Controversial Cinema-Related Opinions

[carpenoctem]

Probably not if you're taking Terminator through True Lies James Cameron. Probably so if you're talking about Titanic and Dances With Wolves In Space James Cameron.

Well, say what you will about his bland, overly general, catch-all writing style, but the guy puts 110% into the creation of his movies. Every one of them is an unashamed Big Event Film, he's never trying to make just a movie but more like capture a certain spirit of grandiosity. And he was the first one, and still really the only one, to make a viable argument for 3D.

Titanic is my #1 film of all time. Probably always will be. I like that the writing and characterization are broadly painted, not filled with too many nuances - there's no time. A grand love story has to be built up and fully told in 3 days and by God he's going to tell it! The set pieces are incredible too, and he makes the most of showcasing them and then destroying them. He captures the cultural obsession we have with this particular tragedy, humanizes it and makes it work. It's not a deep thinker movie, it's all heart. And the level of detail is insane.

[Leman Russ]

Oh I'm not saying that he doesn't produce visually stunning films. He does. Both Titanic and Avatar were visual feasts, and Cameron has made the best use of 3D I've ever seen. But the movies themselves were just that: visually great and subpar everywhere else. My favorite part of Titanic? When the guy falls off and bounces off the propeller. I laughed my ass off in the theater when that happened, while everyone else was crying because of 'the love story'. And I will be the first to admit, I couldn't sit through Avatar. I still don't think I've made it through more than 15 minutes of it.

[Corvus T. Cosmonaut]

And he was the first one, and still really the only one, to make a viable argument for 3D.

Bullshit. This is repeated about Avatar ad nauseam. This is repeated so often that it's become like this common, accepted knee-jerk sort of response to the issue of 3-D, and fuck that right to hell: there's nothing in Avatar in 3-D that isn't there and just as visually awesome or whatever without that gimmick. In fact, the action sequences toward the end sort of emphasize one of the big current shortcomings of the technology, that rapid action becomes very muddled and garbagey. Cameron's utilization could be called adequate at best, but what we're then doing is promoting a mediocre example of a generally worthless and over-sold piece of studio marketing.

No, nothing out of Hollywood has yet made a good case for 3-D.

I think it's pretty controversial to say Titanic isn't the shit film critics insist it is.

What critics?
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/titanic/
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/titanic

[carpenoctem]

Bullshit. This is repeated about Avatar ad nauseam. This is repeated so often that it's become like this common, accepted knee-jerk sort of response to the issue of 3-D, and fuck that right to hell: there's nothing in Avatar in 3-D that isn't there and just as visually awesome or whatever without that gimmick. In fact, the action sequences toward the end sort of emphasize one of the big current shortcomings of the technology, that rapid action becomes very muddled and garbagey. Cameron's utilization could be called adequate at best, but what we're then doing is promoting a mediocre example of a generally worthless and over-sold piece of studio marketing.

Personally, I enjoyed it. I'm not parroting what I've heard from others. It was the only movie in 3D I've seen that hasn't given me a constant headache and that made me feel, by the end of the movie, "Why aren't more people doing it like this?" It seemed so natural and made the world of Pandora really come alive. I've watched it on DVD since, in 2D, and felt the film really lacking in the wonder that I felt when watching it in theaters.

[Corvus T. Cosmonaut]

Just reading that BFI lineup is making me want to re-watch the Powell & Pressburger films. It'd be interesting to see what would make the cut were that list updated to 2012.

I've watched it on DVD since, in 2D, and felt the film really lacking in the wonder that I felt when watching it in theaters.

Cool, next try watching it in 3-D on DVD and in 2-D on the big movie theater screen and then tell me how you feel about it. I watched the original Straw Dogs on DVD a few times but seeing it in the theater was a new, different experience.