7 Directors Who Purposefully Sabotaged Other Movies
1. James Cameron Bashes Aliens 3
The Alien franchise carved out its own niche in the Hollywood system, being one of the first films to successfully bridge the gap between science fiction and horror. The first film was a masterpiece of suspense worthy of Hitchcock himself and the second elevated the fear and tension just by adding more of the film's titular enemies. The third film is where most people agree the flaws come to the surface.
Nevertheless, in 2016 Warner Bros. announced a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Alien franchise at ComicCon, hoping it would sell home copies of all the movies. But James Cameron, who had directed Aliens, decided to put the kibosh to the whole affair by letting the audience know what he really thought of the immediate follow-up to his movie.
In the panel announcing the celebration, Cameron eviscerated Alien 3. He was especially upset that the film unceremoniously killed off a majority of the characters he'd spent an entire movie endearing to fans. His criticisms were nothing new, fans had made such complaints themselves, but hearing it from the mouth of one of Hollywood's most esteemed directors reignited the passionate dislike for the film that started the franchise on its downward spiral.