While you can argue all day and night as to the quality of his work, you cannot argue against the fact that James Cameron is one of the most important and culturally relevant filmmakers ever. He has written, produced, and directed the two highest grossing films of all time in Titanic and Avatar. There is no other filmmaker who has ever been more in touch with what the American public wants to see on the big screen.
I’ve made it relatively clear what my feelings are on both of these films are, but in short:
Titanic- An incredibly well-made epic that is a little too long but in the end more absorbing than I anticipated, so it mostly won me over.
Avatar- Much more mixed here. Obviously here are the best special effects and use of technology ever in the history of film. This film is a technology showcase, but I got that after the first hour or so, and then I started paying attention to everything else, and it left me cold. A half hour too long at least, and the script could have used more tender loving care.
So James Cameron decided to grace us students at The Ohio State University with his presence on Wednesday night, and for the most part he was an interesting man. He came in knowing the best way to win over a Buckeye crowd, starting with the chant of “O-H!” You can finish it yourself. This was his first college lecture, and he gave an admirable effort.
If there was a running theme throughout the lecture, it was risk. He encouraged the audience to take risks in their future lives, citing his early job as a lackey on the movie set of a Roger Corman schlockfest, when he offered to help with the visual effects. He was able to put a team together and next thing you know he was working his way up the latter.
One glaring omission in his speech was that he claimed his first directing job was The Terminator. In the words of the Grinch: Wrong-O! That film was Piranha Part 2: The Spawning. Here’s a reminder:
Ladies and gentlemen, from the director of Titanic! James Cameron might be right in calling it the “greatest flying fish movie ever made”, but I’ll need to check up on that.
Cameron says the movie that inspired him was Star Wars, claiming that it was then when he saw what goes in to making the highest grossing movie of all time. He now knew what he was going to do the rest of his life. Not only that, but he was determined that every movie he made would be something completely different than anything done before. The career of James Cameron is one of technological innovation. In The Abyss he gave us the first 3-D object that could emit emotion, the idea that was taken to another level in Terminator 2. Now in Avatar he created a world of the most convincing CGI characters ever created. No matter my feelings on anything else, this cannot be denied.
No James Cameron lecture would be complete without a dash of pretension. The thing with Cameron is, he knows he’s rich, and he’s proud of his work. For the most part, he should be. But he is the man who screamed “I’m king of the world!” after winning the Oscar.
I'm king of the woooooooorld!!!
But there is justice in the world:
I'm queen of the Iraq Waaaaaar!!!
Cameron claimed that Avatar wasn’t preachy and that if he made a sequel he would try and keep it that way. Avatar is mostly preachy, sire. Then Cameron proceeded to go on an environmentalist tirade which mostly consisted of talking points I’ve heard before. It’s not that I disagree with him, it’s that I don’t care. At least I got an Avatar ball!
Now to the best things Cameron said:
1) This whole converting-to-3-D after the fact trend. (see: Clash of the Titans) He railed against it, saying that if you do 3-D, you need to put some care into it, and not take care of it in 2 weeks. Cameron said that they are currently working on converting Titanic to 3-D, but they are taking their sweet time and doing it right.
2) Cameron mocked the sudden trend of movie projects based on board games, such as Battleship, Monopoly, and the recently announced Magic 8 Ball. I’m dead serious. You have to give Cameron credit, at least he attempts to create original concepts.
No! Not B4! You've ruined us! The Japs are totally gonna call G7!
At the end Cameron called students down to “interact” with him on a personal level. They did. All freaking 2000 of them. So, I left without such interaction. However, it was an interesting lecture from an interesting and important man in cinema. Boom! Just used the word “cinema”.
P.S.- There was a middle-aged woman in the crowd (which is a mystery in itself, for I thought this event was only open to students) who stood up midway through the lecture and yelled “I admire your honesty, Mr. Cameron!” I did not hear a statement at that moment from Cameron which would elicit that response. Even he seemed shocked, getting off a faint “thank you.”
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