Every James Cameron movie ranked, from Avatar: The Way Of Water to Piranha II: The Spawning
He may be the king of the worldwide box office but only one of his movies—Titanic? Aliens? The Terminator?—can be crowned as his best
Film Lists James Cameron
When you think of directing in terms of pure box office heft, you think of James Cameron. Despite Avatar: The Way Of Water being only the American auteur’s ninth film, his films have amassed more than $6 billion and he’s twice made the highest-grossing blockbuster of all time. Even Aliens and Terminator 2 both worked Herculean tasks in proving that what were formerly one-off masterpieces could be transformed into generation-spanning pop culture powerhouses.
Cameron’s never been a cynical businessman, though. Rather, he’s always been obsessed with pushing the limits of technology, from reinventing underwater shooting during The Abyss to building multiple Titanics while making Titanic. And his films have always been moralistic fairytales: cautionary, inspiring, or somewhere in between. Ranking Cameron’s films was no easy feat, but it sure was a treat from start to finish.
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James Cameron is not going to have sex with you, AV Club. Although I can’t fault you for trying, he’s sexy and rich.
I’d settle for a submarine ride.
I’m pretty sure that’s a euphemism for sex with James Cameron.
He’ll give you a submarine ride DURING a submarine ride!!!!
I don’t have a huge issue with the top 3. I think Aliens is his most exciting movie if not his best. However True Lies before the Abyss is bad choice. In a vacuum it’s a great high concept 90’s action movie, but the misogyny, racism, and and 90’s cultural quirks means it hasn’t aged well. The Abyss especially with it’s directors cut has actually aged really well and still looks great from a special effects standpoint. Flip flop them and I’m onboard with your list.
Came here to say essentially the same. /kudos
Aliens is weirdly one of the best arguments against sequels in concept because while it’s almost certainly among the top five of all time, it’s still worse than the original. Because of that, it feels odd to place it as Cameron’s best, even though I’m not sure I disagree.
Avatar itself should have a big ol’ asterisk next to it because it’s substantially more of a major technical achievement than it is a great movie. It changed the VFX world forever and made more money than anything, but the rest of the top 8 (except WoW) are genre classics that are all probably airing somewhere right now and I don’t know anyone who has watched Avatar since 2010.
“worse than the original”
Nah. They’re both perfect movies in different ways.
I can’t say Aliens is worse than Alien. They’re both great, compliment each other perfectly, and both different in very key ways. It’s a perfect two film combination and made by different creative teams too which is more astonishing.
Narratively, I’d put The Abyss and even Titanic over both Avatar films.
As someone who saw True Lies in the theater, the issues you list were clear at the time. That Jamie Lee subplot has always been misogynist garbage.
Abyss is #4 for me.
Yeah True Lies is a complete piece of shit movie. It was protested as racist at time – 30 years ago – so it’s not a case of aging poorly. That we’re supposed to accept Arnold as the romantic lead after what he does to his wife in the strip tease scene boggles my mind.
For a guy who has made, basically, three good films, Cameron has an outsize reputation.
Also, Terminator is a better movie than T2 in every respect except budget. And Piranha 2 has aged better than True Lies.
All the issues with True Lies are probably true.It was still one of my favourite movies as a kid and I still have a massive soft spot for it.
What an awful fucking list.
Oh do tell.
Well just for starters the Abyss is better than either Avatar, the latest Avatar is straight garbage. And T2 is pretty easily his best movie.
Yeah, top 3 is solid but both Avatars are too high.
The Abyss feels kind of low there, but I’m not sure where else you place it with a filmmaker who has never made a bad movie after Piranha 2.
Agreed. This list is tough since all his movies are pretty solid, but I agree with most of the placement here.
I mean… -something- has to be last.
I would say his worst are these Avatar movies by far, but I have to accept that it’s because their whole *deal* just doesn’t click with me. And on a base level of competency (like, action-movie geography and effects innovation) they’re rock solid, which means you can’t be Ludovico-tortured with them. Seriously, try it sometime: find a Droog, tie them to a movie theater seat, pry open their eyelids and make them watch these Avatar movies. They’ll just be lightly bored.
Ah, I checked out when I saw it so low- it’s a personal favorite. It should’ve ranked above True Lies at the very least.
It’s WAY too low in my book. Call me crazy but it’s easily # 3 for me. I have both Terminators tied (kinda just one big epic story) and I flip flop those with Aliens as the two best on my list. Hell, right now I think I have all of them tied for # 1 with Abyss #2.And I’m even including the theatrical cut. It’s flawed with a much superior director’s cut. Still at the top of my list, regardless of cut.
I think The Abyss’ reputation is still harmed to this day by some of the baffling choices made in the theatrical cut, which leaves the movie with a third act that doesn’t really pay off the NTIs or resolve the WW3 subplot. I remember seeing this movie in a theater as a kid, and on the drive home all we talked about was that the movie didn’t go anywhere, and what was the deal with those little sea aliens?The material added in the director’s cut really gives us appropriate context, clarifies the themes, and gives the story a much needed scale. But while this is the version of the movie that’s been most widely available for some time, I don’t think popular opinion ever caught up.
The advertising made the movie look like an underwater version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but it ended up being more of a Cold War-era paranoia thriller. The Marine-gone-nuts storyline was the weakest part of the film, which is a problem when it’s also the main focus of the film.
I rewatched in a few weeks ago and this is more or less where I’d stick it too. It’s one of those films which is incredible in many ways but for whatever reason, doesn’t feel like the sum of its parts.
Yeah, but I’d submit The Abyss is better than both Avatar films. The latter are certainly incredible technical marvels, but The Abyss has a better plot, better script, and better acting.
Cameron peaked with the original Terminator.
Earlier this week I watched Dances with Wolves and Avatar. The former was WAY better than the idiotic latter. So I’m not slighting Costner’s movie (even if it’s not as good as Goodfellas) when I deride everything but the CGI in Avatar.
I will not hear Aliens slandered like this.
I hadn’t actually slandered Aliens yet, since Terminator is a perfect movie. But I will criticize it now: it reduces the horror of the original to have a bunch of aliens shot with machine guns. Ridley’s original had an unstoppable rape metaphor crawling through a spaceship-as-haunted-house. Cameron dumbed it down for an action movie audience, just as his script for Rambo did compared to the original First Blood.
For years all I knew of Rambo was the pop culture images of sweaty Stallone with a headband and machinegun. First Blood was such a different (in a good way) movie than I expected.
And the original Rocky is a serious boxing picture — more similar to Raging Bull than it is to the cheesy sequels. Both Rocky and Rambo turned into cartoons in those.
I would answer that the dread and horror of the first is replaced with a beautifully sustained, pants-shittingly raw sense of tension that is unlike any other experience I’ve had with a movie. You stay white-knuckled and clenched through practically all of the second and third acts. Roger Ebert wrote a review back in the day where he remarked on what craft there was in creating and sustaining that feeling (athough he wasn’t sure one could be said to “enjoy” it.) I think it makes the payoff of the ending extraordinarily satisfying.If you consider the experience of watching Aliens rather than searching it for sufficiently highbrow allegories for critical analysis…idk buddy, it holds up awfully well for me.
Mark Kermode’s review of the latest is too funny not to link:
The Terminator is still my favorite as well, although, I also loved everything else he’s done, until Avatar. It’s the only boring movie he’s ever made, pretty to look at, but a chore to watch. I can’t believe it, but the new Avatar is the only James Cameron film I will never see, I refuse to sit through another one of these movies.
Like everyone else saying they won’t see it, nobody believes you.
Dances with Wolves and Avatar. The former was WAY better than the idiotic latter
True – and Ferngully was better than either. I am dead serious (and also a fan of Robin Williams’ voicover work…).
Don’t forget to add Smurfs. Keep the tired, played out Avatar analogy trifecta intact.
It’s been too long since I’ve seen Ferngully, so I can’t confidently disagree but I’m skeptical.
I like Terminator the best too. The music in that movie is underrated. It sets the dark tone off right from the start.
The first Terminator has a very special place in my heart, but Aliens is the better movie. It’s not even close.
Ok, boomer.
I’m a millennial.
So we’re just doing months of bashing Avatar 2 and now it’s James Cameron week at the AV club. Whatever.
That’s what happens sometimes when you actually read the book whose cover you’ve spent a long time judging. Welcome to Earth, kid.
The AVClub, deliberately pitching stories meant to get people riled up? I’m shocked, shocked I say.
The narrative of people praising this film because its counter programming to the MCU (lots of people butt hurt about phase four over here at the AV club) but why are we pretending this thing is James Cameron’s best work. This film that we collectively started randomly praising five days before anyone has seen it. It’s so eye rolling. Next were gonna nominate Jame Cameron for best actor cuz that makes about as much sense as all of this.
I’m sorry why wasn’t Infinity War or Endgame nominated for Best Picture if this shit is nominated for Best Picture?
It lowers the prestige of the Best Picture when we just nominate shit willy nilly. We werent acknowledging films of this nature for a reason. The success of this movie just means were validating Snyder Cut bros. People are actually flocking to this film in spite of the MCU’s performance this year. Celebrating this film is by nominating it for awards really sucks. It didnt make much sense when people were arguing that more mature films arent getting made cuz theres so many MCU films but like what does have an effect on those films getting made is when we nominate glossy shit like Avatar 2 for best picture. That creates a landscape in peoples mind that there’s only one kind of film and that Marvel films are “gay”. I’m not saying nominate Endgame I’m saying lets take awards shows seriously cuz film is something I love and I dont enjoy watching it die like this.
Like why are we nominating Tom Cruise for Best Actor!?! Cuz he starred in an action film you liked this year? That is not what that award represents. But we’re just not doing awards properly anymore so who cares. These are the same people who think directs create films frame by frame when really they just position the shot.
I’m sorry Tom Cruise played himself very well in Top Gun Maverick but like….. he played him fucking self. Why is that Best Actor material? Christ people are stupid.
He portrayed the public persona of Tom Cruise well, yes. But I don’t think that’s really Tom Cruise. I think the real Tom Cruise is closer to the one we saw jumping on the sofa and ranting in his infamous Oprah interview. I think that means playing the “Tom Cruise” character is quite a feat.
That is not what that award representsI figured that out when John Wayne in True Grit beat out Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy. The award is more about the career than any given performance.
John Wayne in True Grit beat out Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy
Well…. I always found Hoffman’s performance as Rizzo to be pretentious – “look, extra gritty!”. [To be fair I find much of Hoffman’s work to be pretentious.] Whereas Wayne noticed that the character of Rooster Cogburn might as well be Falstaff, and he ran with it.
Honestly, any conversation about The Oscars that implies the award can’t be given to an unworthy movie or that politics/money don’t influence the nominations/wins seems rather willfully obtuse.
There’s also the boring populist argument: “well a ton of people saw it so it deserves an award! The audience has spoken!” Those movies already have an award! The award is called: it made a bazillion dollars and everyone who invested in it is that much richer! They don’t need a trophy on top of their money pile. A ton of people eat Taco Bell as well, that doesn’t mean it deserves a Michelin star.
Have you seen it? I was pretty lukewarm but now probably will just because I’m curious if it lives up to the hype. I know this isn’t the Dowd review, but an A is pretty intriguing relative to what I expected.
Are these more of your dad’s opinions?
1) you’re wilding out over nominations that haven’t been made yet.2) the “prestige” of Best Picture?? Have you seen Crash, Green Book, or The Artist?3) while I’m sure many people seeing Avatar this weekend are doing it to spite you specifically, at least a few just want to watch a movie.
Hey, it’s this guy again! Did your dad say it was ok to watch the movie yet?
Credibility is automatically rendered null by use of the term “butthurt”.
Dude, I disliked the first Avatar film, and I have no intention of seeing this one or the forthcoming sequels. Having said that, you’re coming off like a total fucking lunatic in the comments here the past few days…
at this point I’m seeing Way of Water next week specifically to spite him.
Because the MCU movies aren’t as good. And it’s “we’re” not “were” you dumbass.
On no planet is Avatar a better movie than True Lies, which is about the best blend of action, comedy and romance you’ll ever find. But otherwise…I’m not sure what you could move on this list other than Way of Water, which I have not seen but is getting solid reviews. Let’s face it, this guy’s filmography is pretty much unassailable.
I mean, I’m not sure I agree about the Romance. Arnold stalks, kidnaps, interrogates, and humiliates his wife.
True, but he also realizes he fucked up once she goes nuts in the interrogation room and it becomes evident she wasn’t cheating. He tries to bring her into his life the only way he knows, but she brains him with a phone and they get snatched before we see how that plays out. Then it turns out she’s a badass. It’s still light years more entertaining than Avatar.
It didn’t age all that well with the choice of villain and the misogyny, but I agree with you. It rocked. And I still say Cameron got the best acting you’ll ever experience out of Ahnold. And damn if it wasn’t another stellar Cameron/Paxton pairing.
He made Tom Arnold funny and endearing. Respect.
So only WASPy white guys can be villains now? There’s plenty of them to go around as well. I also wouldn’t go as far as to call it misogyny. Sexism would be more accurate. The most pathetic character in the movie, Simon is male and I’d say he is justly humiliated for his sexism.
I was about to say… It’s been a while since I last saw True Lies but that movie is pretty great. I don’t know by what criteria Avatar could possibly be better. I mean I guess in use of technology? But in story and acting and all the stuff that matters, it’s not even close.
Avatar is a great movie the way The Birth of a Nation or Triumph of the Will are, to pick the most incendiary examples possible. It made a significant contribution to how a certain kind of movie is made, but anyone who watches it a lot has instantly suspect taste.
That’s a pretty fucked up comparison. No matter what your thoughts are on Avatar, it’s got nothing in common with those two pieces of evil.
Yeah, I noted that. The point is that a film can make formal contributions to the medium without being a good film in the traditional sense, not that the content of Avatar and racist propaganda are literally the same. On the ethical level, there is no comparison, which seemed too obvious to be worth mentioning. But it is 2022, I guess.
Invoking Godwin’s Law in a discussion of Avatar. I’m down for it.
Man, The Abyss was one of those movies my family watched over and over again when I was a kid. I had no idea Cameron was such a dick while filming it.
Not a bad list by any means. I would have The Abyss a little higher, but Aliens at #1 is gutsy and RIGHT. So easy to go with Terminator 2 (also a wonderful film) in that spot.
I think that the genius of Titanic gets overlooked: It’s really 2 different movies in one. It starts with a basic star-crossed lovers story, and about 2/3’s of the way through that film it becomes a mostly self-contained action film. Then once the action film resolves, it returns to conclude the tragic love story. I think that it represents the beginning of the 4 quadrant concept in movie making. Other directors tried the 2 film concepts (e.g. Pearl Harbor), but few pulled it off.
It’s a spectacular film which I continue to love to this day. It’s genuinely incredible.
Agreed. I’ll never forget the first (of many) times I saw Titanic in the theater- there’s the love story, the mixing of classes and whatnot… then they fade to a shot of the ship sailing into the night, and I was like, OH SHIT, I forgot this sumbitch is going to sink!!!
I’ve long maintained that Terminator 2 is better than the original in every way. A few months back I watched both back to back with someone who’d seen neither, and we both definitely felt Terminator 1 was so amazingly taut and straightforward.
While T2 is definitely the better looking and more polished of the two I think one is the better movie. As you said it’s very straightforward and gritty that seems to make it more impactful. Plus when you really think about it every Terminator since the original is some what convoluted to some degree.
I’d definitely put T1, Aliens and perhaps even The Abyss ahead of T2 in his overall filmography. I just can’t get over how badly miscast Furlong was. Basically Poochie.
Funny thing is, I’d attribute T2’s strong cultural reputation to Furlong, despite his failings: the presence of a kid made the movie more palatable to market to and show kids as well as give kids a relatable cipher when watching, whereas T1 is strictly adult in its perspective and tone. I’d say a lot of people grew up on T2 so it gets more shine.
Yeah I agree with that. I normally cannot stand films which insert kids or teenagers into them to make it relatable for audiences but in Furlong’s case, I think it works.It’s not like he’s Scott Tracker and fucking TeeBob.
Yes, he was annoying, but I think that was the point. He was just a normal kid who was told by his mother (who had been in a mental institution, even if we know as the audience that she wasn’t crazy) that he was destined to be a great leader. I think Furlong portrayed how that would affect a kid well.
Over the years I have seen more & more people consider the original almost laughably inferior to T2. I’ve always stood up for it. The only thing lacking is the special effects. I’ve never once thought Ahnold’s Terminator providing comic relief and Edward Furlong’s smartass character were improvements on the saga. Hamilton’s badass Sarah C. was what made the sequel count for me.
Sarah Connor is 100% what puts T2 over the first if there was any debate. Although I agree John is pretty annoying, Linda Hamilton kills the fuck out of that movie start to finish.But also, the T-1000 is one of the best cinematic villains to this day. And for the 4 people who didn’t get the twist of T2 spoiled by the marketing, the “get down!” scene is incredible. I watched both with someone who’d never seen either, and that moment blew their mind.T2 is the better movie. No disrespect to the first, which is a tight, excellent horror film…but T2 is a serious high water mark. T2 and Aliens are rightfully top of this list.
I think Terminator 1 is just a masterpiece of low-budget filmmaking. Everything about the story is engineered so that Cameron can capture the audience’s imagination without showing too much on screen.He didn’t have the money to spend a lot of time in the future with a human-machine war, but his ~2 minute glimpse of the future puts every dollar he had on screen, and effortlessly creates an iconic setting that other directors haven’t been able to recreate with 30x the budget. Our mind fills in the blanks with the help of Michael Biehn’s performance.Why is most of the movie set in 1984? The machines thought it would be easier to kill John in the present. Why don’t they send back ray guns? Only organic material can pass through. But how does a Terminator go back? The cyborg parts are surrounded by living tissue. The exposition masterfully explains away every limitation of the budget and allows Cameron to get away with a couple minutes of stop-motion animation when we finally need to see the endoskeleton.By comparison, with Terminator 2 he didn’t have these same limitations. He’s able to cleverly invert the premise but otherwise just go bigger on everything he wanted to include in the first movie, but couldn’t afford. It’s a great film, one of the best sequels of all time. But also a less impressive accomplishment, in a way, because he has the ability to throw dollars at the screen. And it also arrives at something of a story dead-end that every later installment has been unable to overcome.
The only people that should think of the “dead-end” that T2 brings the story to as a bad thing are studio executives who call their films IP and franchises instead of “movies”
T2 is so much bigger, but I watched the first last year and was absolutely riveted.
My only complaint about T1 is that Arnie is so packed full of body building steroids, his whole face looks like he’s done three rounds with Mike Tyson
I’m glad you’ve seen the error of your ways!
The original TERMINATOR is a phenomenal movie. Perfectly paced. Not an ounce of fat on it. Sublimely cast. The two single, tiny parts of it that (for me) stop it from being James Cameron’s greatest movie (and I always feel harsh thinking this) are the fake Arnold head and the stop-motion animation. Certain moments that just break my complete and utter immersion in the film. I still love it. It’s still one of the greatest movies of all time.Aliens and T2 are both absolutely fucking timeless though. Aliens especially still blows my mind as a special effects masterpiece, completely delivering astonishing set pieces and world building using all the tools that were available to them at the time.
I’m sorry but WOOOOOOOOOF
The Terminator movies are listed in the wrong order.
Nope.
When Titanic is halfway up the list it really hits home just how much quality there is in his portfolio.
For real. Cameron has one of the most incredible resumes in Hollywood. Just astonishingly impressive. Something also incredible underrated about him – his films have such incredible narrative momentum which keep you gripped to the screen. So many directors fall into the trap of having slow films which don’t really go anywhere particularly.
The Abyss routinely makes lists of the top 100 sci-fi movies of all time. Maybe in the bottom half, but I dare say it appears more often than it doesn’t. I’d argue that it’s at least two spots too low here, but the fact that he’s got at least four movies that are solidly ranked higher than it is telling.
My rankings of his movies that I’ve seen:1. Aliens2. Terminator 23. The Abyss4. The Terminator5. True Lies6. Titanic7. Avatar
Avatar 2 over Titanic is cracked
I would prefer The Terminator to top Aliens at the number one spot tbh
Hicks and his endless one-liners . . .Hudson, sir. He’s Hicks.
Almost. Terminator is better than Terminator 2. People don’t remember that as great as T2 is, there are definitely some clunky bits. Terminator is basically a perfect action movie, I’m not sure if I can think of a single second of that movie that could be cut out. It is a efficient relentless entertainment delivery device.
I feel like I’m living on a different planet than people who praise the original avatar (much like the revisionist takes on the star wars prequels). like the assessment just seems factually wrong (though obviously everything is subjective. Even people who didn’t like it will praise the visuals and like… it looks like a PS4 cutscene. It’s gaudy and ugly and everything on pandora looks smooth and plasticky and moves with that janky mocap weirdness (like you can tell what parts of the body were tracked and what was filled in as best they could… stilted and unnatural). When it cuts to a scene of all/mostly real people it’s jarring. Pandora may as well be claymation for as well as the two halves gel. It’s like if a real person showed up in a Pixar movie. As far as praise for the story or characters go, I’m at a loss. There’s just not much there. If the cast of Abyss is going to be criticized for not living up to the ensemble of Aliens…. are we just not holding Avatar to that standard at all? This review in particular falls into the adolescent trap of excusing problems with the plot by way of treating elements of the plot as if they were indelible or real like “oh, he’s not really a white savior, didn’t you see that the god of pandora chose him?” Like, they’re all James Cameron. There is no god of pandora. The plot doesn’t excuse the plot. Anyways, sorry, everyone can like what they like it’s just such a weird divide.
Avatar and it’s sequel are both stunningly boring.The original now looks exactly as you said; a video game cutscene. And is full of directional choices that make it obvious that what we’re watching is made on a computer. I don’t actually have a huge problem with that, but…It’s like I said; it’s boring. It’s a fucking snore-fest. There’s not a single memorable character or moment or piece of dialogue. It’s dull. I rewatched it before seeing the new one and couldn’t believe how much of it I would’ve never, ever remembered.The Way of Water (is that what’s it’s called? Genuinely, I feel like I may have already forgotten it’s title) is full of phenomenal CGI work. Some beautiful imagery. It’s just so, so dull. Just, completely and utterly… flat. And up it’s own arse. My. Fucking. God, would I love to see James Cameron get behind an actual camera and do this thing.
Sounds as though you only watched it on tv, which was NOT the medium for it.
Yeah, sure…. I guess. It’s a 65″ 4K TV with a good stereo sound system with subwoofer. It’s decent enough at recreating the theatrical experience for plenty of other movies. I’m not sure how Avatar would look better blown up bigger… I would assume it’s flaws would be more obvious but I guess I have no way to know. The one thing that does stand out watching it in this format is how much of it is obviously shot for 3D. It seems like it was kind of a gimmick movie (the only “good” 3D movie), and in that sense I’m not meeting it on it’s own terms, but also who gives a shit? Plenty of great looking, classic, incredible movies are watchable on a variety of screens. I don’t think Avatar is that special.
I don’t think True Lies gets enough credit for pulling off the impossible feat of making Tom Arnold funny.
I know Alien isn’t Cameron’s, but do people generally agree that Aliens is better than Alien? I think Alien is pretty much a perfect movie but Aliens is kind of boring in comparison.
No one will agree with my list. That’s why it’s my list.1. Titanic 2. Aliens3. T2 (would be #2 but the last third bores me in rewatches)4. True Lies5. Terminator6. Avatar7. Abyss8. P2
The Abyss is possibly my favourite Cameron film, not just because it’s a technical marvel, but also because there are two different versions – very different versions – that more or less end the same way. The version everyone knows has the very-eighties-neon aliens pop up from the depths, carrying the rig to safety, hey presto. But the other version – and this is the version I prefer – has the aliens pop up after a pretty spectacular and terrifying show of their force: creating massive waves that tower along every coastline in the world along with a very clear message – grow the fuck up and stop fighting with each other. It also has one of the most harrowing scenes I’ve seen in science fiction (even the xenomorph onslaught in Aliens doesn’t compare, at least, for me). I couldn’t find the entire sequence in one video, but it’s fucking spectacularly horrifying. The idea of intentionally letting a loved one drown in the hope that hopefully you can revive them? I’ve never seen a film with a scene like this since. Harris and Mastrantonio were stellar in this sequence. Absolutely stellar.
And I’ll throw this in as well.It looks clunky from modern CGI spectacles now, sure. But this was in 1989. The glories of Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 were still some years away and no one – and I mean no one – had ever seen anything like this achieved before. It’s remarkable-looking for a thirty-three year-old film.
the version I prefer – has the aliens pop up after a pretty spectacular and terrifying show of their force: creating massive waves that tower along every coastline in the world along with a very clear message – grow the fuck up and stop fighting with each other.
Of course that’s basically the whole plot of the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still — be peaceful or we’ll kill you. Which I’ve always found to be absurdly hypocritical, personally.
Yet, we shot a lot of Nazis, and it was the right choice.
Depending on who “we” were, Hitler’s forces either were attacking “our” country or had at least declared war on it (And in the case of the US it’s worth remembering that despite the later depiction of WWII as a voluntary crusade against the evil of the Nazis, Hitler declared war on the US on 11 December 1941, not the other way around). In any case, that’s a bit different than going to another planet and telling them you’ll kill them if they don’t stop fighting among themselves.
Please come to my holiday party.
I don’t think either version makes it explicit, but the longer cut makes it look a lot more likely that the aliens picked a fight with that sub to see what we’d do.
The aliens motivations are a bit clearer at the end of this: they’re not flexing their technological muscles, but they are taking on an elder sibling role as far as humanity is concerned. To be quite honest, I’ve always liked that idea in science fiction – that humanity needs a bitchslap and then for an older, wiser civilisation to order us to grow the fuck up. Sometimes gentle persuasion isn’t enough.
Eh, you don’t introduce yourself with tidal waves looming over every populated coast to play elder sibling; they’re letting us know we’ve just met the real rulers of this planet, who have been watching us for some time, are sick of our shit and can crush us like bugs at any time. And I don’t buy that the real rulers of this planet who’ve been watching us all this time are so clueless about our technology and bodies that they just accidentally happened to sink a submarine and kill everyone aboard by looking at it; they wanted to find out what we’d do about it, and despite some conflict we do okay. The future in the Abyss-verse feels different in the two versions; in the theatrical version, the aliens have a plausible derpiness about sinking that sub and ultimately decided to reveal themselves and, in a small way, help out while not really demanding anything of the human species which could still believably put up a fight against them if that was how it was going to go. We’ve met new neighbours, and they seem basically nice. Maybe we’ll get along, maybe we’ll get our shit together, who knows?
In the longer cut, we’ve met the new boss, with an unequivocal alien victory where humanity as a militarized enemy could be shut down with a mere show of force, instead of actually doing a little bug-crushing to get the point across. That, to me, looks like a more prescribed future, and one in which the older, wiser civilization will sooner or later be seen as monsters by all of us.
I’m psyched because in the press tour for Avatar, Cameron said we should finally see a 4K Abyss no later than March 2023.
prolly would have swapped 1 and 2
At first I was like, “where’s Big Trouble in Little China”?So, TIL: James Cameron and John Carpenter are actually two different people.
I wish AVClub would stop gaslighting almost every single person who has seen Avatar. IT IS SHIT.
Re: The Abyss:“The resulting film was a technical marvel, but not an emotional one.”What emotions were you looking for in a deep sea thriller, precisely?
Aliens is damn near perfect. Thank god that Jennifer Lawrence paved the way for that performance.
abyss way too low on this list. especially considering that key scene at the end nearly explains everything the viewer wants to know after viewing.my rank:T2Aliens AbyssT1TitanicTrue LiesAvatarPirahnaAvatar 2 cause i havent seen it and probably wont
How about most quotable? I spew Aliens lines weekly like nobody’s business, decades on. Mostly from Hudson. T1 and T2 are tied for great lines. “Say . . . that’s a nice bike.”I’ll bat for T2 over T1. The characters are more complex. There is the added morality of how the child uses “a loaded gun” at his disposal. And the set pieces are still visually stunning. I can forgive Furlong’s rookie missteps.
Well, you got three of them right.
Since everyone else is throwing their thoughts out there, my 2 cents: I would flip T2 and Aliens (that’s a me thing though – I saw T2 growing up way more than Aliens), drop the Avatars to 7 and 8 and bump everything else up. Titanic would probably get bumped for True Lies, which occupies a weird gray area of “movie I liked a lot growing up and still quote and is in a lot of ways well done” and also “incredibly dated and problematic on a bunch of levels”.
The last half-hour of The Abyss, in my opinion, is easily some of the best stuff in any James Cameron film.The first Terminator would probably be my #1, but I sort of hate to say this: when you line these all up, is this really the greatest group of films? You have the first two Terminators and I guess Aliens, and I think some of Titanic really works. But after that: Having seen the second Avatar film a few hours ago, I don’t know that I’d declare anything in here an indisputable masterpiece. Maybe he should have directed someone else’s script.
As someone who likes Alien more than Aliens, it obviously won’t be the top spot for me. For a Cameron list, I’d go with a Cameron original. Something that was more of a passion project than a gig. It’s down to T2 and Titanic. Both for cultural relevance, and both for their craftmanship. And I’d argue both movies might be the best ever made in their respective genres.
I’ve always preferred T1 over T2. T2 is pretty great, but it doesn’t have slashery thrills, and it does have the Terminator being taught the meaning of crying.
Hard to argue with this list (hard to screw up too bad when you’re dealing with only 9 entries!) But everyone can agree, the original “Terminator” is superior to T2. T2 is basically just a higher-budgeted remake of the original.
Came here to bitch about the low ranking of The Abyss. Was heartened to read the similar replies.
Hard to move around much when there are only nine films to choose from, but The Abyss should certainly be higher, especially if we consider the extended cut canon. Its characters are clearly drawn, and the set pieces are incredible. Plus, it was probably the most difficult movie ever made at the time. You can find a making-of documentary on YouTube, and it’s plain to see why so many actors won’t work with Cameron again (other than his muse, Michael Biehn).