Terminator 1 or 2, which one did you like the best?

Second!

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

I love both the Terminator movies, but I have a slight bias towards T2.

Also, I actually like Cameron's Aliens more than Ridley Scott's original Alien. (And call me crazy, but I like Fincher's Alien³ just a bit more than Ridley Scott's original Alien! )

BTW, it's been ages since I've seen The Abyss. I'll have to fix that one of these days.

The first one I just love because it’s really gritty but I love two as well. Plus the first movie made me think of a question Tharp has had me debating friends over for years. How could Kyle Reese always had been John’s Dad?

The first 🥇

I was an annoying 90's teen who listened to Guns and Roses, always have a soft spot for T2.

Neither answer is wrong.

There are (in some cases long) sequences in T2 which are absolutely brilliant. Good enough to be a top 10 all time movie.
The rest of it is utter garbage.

Part 1 easily.

One of those calls based on the memories it re-ignites. I was back in my hometown, Springfield, Missouri, visiting my dad. It had just come out, and in those pre-internet days there was just newspaper reviews and general buzz. All I'd heard was praise, but not many details. So I wanted to see it before I learned too much to ruin any surprises. One of those first movies where I got comfortable going it alone. And back then, the special effects, the non-stop action, was still fresh and new. I was, to use an overworked cliche, blown away. Terminator 2 was also a great experience, but Terminator wins just for the sheer novelty and freshness of experience it gave me at the time.

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Probably 1, looking forward to buying the new 4K release coming this November.

It's a bit like Alien and Aliens, they both work in slightly different genres but are both amazing movies. Second one is slightly better though, just like Aliens.

Cameron is one of the best with sequels.

I go back and forth, really I do. I saw the first one when I was a kid, before the second even came out, and it was sheer terror AND also remember watching it from the viewpoint of having no clue who Arnie was. It's difficult to see past The Terminator as an Arnold film, but if you can or had the privilege of seeing it before he was a celebrity, movie star, guvvhanoor, etc, etc then that whole character was terrifying. Obviously the characterization was inspired in part by Yul Brennar (sp?) in Westworld, but still.

The second film is a "better" film. It has a budget and seems more complete and less choppy. It's a polished film, better paced, etc, but it does have some silly moments which takes a person out of the film such as the "no killing people" and "hasta la vista, baby." Those moments are just pure cringe for me, and honestly it's that inconsistency of tone which has plagued James Cameron films for years and anything after Titanic I have little to no use for, although to be fair he really hasn't directed an actual cinematic film since then. I haven't seen his documentaries, and I don't call Avatars film as they are more like preachy long-winded video game cut scenes and I think Cameron has been more interested in doing sea exploration, funding other people's films, producing, playing around with CGI stuff, etc more than traditional writing and directing film. There's nothing really wrong with that, to each their own and godspeed, but I'll never think of him as a pure filmmaker like a Dennis Villenueve, Paul Thomas Anderson, or even a Tarantino.

But back to Terminator. One thing I can never take away from Terminator 2 and watching it when I was a kid, was how it was one of the first things that really got me into guns. I remember watching Terminator 2 when I was probably 10 and thinking how spectacular all the gun play seemed and how it felt so different from anything I had seen up to that point. I was used to seeing Chuck Norris and Rambo just start spraying bullets everywhere and running around or used to old westerns where guys get shot and fall down and no one aims or reloads.

Terminator 2 was one of the very first films that shows great gun play with how guns actually work and behave. It showed reloads, recoil, the difference in effect between calibers. The first gunplay in the film, I believe it's the hallway scene where Arnie has the .12 shotgun and the T1000 has the Beretta, it does a great job of showing how rounds act and behave differently with the 9mm pepper Arnold fast and furiously, but having little effect, while the .12 gauge has spread to it where the T1000 acts as a visual sort of ballistics gel. Showing not only reloads, but accurate magazine changes, the effects of recoil such as when Linda Hamilton goes after Dyson, she fires the M16 in full auto, after the semi-auto sniping attempt fails, switching to a new mag, then running out and on the next mag, and then switching to her 1911... it's all done so well and even today in a world of John Wick's and post The Way of the Gun, it still holds up well.

Another thing I did NOT like about T2 however was the addition and the cross marketing of that stupid Guns N Roses song. At the time when I was a kid it was cool, but looking at it today as a piece of cinema... it's uhhh no.

T2 is a better film.
T1 is the more consistent film in tone and style.

But I might have give T2 the edge just for the amazing gun play and going that extra mile to try to get it right.

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This is a toughie.
The first ones flawless. The second one has flaws (Edward Furlong. Over dramatized philosophy like being forced to witness a cringeworthy sales pitch), but makes up for them in more high spots. Much more, and Much higher.
I dont know. Im gonna cheat and just lump them into one movie.

I love that nobody even mentions the other sequels.

Yeah, they are truly forgettable garbage with inconsistent tone and a lot of them just recycled the formula from the second film. Terminator Salvation was decent enough and really the only one that stood out on its own as passable. Dark Fate had some interesting moments, but by continuing to work with comic book action in the final sequence, using Arnold to the same awkward drama, action, comedy thing that they only hinted at in the 2nd one... just doesn't work well. Oddly enough Arnold is the worst thing about the new Terminator films... they can use that universe as they did in Salvation to greater effect if they move beyond and come up with a unique idea. The Grace character was an interesting new idea, but other than that... meh.