MovieChat Forums > James Cameron Discussion > What is his appeal???

What is his appeal???

posted 6 days ago by MyPhoneAccount (16)
23 replies | jump to latest

He is really good at shooting and choreographing action scenes but otherwise I don’t get why moviegoers, especially the more nerdy nostalgia ones, hail him as possibly one of the greatest directors of all time and why his films have made billions of dollars? He’s really bad at screenwriting and every one of his scripts is laden with one-note characters and awful dialogue that feels penned by a 13-year old boy. Like he tries so hard to shoehorn in classic lines, like the awful “hasta la vista, baby” which literally grinds the film to a halt, and it’s so forced that you can practically see the “trademarked” logo at the end of the sentence…but audiences end up loving it! How??? True Lies is his best movie because it’s the only film JC made that feels intentionally stupid and campy, while the rest are accidentally so. But most seem to think True Lies is amongst his worst movies??? I don’t get it. Nearly all of his movies have fatal flaws that nobody else would get away with. Like fans adore T2, an insanely stupid movie, while T3, also insanely stupid, has the same fans pretending it doesn’t exist. Tell me the difference in stupidity between the “talk to da hand” scene and the smiling scene?

[–] AsBelowSoAbove (267) 6 days ago

Terminator, Aliens, and Abyss are classics. Abyss kind of ruined him IMO because as successful as he wanted it to be. Ed Harris as the lead killed the film IMO. Anyways Abyss took a lot out of Cameron and was basically rejected. He resorted to becoming more commercial and lost that edginess as a filmmaker. His films made more money and Cameron decided to direct his passion towards ocean exploration and use his work in film to fund that.

Many people grew up on his films so for now he has a fan base that spreads across genres. As a true filmmaker he will be remembered for his big three though IMO. Terminator, Aliens, and Abyss. His other films are good but not great. Titanic is more about him just showing off. Abyss still pretty underrated BTW but people are slowly discovering how good it is. It was really Cameron's last adult oriented film. Since then its been kids and teenager oriented stuff.

[–] pjl69 (2539) 6 days ago

I don't get his appeal either. His last good and the most interesting movie was The Abyss (extended cut). The first Terminator was also excellent. Aliens has always been overrated, but its still better than his post-Abyss movies. T2 has aged terribly. True Lies showed how mediocre he is when he doesn't have robots and futuristic set designs to play with. Titanic was nothing more than a teenage fantasy which used a real life tragedy as a backdrop.

[–] Satan2016 (23968) 6 days ago

I always say “hasta la vista, baby” as I'm leaving Taco Bell.

[–] almonigal (1224) 6 days ago

I always say : do you hasta this vista, baby?
whenever i am naked and with a girl

[–] Kendricks (2181) 5 days ago

So, never? :D

[–] DarthAckbar (1272) 6 days ago

with all of his success, he is probably the GOAT

[–] almonigal (1224) 6 days ago

He’s really bad at screenwriting
Like fans adore T2, an insanely stupid movie

hm...

[–] e3e34ifj (1502) 6 days ago

Those aren't incorrect statements though?

[–] almonigal (1224) 6 days ago

Tell me one action movie you know of that is better paced than T2 and has better story structure than T2

[–] e3e34ifj (1502) 5 days ago

Just one? In fact the pacing of T2 is one of its biggest flaws. Way too long, cut out the Miles Dyson bullshit. The desert scenes and Sarah Connor trying to assassinate Dyson bring the film to a halt. A better script would've removed them entirely or merged them with more flowing elements of the story. The T-1000 is absent from the film for nearly 40 minutes. What was he up to?

[–] almonigal (1224) 5 days ago

You did not name even one

[–] e3e34ifj (1502) 4 days ago

Predator
The French Connection
Oldboy
Die Hard
Die Hard With A Vengeance
Hard Boiled
Face/Off
Escape From New York
They Live
Godzilla Minus One
Bullet in the Head
Nobody
Edge of Tomorrow
Speed
John Wick 1-3
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
Tremors
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back

[–] almonigal (1224) 4 days ago

Nice response. You have many valid points in your list

From your list:
Tremors- i agree. Has a better pacing and better plot structure.
Edge of tomorrow - also agree.
Die hard 1 and 3 - also agree
Predator- agree.
Escape from ny -agree

Godzilla minus one- strongly disagree
John wick - disagree

[–] Stratego (29537) 5 days ago

👏

[–] Nanook (1601) 5 days ago

As a teen-young man, I enjoyed his major theatrical directorial releases from The Terminator through True Lies. That's about it.

Considering he is now, iirc, (at least one of) the world's foremost expert(s) on deep sea exploration, or at least holds records for most Titanic visits, not to mention the Mariana Trench, that is where my respect for the man lies these days.

Fell asleep multiple times during both Avatars, [oh yeah, and Titanic].

[–] Tam87 (289) 5 days ago

His films have well written characters and storylines, giving them a solid emotional core and people who are likeable and relatable.

Most importantly, he knows good actors. He unearthed special talents like Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Lance Henrikson, Robert Patrick and especially Bill Paxton, and launched their careers. He cast the great Ed Harris in The Abyss who gave an oscar caliber performance. It was his decision to cast Arnold as the Terminator and make him the star when Arnold wanted to play the Kyle Reese part. The actors he cast are make his films work so well, imo.

His weakest films are Titanic and Avatar, but that's because he went against his strengths and cast weaker lead actors and wrote more basic scripts, but films prior to those were all fantastic.