James Cameron and “Avatar” : The New Yorker
You only have to read the first couple of pages of this l-l-long profile of director James Cameron to get confirmation that he is, indeed, a complete jerk.
His new movie, Avatar, seems to me to run a risk of failing because it looks like the biggest CGI-fest ever, just at a time I suspect the public is getting sick of films where all of the background (and many characters) are obviously not real.
We'll see.
Look forward to reading it. Cameron may be a jerk, but he is also a brilliant filmmaker.
ReplyDeleteOh Tim. Hardly "brilliant" in my books.
ReplyDeleteI just think he's an exceptionally talented genre filmmaker, and he's able to really push and redefine the boundaries of the genre he's working in. The two Terminators, the second Alien, True Lies, and Titanic have all become iconic. And he seems to have mastered the trick of doing sequels too - it's often the second film in a series that gives filmmakers troubles.
ReplyDeleteAlso I far prefer Cameron's gritty, very dark version of SF to the glossy, caricatured heroism that Hollywood prefers - especially after the success of Star Wars. It's an incredibly significant achievement to have been able to consistently make films with this character in the commercial environment of Hollywood.
But maybe it does come down to personal preference. I almost said 'genius'... good thing I didn't!
My reviews of his films:
ReplyDeleteTerminator 1 - competent cheap science fiction.
Terminator 2 - disliked it quite a lot. No particularly likeable human characters; too gratuitously violent.
Alien 2: good. Probably his best movie.
True Lies: enjoyable enough, but with one very problematic scene regarding the cruel treatment of the wife.
The Abyss: too long, technically impressive, but again not terribly likeable characters, and a bit of a yawn eventually.
Titantic: attempts to make likeable characters by making them out of cardboard. I liked about 10 seconds of it (the death scene.)