Whilst talking about Avatar last night (over pizza , how geek), Dave posited the hypothesis that James Cameron cannot make a bad Science Fiction film, and all of his past SF films are brilliant.
Let’s take a look at them:
The Terminator – Great film. A bit dated now, especially the hair styles!
Aliens – Awesome film, as good now as when it was released.
The Abyss – Great film, although the ending was a bit rubbish. Still looks good.
Terminator 2 : Judgement Day – Good film. Awesome in its day but dated a lot.
I agree: James Cameron has not made a bad Science Fiction film. But I can’t help being sceptical about Avatar, all those years, all that 3D work. Can it really live up to the hype?
While "Aliens" is an entertaining film, I think it falls short of the original, a common problem for sequels.
Maybe, that's debatable. It's definately a different film which was the genius of it. It's also not a bad film, still fitting the hypothesis.
I dunno. Firstly, he hasn't made all that many films. Really only seven that have been released, and they're all fundamentally actioners, with the exception of "The Abyss," which I think we'll all agree didn't really work, and "Titanic" which kind of worked too well.
I think he's an extremely talented director who is on occasion willing to take chances with the formats of his movies - True Lies, for instance - but he doesn't seem to have a massive gift for introspective 'big question' SF. So: if Avatar is going to ask Blade Runner styled questions, probably it won't be so good. OTOH, if it's an SF shoot 'em up with a few neat ideas thrown in here and there, it'll probably be great.
Yeah, I think you're right that if it's action based it will be good.
I do quite like The Abyss though, apart from the way the ending was handled. So I'm hopeful he can throw in a bit more thoughtful SFness.
I do agree that The Abyss had a great look and feel to it, a more claustrophobic, dangerous version of the original Alien kinda', but yeah, the goofy ending - actually, both the goofy endings - undercut everything that came before.
But his films are always worth checking out on the big screen just for the sheer gee-gosh-wow of it.
Hmmm. Not sure Titanic is a classic by any means. Avatar I am looking forward too, but I agree that anything that is relying on 3d is a worrying prospect. The next wave of 3d fascination really is beyond me. I do not care about 3d, just make good films! (please).
PIRANHA II
Does "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" count as Science Fiction?