Here's how James Cameron's films stack up against each other. Despite being one of the biggest names in Hollywood, James Cameron's style of making movies has a tendency to be polarizing, but it's impossible to deny his influence on the industry. With Avatar and Titanic, Cameron broke box office records, and was only toppled from the top spot by the collective might of the MCU. Cameron's fingerprints can be found all over the science-fiction and action genres, with the director responsible for some of the most groundbreaking offerings in cinematic history.
James Cameron has often found himself at the forefront of technological advancement in filmmaking. Terminator 2: Judgement Day spearheaded the use of CGI in blockbusters thanks to the T-1000 and Avatar was the pioneer of cinema's latest attempt to go 3D. With The Abyss and Titanic, Cameron began a love of the deep ocean and made several documentaries that pushed forward the technology behind underwater filming. The fruits of Cameron's watery labor will be seen in 2021's long-awaited Avatar 2, with plenty more sequels on the way after that.
Regardless of the box office records and technical progression, Cameron's biggest legacy will always be his films. The following ranking takes into account all of James Cameron's directorial releases (no producer or writer credits alone) and will also omit his documentary work, focusing solely within the realm of fiction. Here are the films of James Cameron ranked worst to best.
Piranha II: The Spawning
Everyone's got to start somewhere. Despite the renown by which James Cameron's name would later be known, his career as a feature film director got off to a less than auspicious start with Piranha II: The Spawning - a movie exactly as bad as the title suggests. Fortunately for Cameron, his association with Piranha II has been the subject of much debate, with the director disowning the 1982 movie for much of his career. According to Cameron, he only directed a portion of this cult horror flick before being fired by producer Ovidio G. Assonitis, who would go on to shoot much of the picture himself. Cameron claims he tried to get his own name removed from the credits but was legally unable to do so, leaving The Spawning as his official directorial debut.
Although some might be tempted to slot Piranha II into the fabled "so bad it's good" category, many more would deem the sequel an abject failure on every level - poor effects, the cheesiest of 1980s horror aesthetics and a script chock full with cliche. Directing (or part-directing) Piranha II wasn't a total bust for James Cameron; the filmmaker would meet some regular collaborators and further his interest in underwater shoots. He'd also learn how not to do visual effects.
True Lies
After forging a fruitful working relationship with Arnold Schwarzenegger through the Terminator franchise, Cameron would team up with the bulky Austrian once again for 1994's True Lies. Despite striking a much lighter tone than their past, action-packed collaborations, True Lies was another successful venture for Cameron and Schwarzenegger and helped cement the latter's comedic chops. Certainly, True Lies finds itself in an entirely different league to Piranha II both in terms of production values and overall quality.
So why does True Lies find itself bottom out of all the films James Cameron directed without disowning afterwards? Essentially, True Lies is a fairly standard spy action comedy. Schwarzenegger's Harry Tasker tries to balance a mundane family life with a more exciting career as a secret agent - a tried and tested formula that movie studios still roll out with alarming regularity. True Lies is one of the better entries in this over-saturated sub-genre but some of the jokes have aged badly, and the film feels like somewhat of an anomaly among Cameron's more groundbreaking fare.
The Abyss
One of Cameron's lesser-known directorial gigs, The Abyss still has plenty to offer. Much like the forthcoming Avatar 2, The Abyss married together James Cameron's 3 big filmmaking loves of science fiction, forward-thinking effects and the ocean. The result was a story that evoked the claustrophobia of a horror, the intrigue of a sci-fi and effects that still hold up well enough in 2020. Cameron's passion shines through and strong action sequences underpin the inherently outlandish premise of underwater aliens (admittedly still better than flying fish), but The Abyss is often forgotten, releasing between Cameron's two mammoth game-changing sequels, Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
The Abyss is let down by a loss of focus in its final act, and it's also hard to escape the sense that Cameron is more interested in the technical aspects of the film than the fundamentals of its characters and script - a critique that has recurred throughout the director's career. The special edition of The Abyss is considered a worthy improvement, but still can't fix the botched ending.
Avatar
Avatar was the highest grossing film of all time until Avengers: Endgame came along, so it must've done at least a few things right. Nevertheless, fans and critics tend to give Avatar a bad rap and opinion appears to have progressively soured over the past decade. In many ways, it's easy to see why Avatar proved so divisive. The film's selling point was groundbreaking motion capture technology and a 3D viewing experience like no other, and in these visual terms at least, Avatar wholly delivers. Pandora is a spectacle; beautifully realized both in concept and execution. Few fictional worlds have been put to film with the same vivacity and depth, and the attention to detail is second-to-none, as every beast, plant, mountain and tree arrives beautifully rendered, especially on the big screen.
In a similar vein to The Abyss, therein lies Avatar's big weakness. Stripping back the gorgeous visuals and 3D gimmick, what remains is a straightforward plot with an overt environmental message and a cast of characters that never feel as fully fleshed-out as Pandora itself. The legacy of Avatar isn't Jake Sully or Neytiri, it's the striking image of the blue Na'vi tribe, which resonates in the memory far longer than any specific character does. But as the novelty of those visuals wears thin with each passing year, what remains is a relatively familiar story of man vs. nature.
The Terminator
Much has been said regarding the current state of the Terminator franchise but all James Cameron had in 1984 was a time-traveling Arnold Schwarzenegger and a dream. Making his second debut as a feature film director, Cameron showed filmmakers how to make the most out of a modest budget with The Terminator, dropping a horror-tinged sci-fi action flick with an original concept that ages better than the likes of Avatar and True Lies. Schwarzenegger's cyborg villain would eventually become the subject of endless parody, but in 1984, the Terminator was a menacingly intriguing on-screen presence and the perfect adversary for the resourceful and spirited Sarah Connor.
Some visual effects hold up better than others, but the relatable Connor and fish-out-of-time action hero Kyle Reese immediately invite the audience to take their side. Cameron's genre-blending doesn't always pay off with a cohesive tone, but The Terminator mixes its various ideas into a heady cocktail of thrilling action, gripping tension and mind-bending time travel logic that feels substantial without ever losing its accessible blockbuster appeal.
Titanic
For all The Terminator's mainstream credentials, no blockbuster is more blockbuster-y than Titanic - a film that dominated box office records before Cameron toppled his own impressive accolades with Avatar. Ignore the historical aspect of Titanic if you can - Cameron's 1997 money-making behemoth is a love story wrapped around a diet disaster movie and succeeds largely on the strength of its lead performers. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet take a script packed with soppy dialogue and turn Jack and Rose into entirely believable characters that even the hardest of hearts would struggle not to root for. Typically, Cameron's visuals are wonderfully high-quality, putting the audience directly in the midst of the infamous sinking ship and wringing out every drip of emotion.
As with Avatar, there are stereotypes galore among the characters, and the concept of two lovesick teens running around a sinking ship really shouldn't sustain a running time of over 3 hours. But Titanic so richly recreates its period setting and so effectively carries the bittersweet emotions of meeting your soul mate and facing impending death that the historical and logical liberties can be mostly forgiven. Just try getting through Rose's final dream sequence without feeling a lump in the throat.
Aliens
Anyone expecting more of the chest-bursting, claustrophobic fun and games Ridley Scott dished up in Alien was going to be left very disappointed. Instead, James Cameron's sequel took the shape of an all-out action movie with numerous space creatures rampaging around a doomed colony world - a stark change of direction, but one that worked brilliantly. Sigourney Weaver's Ripley takes centre stage after emerging as the franchise's main protagonist only half-way through the original film, and the world of Alien is all the better for it. Ripley's awakening 57 years after the Nostromo's destruction creates immediate separation from what came before and the audience watch on as Weaver's character evolves into one of cinema's best badasses, holding her own, yet also developing a parental instinct in her protection of Newt.
Lance Henrickson as the android Bishop is outstanding - a total contrast to the untrustworthy Ash from Alien. It's almost impossible not to love the innocence and loyalty Bishop projects when saving Newt, as Ripley opens the airlock to kill the Queen even though Bishop has been impaled and ripped in half. Cameron favorites Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton and Jeanette Goldstein add layers to their military characters beyond just being a bland hero type (Biehn) or stereotypical Alien cannon fodder (the other two).
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
If Aliens suggested James Cameron had a knack for making sequels that actually improved upon the original, Terminator 2: Judgement Day removed any remaining doubt. As much as Arnie promises he'll "be back," there's precious little hint of a multi-film franchise in the original Terminator movie, but Judgement Day takes the DNA of the 1984 effort and ramps every aspect up to 11. The molten T-1000 was groundbreaking in 1991 and turning the iconic Terminator into a hero was a stroke of genius. The dynamic between an emotionless T-800, a young, rebellious John Connor and a damaged, paranoid Sarah adds a deeply human element to the Terminator story and offsets the intense, visceral action sequences, while more philosophical themes are sprinkled into the science fiction plot.
It might not have featured any underwater segments, but Terminator 2: Judgement Day marks the peak of James Cameron's filmmaking powers. Not only did the film's visual effects push cinema into a new era of CGI possibility, but the combination of spectacular visuals and economical storytelling by which Cameron's style is so often defined was at its blockbusting best.