Late to the party as ever, I decided to tie this Top Ten in with the recent release of the first Avatar teaser and the hype and debate that has ignited off the back of it.

The revolutionary Avatar, whether instant classic or expensive mistake, will be warmly welcomed into public consciousness by yours truly as it will mark the return to the big screen after a twelve year absence of one of my favourite writers and directors of all time: Mr. James Cameron.

Cameron has long been a cinematic visionary and has helped shape modern cinema as we know it, yet he doesn’t always get the credit and/or recognition he deserves.

So with Avatar right around the corner, here are ten reasons why we should all be very excited about the return of James Cameron, as we count down the Top Ten Works of James Cameron.

#10
Rambo: First Blood Part II
(1985)
Writer

Granted, to make this into a Top Ten I’ve had to include some tenuous Cameron movie involvements, but I couldn’t very well include Piranha II: The Spawning could I? (As much as I would have liked to).

So, sort of a cheat including this here, as Stallone basically ate Cameron’s script for Rambo: First Blood Part II and shat out his own vision of John Rambo’s second big screen jaunt.

In the early part of the eighties, Cameron was a very busy man working on his own idea for The Terminator and penning sequels to two hit movies – Alien and Rambo. While he would get to see Aliens through to the end, he would give up the Rambo script that was then cannibalised by Stallone.

The undisputed King of the Sequel, could Cameron have given Rambo that redefining new lease of life as he did with Aliens and T2…?

I guess we’ll never know, but I dare say a Cameron production of Rambo would have been more warmly received by critics than Stallone’s generic retread.

#9
Solaris
(2002)
Producer

In Cameron’s most recent big screen credit, he acted as producer for Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 Clooney-starring Solaris.

Based on the Stanislaw Lem novel of the same name, and essentially a remake of the 1972 Andrei Tarkovsky Soviet film, again, of the same name; the western remake of Solaris didn’t really set the box office alight.

In fact if anything, the film’s billing as some sort of intergalactic love story probably suckered a number of people who ordinarily would have never paid to see a space set psychological drama, and it seemed to leave audiences cold when they actually saw the movie.

That said, you can see why Cameron got involved in this, the claustrophobia echoes that of The Abyss, and Clooney gives a pretty meaty performance alongside a pre-Doubt hype Viola Davis and weirdy beardy Jeremy Davies.

#8
Strange Days
(1995)
Writer/Producer

In 1995 Cameron co-wrote and produced this very underrated slice of Millennium paranoia sci-fi while his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow directed.

All the Cameron staples are here: technophobia, strong female characters and a vision of the future startling realised on the big screen. Bigelow does a great job in the director’s chair and Strange Days is criminally overlooked when her back catalogue is discussed; it belongs right up there alongside cult classics like Near Dark, Point Break and the magnificent The Hurt Locker.

Ralph Fiennes is at his best as lead character Lenny Nero and the rather eclectic cast all give great performances.

It is not just Bigelow’s back catalogue that Strange Days is overlooked in, it barely gets a mention when people discuss Cameron’s work and while it may not be on a par with the likes of The Terminator and Aliens in terms of notoriety, Strange Days definitely holds its own as a more dark contemporary to Cameron’s other sci-fi epics.

#7
Point Break
(1991)
Executive Producer

The previously mentioned Point Break rides in at number seven on the list – Cameron acted as Executive Producer for his then wife Kathryn Bigelow’s adrenaline soaked surfing action thriller.

Point Break is unashamedly dumb, silly and over the top yet it has developed a huge cult following in the almost two decades since its release. Cameron’s involvement may not have been too major and Point Break definitely doesn’t fit the Cameron template, but as one of the definitive nineties action movies it deserves a spot on this list.

Although there is much to mock in Point Break, there is also a great deal to savour; Swayze gives one of his finest performances as zen-like surf guru Bodhi, The Ex-Presidents is one of the greatest bank robbing gimmicks of all time and it has a bonkers action sequence with a parachute-less Reeves diving from a plane.

Reeves might not have the best acting range but he is actually perfectly cast here as the not too bright Johnny Utah, hell, even Gary Busey is bearable here; something just clicks with Point Break and it will no doubt continue to enjoy its cult status for many a year to come.

#6
The Abyss
(1989)
Writer/Director

The first signs of Cameron’s deep sea obsession (well providing you don’t count the gratuitous nudity during the sunken wreck exploration that ends in a nasty mauling at the start of Piranha II) The Abyss is for the most part a quite tense, claustrophobic, underwater thriller… Until they go and ruin it with one of cinema’s worst endings ever.

Ignoring the inexplicable, horrible, cop-out ending though, this is trademark Cameron – you can bank on a number of things with a Cameron movie: Water, aliens, technophobia and Michael Biehn – The Abyss features all of the above.

Biehn arguably gives the performance of his career as the ill-fated Lieutenant Coffey who slowly and spectacularly loses it due to the high pressures experienced so deep underwater. He may be better known for his Terminator and Aliens roles, but this the performance that proves that Biehn should have become a bigger star. Elsewhere, Ed Harris is great and carries a big chunk of the film as its leading man, but as is often the case with Cameron movies, the actors aren’t the only stars.

The CGI techniques used in The Abyss were revolutionary at the time, just like Avatar today, and Cameron went onto to put these effects to even better use two years later in T2 with Robert Patrick’s shape-shifting T-1000.

Contact may have subsequently stolen its crown for worst movie ending of all time, but if you just look past the sour taste you’re left with, for nigh on three hours of the Director’s Cut this is fantastic film-making and the Cameron directorial effort that is always overlooked.

#5
True Lies
(1994)
Writer/Director/Producer

I covered True Lies a little in my recent Top Ten Brilliantly Awful Arnie One Liners and it’s safe to say that it belonged as high as it placed on that list; compared to Cameron’s other films it doesn’t have quite the same epic feel but it is still a very fun action romp.

True Lies has a nice little cast (and Tom Arnold) and Cameron stalwarts Bill Paxton and the big man himself Mr. Schwarzenegger both make their third appearances in Cameron films. The role of Harry Tasker was perfect fodder for mid-nineties Arnie, as he shot and wise-cracked his way through an army of overtly racist, stereotypical middle-eastern terrorists.

The action sequences have that bold Cameron vibe to them and we also have the standard transformation of a vulnerable female character into an empowered bad-ass as Tasker’s doting wife Jamie Lee Curtis slowly fathoms out just what it is her husband does for a living, though not on a par with Ripley and Sarah Connor, Helen Tasker is still a great character in the Cameron mould.

All in all a lot less serious than most of Cameron’s other work, but no less enjoyable and while not as notorious as the rest of his directorial work it is more than worthy of sharing a list with some of the classics found here.

#4
Titanic
(1997)
Writer/Director/Producer

Usually when something or someone is described as being “like Marmite” it usually means that either IT is a pile of shit or THEY are a complete and utter cunt.

The multi-award winning Titanic really is the Marmite of films though – no one just thinks its okay. It is either adored, right down to its festering Celine Dion songs, by romance-loving fiends or it is loathed and dismissed as gushing (forgive the pun) sentimental fluff. Either way it is impossible to deny that this is epic film-making of the highest order.

As an unashamed Northerner, I doth my (flat) cap to James Cameron for following a passion of his and realising it in such glorious grandioso style.

The first hour and a half of the three-hour long blockbuster is usually where the naysayers draw their complaints from and for the most part a lot of it is saccharine foreshadowing, but from that moment the “unsinkable” vessel hits that iceberg this is a disaster movie on such a grand scale it makes The Poseidon Adventure look like an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba.

Rightly or wrongly, Titanic bogarted almost every Oscar Statue that year and that cannot be overlooked, Cameron’s passion project is a momentous cinematic experience and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is not only ‘King of the sequel’ but also ‘King of the blockbuster’.

#3
The Terminator
(1984)
Writer/Director

Urban legend has it that Cameron came up with the idea for The Terminator while suffering from a fevered dream on the set of Piranha II: The Spawning. Piranha II may have been enough to give anyone nightmares, but Cameron’s dream led to him creating one of cinema’s most iconic figures as well as one of the finest sci-fi actioners of all time.

Much like Cameron’s redefining of Ridley Scott’s original Alien, it is hard to compare The Terminator and its sequel. Cameron had more money than anyone could dream of to throw at the enormous T2; but producing this seminal masterpiece on a relative shoe-string budget (at least by Cameron standards) really is a great achievement.

The Terminator, both the film and the character, set off at an unstoppable pace and doesn’t let up until the cyborg is terminated itself. The film that made Cameron is bold, energetic and in spite of not having the unparalleled CGI that Cameron would later find at his disposal, the effects still stand up today (ignoring one very clunky moment near the end).

The Terminator is undoubtedly one of cinema’s all time greats, its legacy is testament to that – there have been a number of sequels, a TV show, computer games and countless references to the film peppered throughout popular culture.

All the sequels (and the TV show) expanded on the mythology of The Terminator universe that Cameron created and although most of the subsequent incarnations of Cameron’s vision were vastly inferior, one didn’t just become an exception to the rule, it took a minigun to the rule (but only wounded it)…

#2
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
(1991)
Writer/Director/Producer

As the film studies class in Scream 2 (ironically a sequel) will tell you, or would have told you if half of them hadn’t ended up dead: sequels suck; yet somehow James Cameron has not once, but twice made sequels that not only do justice to the original but actually surpass them (and yes, before anyone quotes that scene from Scream 2, I most definitely do have “a hard-on for Cameron.”)

When you look at what Cameron achieved on a comparatively small budget with the first film, it was a no-brainer that he would multiply everything by ten for the sequel. Terminator 2: Judgement Day doesn’t just have greater action sequences, it has more heart, more character development and is all round just a more polished film.

T2 features two of the greatest cinematic role reversals of all time: first we have Arnold Schwarzenegger going from being one of the most brutal and fearsome screen villains in history to becoming one of modern film’s greatest heroes. Then we have Sarah Connor evolving from frightened damsel in distress in the first film to a hard-as-nails soldier with bigger balls than most action heroes in T2. Linda Hamilton gives a performance in T2 that she could never have expected to emulate and it will undoubtedly be the defining role of her career.

To put it simply – T2 has it all; over the top, insane action sequences, pioneering special effects, infamous lines (”Hasta la vista, baby”), sub zero coolness (the one handed shotgun reload) and a thumping Guns N’ Roses lead single. If we were discussing any other director, T2 would have to feel pretty aggrieved to not have made the number one spot, but this is James Cameron we’re talking about…

#1
Aliens
(1986)
Writer/Director

While T2 was an achievement in the fact that Cameron bettered his own iconic film, Aliens is an even greater achievement in that he bettered someone else’s film and not some hack director, but the great Sir Ridley Scott.

How do you even begin to tackle the task of making a sequel to one of the most intense, claustrophobic, critically acclaimed sci-fi films of all time…?

Well if you’re James Cameron you simply add an ‘s’ to the title.

While so many sequels think that just making everything bigger will justify people reinvesting their time and money in them, Cameron actually made this a viable theory. Rather than try and capture the dark, atmospheric horror of Scott’s classic, Cameron effectively took the Alien franchise and made a war movie in space.

Cameron reportedly drew inspiration for Aliens from the Vietnam War and if you consider the Marines as the American soldiers out of their comfort zone in an unknown hostile land and the Xenomorphs as the Viet-Cong, lacking in the artillery of their adversaries but using their knowledge of the terrain and the element of surprise to their chilling advantage, then it is easy to see this influence at work.

Sigourney Weaver was initially reluctant to reprise her role as Ripley, but eventually gained an Oscar nomination for her return to her most famous role, Ripley’s transformation to bad-ass in Aliens has to have been the template for Sarah Connor in T2.

Rumours suggest that the making of Aliens was far from a cake walk with production problems and on-set fighting both supposedly rearing their ugly heads – James Remar, in one of the worst career moves since Tom Selleck turned down Indiana Jones, left his role as Corporal Hicks one week into filming due to that old chestnut “creative differences” to be replaced by Michael Biehn who, once again, gives a fine performance for Cameron.

Yet in spite of these reported issues, Aliens was and still remains a triumph – the measuring stick by which all future sci-fi action/adventure films should and will be measured. In a storied career encompassing some of cinema’s most memorable movies, characters and moments, Aliens stands out as the greatest piece of work by the visionary James Cameron.

What do you think…?

Do you agree with my choices or should I be targeted for termination for compiling this list…!?