James Cameron movies

Chris: Usually, we do Rankings where there are at least ten films to discuss. But if we waited until James Cameron made ten movies, we’d be old, or dead, or both. Because the man is a lot of things, but prolific he ain’t.

Nick: He’s about to double his number. If we came back in five years, we’d be debating Avatar 5.

Chris: We don’t have that kind of time. So instead we’re going to count the seven theatrical films that James Cameron has directed over his long and storied career. He is one of the greatest, and one of the most successful, film directors of all time. But first, we need to discuss Piranha II.

Nick: The Spawning.

Chris: Also known as The Flying Killers in some countries. My feeling on this is that even though technically it has his name on it as a director, it’s not a James Cameron movie. Therefore I move to have it struck from the record.

Nick: I don’t think he would acknowledge it as one of his films. Wasn’t he fired at one point? He had a miserable time.

James: He climbed into the edit room through a window.

Nick: It’s notable for the fact that he had such a bad time making it, he had a nightmare that became The Terminator.

Chris: Which means without it we wouldn’t be sitting here. Maybe we should include it, after all. No! So, when were we first introduced to James Cameron? Helen: True Lies was probably the first one I saw in a cinema. It hasn’t aged as well as some of his other work, but I enjoyed its crazy energy and ludicrous over-the-top action. And I love

The Abyss — that’s the one I watched most as a kid.

Nick: It was Terminator 2.

I saw it on video and was like, “What the hell is this? This is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.” There was a videotape of Aliens passed around at my school. We weren’t meant to watch it because we were too young, but we’d put it on when the teachers weren’t around.

James: He’s the greatest living filmmaker. I remember renting

Aliens as soon as it came out on VHS, and becoming obsessed with it. It’s the film I was most obsessed with, and that has continued until this day.

Chris: I was a big fan of the first Terminator and Aliens,

both of which I saw well before I was legally able to do so. But

I love the muscular nature of the filmmaking in those two movies. The Terminator, Piranha II notwithstanding, is one hell of a debut. You could argue that it’s the purest James Cameron film. It’s relentless, focused on one goal, and is pure punk.

Helen: I’m not saying it’s the best, but purest? There’s a real argument for that because it’s entirely his baby in a way that maybe Aliens isn’t. It does have a lot of the preoccupations that would define his films — nuclear war, the nuclear theat. There’s a sense of impending apocalypse to many of his films.

Chris: There’s a nuclear explosion of some sort in each of his movies, except Titanic.

Helen: He also writes incredible female characters. Even though when we meet her, Sarah Connor is literally wearing a fluffy pink cardigan. She could not be further from where she ends up. There’s a lot to be said for The Terminator.

Nick: I just can’t fall in love with it in the same way that I love Terminator 2. It’s an amazing film, but it’s always

Terminator 2 I go to. It’s richer and more epic and more inventive. It’s the perfect sequel. Chris: The Abyss was essentially a flop, but even then he was already being seen as the biggest noise on the directorial front since Spielberg, and he managed to get all that money to really double down on Terminator 2.

I love the way he expands it. It’s epic but also elegant. It could be bloated, but isn’t.

Helen: The money is all there on screen. He spends it on the right stuff. He spends it on the big star in Schwarzenegger. He spends it on the groundbreaking special effects of the T-1000. But he also does clever things like avoid spending vast sums by using twins for certain shots. James: Terminator 2 isn’t the best sequel of all time, because

Aliens is. But he established a template with Aliens — the second time you take the core of it and go in a different direction. Both of those movies, I think, surpass the originals.

Chris: Which is why we should be excited for what he’s doing with Avatars 2 to 5.

Helen: I’m wary of the time that has passed, and it hasn’t felt like there was a huge appetite for Avatar in the meantime. But you’re a fool if you do not bet on James Cameron.

Chris: It doesn’t seem to have left a huge cultural footprint in the way that Aliens has, or

The Terminator has.

James: It’s not part of the zeitgeist, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s a phenomenal film. I’ve no patience for the Avatar

backlash. It draws you into the world of Pandora, and is more immersive than almost any other movie. You live that world in the same way that Jake Sully does.

Helen: There’s no real cynicism or quipping.

James: It’s almost naively sweet.

Nick: You get that in Titanic as well. But I don’t think that’s a new thing for Cameron. If you go back to The Terminator, it’s got heart and emotion.

James: Every one of his movies is a love story. The Terminator is a love story across time.

The Abyss is about a man who is still in love with his ex-wife. Even True Lies is about marital strife and rekindling.

Chris: True Lies has the single most striking image in Cameron’s entire filmography, which is deeply romantic and fucked-up, and it’s Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis kissing in front of a blossoming mushroom cloud. Everything that’s great about Cameron’s movies is right there.

Helen: I bloody love The Abyss. I think it’s really underrated. And I love it for the love story. This is why he’s the biggest writer of all time. And why it’s foolish to only aim your action movies at men aged 16-25.

James: He understands that better than any other person. He understands how to make movies that appeal to broad audiences, that hit every single emotional note.

Chris: He’s so good at pushing the envelope of what technology can do, but without becoming a slave to the tech. He uses it as a storytelling device. Avatar redefined cinema for a long, long time. And Titanic was also the big swing. It was such a departure, this epic three-hour romance.

James: That’s another film that, like Avatar, had a backlash afterwards. I know people talk about the Rose-jack relationship as having broad strokes. It definitely works for me. And while the CGI was cutting-edge in 1997, it maybe doesn’t hold up. But what he did with the tanks and practical effects vastly outstrips what he did with a computer. That film is a cinematic milestone.

Chris: The ending is incredible. You’d have to be a literal iceberg not to be moved by the ending of that movie. And speaking of endings, enough squabbling. Let’s vote!