James Cameron is a Hollywood force of nature. Working his way from low-budget special effects, action, and horror pictures, James Cameron soon established himself as one of the titans of the industry.
Since his first few successes, a James Cameron movie began to simply feel like a bigger deal than anything else. For Cameron, it’s about quality over quantity. Innovation over imitation. Here are the 10 films he has directed, ranked from worst to best.
10. Piranha II: The Spawning
You’d be forgiven for not realizing that this trashy early 80s monster movie was directed by one of the great living filmmakers. Technically, Piranha II is James Cameron’s first feature film, although he had very little control of the production. The movie is one of the dozens of Jaws ripoffs that came out in the wake of Spielberg’s landmark film, and it’s just as worthless as any of them; a strange blip on James Cameron’s career.
9. Aliens of the Deep
Cameron’s second IMAX 3D documentary documents a scientific expedition under the ocean to study the life that thrives in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. The documentary imagines if there could be life on the similarly inhospitable moon of Jupiter called Europa. The CGI recreations of a hypothetical expedition to Europa are the most interesting aspects of a film that mostly contains sights of shrimp and hydrothermal vents and rock formations.
8. Ghosts of the Abyss
Ghosts of the Abyss is a kind of supplement to Cameron’s Oscar-winning Titanic. For those, like Cameron himself, who have a fascination with the actual ship that sank into the Atlantic in 1912, Ghosts of the Abyss provides some background. This documentary chronicles Cameron and crew’s return to the Titanic shipwreck to discover more clues about its famous sinking. It does a good job of making sense of the wreck, digitally recreating certain parts of the ship and highlighting the state-of-the-art tools used to explore it.
7. The Terminator
Just a few years after the disastrous Piranha II, Cameron wrote and directed what he considers his “first” feature film. It became a smash hit. The Terminator is a rock solid science fiction slasher movie about a machine sent from the future to kill the mother of a human resistance leader. It was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first step into super-stardom, and an enterprising little low-budget action movie in its own right. That said, it is clunky and cheap, and not up to the level of spectacle that Cameron would achieve with later movies.
6. True Lies
What does it say about James Cameron’s genius that one of the greatest action movies ever made is only his sixth best film? True Lies is the quintessential 90s action movie. It features Arnold Schwarzenegger at the zenith of his career in a film stuffed with astounding special effects set pieces and plenty of humor. Yeah, it’s not a world-changer, but it is fun from top to bottom. For pure action extravaganza, nothing has ever topped True Lies.
5. Aliens
In 1986, James Cameron took the world of Ridley Scott’s Alien and pumped it full of steroids. Aliens, once again starring Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, is bigger, more action-packed, and more thrilling than the original space chiller. With the introduction of a new planet, space marines, and an expanded xenomorph hierarchy, complete with a terrifying Alien Queen, Aliens grew the series into a mega-blockbuster. Aliens was the first taste the world got of the James Cameron phenomenon. While relatively low-budget, and a little dated now, it exhibits glimpses of the bad-ass genius of prime Jim Cameron.
4. The Abyss
It wasn’t the biggest hit of his career, but the Abyss may be James Cameron’s most personal film. The story of a scientific voyage to the bottom of the ocean combines many of Cameron’s real life passions. Undersea exploration, the military, and the wondrous mysteries of the universe. The Abyss is also the first James Cameron movie to feel uniquely Cameron. What that means is that it feels big, original, and technologically innovative. The Abyss is Cameron’s first true “event” movie. It’s a powerfully exciting film that deserves more praise.
3. Avatar
Some love it, some hate it, some call it overrated, some call it underrated, but not many people truly appreciate the impact of James Cameron’s Avatar. The former highest grossing movie of all time, Avatar is a monumental science fiction epic. The story is similar to other epics (Dances With Wolves in particular), but Avatar is fresh because of its technical brilliance. The CGI, motion capture, and industry-defining 3D, all lead to one of the most immersive cinematic experiences ever. Avatar is the ultimate James Cameron movie, an action-packed, sci-fi romance with a gigantic sense of scope. Love it or not, Avatar is a major milestone in film history.
2. Titanic
It’s hard to dispute Titanic as anything other than James Cameron’s crowning achievement. The sweeping romance at sea was a major gamble. An enormous budget and production troubles plagued the film, but the stars aligned. The massive Hollywood epic was a breathtaking, magical blend of classic Hollywood and cutting edge technology. As a cultural phenomena, few movies have ever matched it. It won 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, and rocketed to the top of the box office, becoming the highest grossing movie ever and holding that title for twelve years.
1. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The only way to top Titanic is with a classic that is so purely Jim Cameron, it could not have possibly been made by anyone else. Terminator 2: Judgement Day illustrates every facet of Cameron’s unbelievable brilliance. Like he did with Aliens, Cameron takes a low-budget horror movie and finds a way to naturally expand it into a world-shifting movie event. T2 builds on The Terminator in every way; better action, a more impactful story, and much better special effects. It proves that Cameron only gets better the more money he has to play with. He is the greatest action director of all-time, and T2 is the greatest action movie ever made. It may not have won the awards Titanic did, but I'd wager that it is even more beloved. If you want to know why James Cameron is the Hollywood titan he is, look no further than Terminator 2. Hasta la vista, Baby!
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