“Avatar” (2009)
…By literally doubling his efforts, and making a film that didn’t just cost twice as much, but earned nearly twice as much. It might have taken him over a decade (which he spent much of diving, and successfully creating a young clone of himself, who would go on to direct “The King’s Speech“) — partly because he was waiting for the technology to catch up to his dreams — but Cameron came out swinging with his return to science fiction, and came up with another phenomenon, helping legitimize 3D in the process, causing the craze for stereo vision to sweep Hollywood. What’s so interesting is the degree to which it mirrors its predecessor. The script creaks with cliches. The broad-strokes storytelling borrows from any number of sources, and the heroes and villains lack any shades of grey. But the spectacle is even greater than on “Titanic,” Cameron using effects that haven’t been topped before or since, and designing an immersive fantastical world that was genuinely unlike anything that had been seen before on movie screens. It’s virtually an animated movie, but never feels like it, thanks to the the weight he gives the characters and their stakes. And far from letting his filmmaking skills fade away over his decade of absence, they seem to have improved: the filmmaker’s freed by his virtual world, the camera dipping and diving and zooming with total clarity: the final action scene arguably tops anything from his entire career. Ultimately, the film never quite has the memorable performances to match “Titanic” (although we suspect stand-out Zoe Saldana will never get the credit she’s due), and the central romance doesn’t quite resonate in the same way. But nearly three-billion-dollars-worth of admissions can’t be wrong: Cameron, for the most parts, had delivered a thrilling, eye-popping piece of popular entertainment once again. [B-]
Also Worth Mentioning: We’ve stuck to Cameron’s big-screen features, but for the completists, there’s also the extended Martini Ranch video “Reach,” theme park attraction “T2 3D: Battle Across Time,” “Freak Nation,” an episode of the short-lived TV series “Dark Angel,” which he co-created, and documentaries “Expedition: Bismarck,” “Ghosts of the Abyss” and “Aliens of the Deep.” Plus he penned the script for “Rambo: First Blood Part II,” and the story for ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow‘s “Strange Days,” which he also produced. Other producing work includes exec-ing Bigelow’s “Point Break,” shepherding Steven Soderbergh‘s remake of “Solaris,” and this Christmas’s 3D extravaganza “Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away.”