Who Cares About James Cameron?
io9 has a leaked blurry screenshot of the alien from James Cameron's 3D sci-fi adventure, Avatar. It is but the latest in a fanboy hunt for details on this highly-anticipated new movie. Which begs the question, why is this movie so highly-anticipated? Who cares about James Cameron? The man hasn't made a movie in 5,000 years. And his last movie was Titanic, and that movie suuuuuucked. Did you know that Titanic is the highest-grossing movie of all time, but also the highest-sucking. It sucks very very much, internationally. In the future, a wise old woman is going to drop that movie off the edge of a boat, and it's going to sink to the bottom of the sea where no man can find it.
Since then, he's just been obsessed with the Titanic. Two separate Titanic documentaries, James Cameron? Seriously? One would have been enough, and by enough I mean too much. But let's get off Titanic documentaries, because I just got off yours (I had sex with James Cameron's Titanic documentary out of spite). Prior to that the man made two decent movies, Aliens and Terminator. But those movies aren't even the best in the franchises that their a part of. Alien is way better than Aliens. And Terminator lays the groundwork for the series, but is really just an overhyped b-movie. It's silly and campy and self-aware, which is fine, but let's not play games. T2 is where the action is. (CORRECTION: James Cameron made T2. It is good. Accidents happen. Point taken. He's still your boyfriend.) And The Abyss is just a joke.
So what is it, then? His Entourage cameo? Seriously, the only person who's made more of a myth out of less of a career is George Lucas. I don't get it. This guy. It's like if Michael Bay disappeared and started making robot documentaries for 12 years. Would you be peeing your pants then, nerds?
Posted by Gabe at 12:30 PM in Backlashes
Tags: Aliens | Avatar | James Cameron | Terminator | Titanic
James Cameron made T2...
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Yes, James Cameron also directed T2. And Aliens and the Abyss are great so I don't know what you are talking about.
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sour grapes..
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Ditto on the Aliens and Abyss love. Those are great flicks. In fact, I'll take Aliens over the snoozefest Alien anyday of the week. Hell, True Lies is what Mr. and Mrs. Smith would be like if it was genuinely good.
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Alien IS better than Aliens. I have been saying that for years and all my friends think I am an idiot.
ALIEN is a perfect blend of horror and sci-fi. ALIENS is what? a bunch of space marines and polymer plastic. fuck off with that shit. the truth lies in the taglines, really... ALIEN: "In space no one can hear you scream"* (thought provoking, and a little bit terrifying) ALIENS: "This time its war" (Booooorrring!) I rest my case.
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Alien is sci-fi horror. Aliens is sci-fi action. They are two completely different genres of film, and both super successful I think.
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That's exactly the way I think of it. Alien is one of the greatest horror films ever. And Aliens is one of the greatest action films ever. I think they're equally good.
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Hey now, I like Titanic! (I am a 14-year-old girl.)
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Aliens is awesome. The Terminator and T2 are awesome. The Abyss is pretty good.
For the most part, Cameron's done good stuff. I'm excited for Avatar.
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Also, the original Terminator, which David Foster Wallace called "one of the two best U.S. action movies of the entire 1980s [2], was a dark, breathlessly kinetic, near-brilliant piece of metaphysical Ludditism." Of course it was in an essay comparing Terminator 2 to porn, but still.
People who say Alien is far superior to Aliens are people who laugh too hard at jokes in Shakespeare plays.
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I don't say Alien is superior to Aliens because I'm pretentious, David Foster Wallace-quoting guy. I say it because Alien is a fuckload scarier than Aliens. End of story.
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Okay so I kinda walked into it with using David Foster Wallace. Fair enough.
Alien is a classic, as is Aliens. Completely different movies though, as everyone else has pointed out. Alien is scary and intense and has Yaphet Kotto. Aliens is awesome and fun and has Bill Paxton and the forklift robot. Both are great, but for different reasons.
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fair enough, but considering they are all part of the same series, success has nothing to do with the issue, which is, which is a better film, 3 and 4 can duke it out amongst themselves to determine the #3 and #4 positions, but this is for #1 and #2, and to go from Alien and its quiet terror, to then ALIENS which was just more regurgitated soldier-action genre so popular in the 80s but with a slight sci-fi bent, it was just a slap in the face to the original. I am not saying that it was a wretched piece of garbage, it just had nothing on the original. I put it firmly at #2.
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Yes, it's been a while since the dude made a movie, but I guess he felt he earned a vacation after Titantic made a gajillion dollars. And yes, that movie did kinda suck. But overall, his track record is pretty phenomenal compared to many similarly successful directors: Terminator, T2, True Lies, Abyss, Aliens... None of those are terrible, and most are even pretty damn good. Why would we bother initiating a backlash when there are many much more deserving directors out there? So lame.
Posted by Gabe at 12:30 PM in Self-created Backlashes.
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"His track record is pretty phenomenal compared to many similarly successful directors."
Is it, though? Or more importantly, who is a similarly successful director? The only reason this post even exists is because of the unqualified reverence with which Hollywood (and lots of film media) promotes James Cameron, as if he was one of our greatest living directors. That's the part that I don't understand. Because he's not. He's an overwhelmingly decent director of action movies. The end.
And also, are you really citing True Lies as a defense of talent? Bold.
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"It's like if Michael Bay disappeared and started making robot documentaries for 12 years. Would you be peeing your pants then, nerds?"
Yes.
You had me at "Michael Bay disappeared"
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I miss the point of this article. Blurry screenshot (possibly fake) emerges from a movie. Director who made arguably some of the most entertaining movies of our time is making a new film. Gabe doesn't care because he hated Titanic (me too, and fuck Entourage). So? I'm curious to see what he comes up with. If Hitchcock rolled out of the grave and made a new flick I wouldn't rant because I thought Family Plot was ass.
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The fact that you just compared James Cameron to Alfred Hitchcock is the point of this article.
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I was thinking "Good director, shitty last film" and Hitchcock was the first that came to mind.
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Aliens > Alien.
Ever notice hyper-sleep seems to suspend everything but Ripley's libido? In each film she's looking to get off as soon as she wakes up.
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James Cameron also inspired/invented some pretty neat technological advances in the science of filming deep under water. I saw his IMAX Aliens of the Deep documentary about life that exists on earth at a depth so great that they've never see sunlight. No one had ever been down that far with cameras and all that. It was pretty interesting, specifically as it applies to the possibility of life existing on watery planet-esque objects out there, like one of Saturn's moons. I don't know anything about space, so I apologize if Saturn doesn't actually have moons... Cameron clearly likes the deep blue sea, and his movies are always polished and well paced.
For the record, I would probably compare him to David Fincher as a more contemporary director of similar stature. Hm, looking at Fincher's IMDB page I discover that he's only made 2 movies in the last ten years prior to TCCOBB... I am old. :(
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I wouldn't dismiss Aliens as a "soldier-action genre" movie "with a slight sci-fi bent". That's like saying that Alien is just a slasher movie "with a slight sci-fi bent". Aliens is one of the best action movies ever made. And Aliens has much better developed characters than Alien - you really know and care about Ripley, Newt, Bishop and Hudson. Aliens is #1.
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man, T2 is THE movie.
you're watching and then you're like oh man a great action sequence is coming up, but then out of nowhere comes fifteen better action sequences that you totally forgot about!
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aliens is superior to alien. t2 is superior to terminator. james cameron (along with copolla) virtually invented the improved sequel. also, titanic 2 rocked it. also also: i do not like that naked giraffe woman alien thing. eeek.
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I've never once got the reference to "Get off _____ because I just got off yours" because I am stupid. Can someone explain?
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let's say you and i were having a friendly little 'making fun of each other's moms' fest. oh, hahaha, your mother is sexually promiscuous! oh, hahahaha, your mother has a weight problem.
perhaps, you might say, 'hey, let's get off of moms, i just got off of yours' as if you had been having sex with my mom. because my mother is sexually promiscuous and also you are a very virile and potent person who has an impressive list of sexual conquests.
what makes it funny is using it out of context, like with the james cameron titanic documentaries, because it doesn't make sense, really, but it does. it also signals an 'in group' identity to those people who are familiar with the witticism's origins.
like when gabe says, 'forget it jake, it's town.'
it's just a funny reuse of something in an unexpected way.
see?
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So you grudgefucked James Cameron's Titanic documentary. Nice.
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James Cameron films are iconic. Aliens and T2 are two of the best action films ever made. Unlike Spielberg or Lucas, he has arguably yet to make a bad film. I know it's cool to hate on Titanic but it's the most popular film of all time, the last act is great, and it is what it is. This is why we're psyched about Avatar, which will be fucking our eyeballs in 2009.
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I agree that the key distinction is that Cameron has never made a bad film, so on that front, he's got George Lucas beat by at least two moves.
That being said, True Lies is pretty close to bad (and extremely sexist and racist), Titanic and The Abyss are just OK, and The Terminator is very overrated.
James Cameron gets by on Aliens and T2, and rightfully so as they are two of the best action AND two of the best sci-fi films ever. He gets eternal nerd good will; those two films are better than any Star Wars film or The Matrix or The Dark Knight.
Coppola is still eating off The Godfather 1 & 2, and Pacino and DeNiro are still getting work despite dwelling in self-parody for years. Welcome to Hollywood.
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Main reason everyone cares about this movie is because of the technological achievements that Cameron is bragging about. Apparently it's going to be ultra insane CG that will cure cancer/make your head implode.
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You're just jealous that he's been spending all this time finishing counting up all that Titantic money in his gold plated boxers in his swimming pool full of NERDS and gummy bears.
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so, this just begs the question, what good movie did you like? are you the type that would like 300 but bash gladiator? seems like any good movie out there gets a poor review and some decent movies get put in the Worst Movie Ever bin for no legitimate reason besides maybe getting more people to visit your website through the shock of seeing a movie they previously thought was eh being marked as worst movie ever material.
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True Lies is really bad. C'mon. So dumb. When the terrorist's balls get crushed by the tail of the jet? Wocka wocka wocka!
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lol what the fuck i am reading? opinions about movies from a guy who didn't know james cameron make terminator 2?! lol worst website ever
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More and more I realize that this website doesn't know shit about film.
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So I guess nobody here is aware of 'Pirahna 2', Cameron's first film? As though Pirahna 1 wasn't bad enough? Inventor of the non-sucking sequel? Sorry.
"Titanic is great, it is what it is." That is such a cop-out thing to say. When you have nothing to say about a subject but can't stop your mouth... "It is what it is."
Alien and Aliens are way different. I prefer Alien because of the more deliberate pacing and a darker, more realistic tone (best it can be anyway)-- the characters are mostly average folks running a freighter, and things go wrong that they're unprepared for. The one shot where they're trying to get the face-hugger off John Hurt, and it tightens its tentacle around his neck like a boa constrictor, is such a horrid-looking and almost documentary-like shot that it always makes me queasy.
Aliens is a flashier, action-driven film, more about guns and glory, and it is great but just doesn't give me that sick feeling that Alien evokes. They should have called it 'Cowboys and Aliens'. It does expand the story, and it is good, but I hesitate to say 'improvement'.
As for those who insist Aliens is better... do you think it might have helped that there was already a great backstory and visual design to draw from, and that the second film had nearly twice the budget of the first? Cameron bought a bunch more guns but that didn't buy him a better film. I like Alien better, and it doesn't mean I'm a snob any more than it means you're an idiot. If you don't have the class or taste to appreciate Alien, you might not want to tell anybody. You'll laugh about it when you grow up.
Blade Runner is way better than Aliens or Terminator.
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Wow, thanks for telling me that Alien and Aliens are way different. I hadn't realized. And you're right about one thing. Preferring Alien does not make you a snob (it's a Ridley Scott flick, for crissakes) or me an idiot. Writing this, though: "If you don't have the class or taste to appreciate Alien, you might not want to tell anybody." Well, that makes you both....
Also, who the fuck is talking about Blade Runner?
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James Cameron movies have inspired Tons of other films. I'm even getting sick of all of the first person shooter VG's which imitate the many succesful aspects of Aliens. But Cameron knows a LOT about film making I think that's pretty clear. Plus, he sketches his own creature/character production designs etc. He's sick! Whatever! P.S I cried puke for 3 hours after seeing what happened to the terminator franchise with T3.
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