Don't judge it by the effects (silly by today's standards) or the filming itself (some scenes are clearly "fake") but rather by the dialogue and its quick, machine-gun delivery (as good as any I've ever seen).
I think you're asking too much of him.
To see films in context is probably the biggest difficulty or failure of which I see with my generation.
Take ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. It was a B-movie through and through, and its budget was peanuts, like $5 million, to try to create as something like a futuristic action movie about escaping a maximum security New York City prison.
In a way, its Carpenter trying his own hand at a Leone movie...not as graceful, but its still a lean, mean, satisfying B-action movie.
Plus, you gotta dig Snake Plissken. He's a criminal through and through, never apologizing or doing anything that redeems or whatever.
But I guess some folks rather have CGI up the ass, stupidity, apolitical*, and a hero with redeeming qualities or whatever nonsense.
*=Carpenter is either an anarchist or a libertarian, I can't tell. His America of the future is always a paramilitary fascist state. This works because Snake is, for better or for worse, individualistic, or freedom.....think about it.
