pays off for the built up hype.

Even the face is clearly noticeable between the puppet n actual actor. but still after he punctures the eye with the blade, it shows a side of the face with Arnold faking a surgery on the eye which is covered to the camera.

this clip found on youtube gives a shortened version of the entire movies VFX scenes. The very basic scanning & machine view of the terminator, to the guns laser pointer that was not something simple like todays handy coin sized gadgets. At 1983 Diode lasers were not available and even the working helium neon laser had a high power requirement. for this a separate power pack was made that would connect to the gun &  when needed Arnold needed to activate it.

All in all the movie, for its time was something the audience have not experienced & went on to earn a box office.