CthulhuRlyeh said:
Sorry, but I heavily disagree here (well, not on the Lucas bit that much, since it is such a complex topic). I think you are just grasping at straws here.
Disagreeing is fine. Strawman comparisons are a little unfair.
He doesnt create a meaningful film? How? All his films have a certain theme, so they do have a meaning.
Look carefully. HE doesn't CREATE the theme. Terminator was created by Harlan Ellison. Alien was created by Dan O'Bannon and others. Cameron took the ideas from these tales and wove in his own blend of special effects and re-imagined tales.
Also note that every one of his films is almost always the most expensive film up until that point. There's a huge push behind each one of them, and we know what a good push can do to box-office numbers.
Terminator is about technophobia, Aliens is a Vietnam allegory/female empowerment tale, Terminator 2 is about being able to change our fate/robots being able to understand human emotions (an antidote to the first movie),...
His good movies arent just about the visuals, they are about the characters. If you go look at the reviews for Terminator 2, for example, it is praised for its character arcs. Terminator 2 isnt considered to be the best action movie of all time because it looks good, but because it has actual characters behind the visuals.
Like I said, the basic plot is a simple Aesop/Grimm Brothers tale, but with strong special effects. But the characters are kept really low in number, which allows more focus to be used on them.
But also, you can understand what it'd be like to live in Die Hard's world, Shrek's world, The Godfather's world, The Matrix's world.
Could you even imagine working for Weiland-Yutani? Cyberdyne?
Artists influence other artists, this is nothing new. If we are gonna accuse Cameron of doing it, then we might as well accuse John Carpenter, Dan OBannon (writer of Alien), Stanley Kubrick, Neil Blomkamp, Christopher Nolan, ...
I'll let Mr. Ellison answer that one.
As for the filmmaker/director comparison - bullshit. A director is always a filmmaker, while a filmmaker isnt always a director. A screenwriter is a filmmaker, but he isnt a director.
I disagree. Directors help make films. Filmmakers may direct. And you've helped me on the last point: Cameron was one of the screenwriters for Aliens and the Terminator series.
And also for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Where did his wonderful character arcs go in that movie? Was it because William Wisher Jr. (Die Hard, Terminator) wasn't working on this, while Cameron was on character duty?
