James Cameron: Ranking His Films From Worst To Best
4. Titanic
The highest grossing movie of all time for a solid 12 years before James Cameron overcame himself with Avatar.
It isn't hard to see why it earned such a spot for so long, seeing as how it actually left a real, tangible cultural footprint - something that Avatar sorely lacked. Not just that one line you all know from the movie, but the impact it had on romance as a genre. It showed that love could be framed just as epic as the mot sweeping of action movies.
The characters were two-dimensional, but what makes this film so clever is that there's just enough there to hint at deeper complexity. But since we're hearing this story from one character's perspective - and that perspective likely worn down by 80 years of time - it only makes sense that we don't know everything about them.
Titanic is a melodrama, but it's the best kind of melodrama, that earns every second of cheese, because ultimately it's a story with genuine heart and emotion. Which is why audiences kept coming back to it until it climbed all the way to the top.