Top Ten Works of James Cameron
1. Aliens (1986)
Writer/Director While T2 was an achievement in the fact that Cameron bettered his own iconic film, Aliens is an even greater achievement in that he bettered someone elses film and not some hack director, but the great Sir Ridley Scott. How do you even begin to tackle the task of making a sequel to one of the most intense, claustrophobic, critically acclaimed sci-fi films of all time? Well if youre James Cameron you simply add an s to the title. While so many sequels think that just making everything bigger will justify people reinvesting their time and money in them, Cameron actually made this a viable theory. Rather than try and capture the dark, atmospheric horror of Scotts classic, Cameron effectively took the Alien franchise and made a war movie in space. Cameron reportedly drew inspiration for Aliens from the Vietnam War and if you consider the Marines as the American soldiers out of their comfort zone in an unknown hostile land and the Xenomorphs as the Viet-Cong, lacking in the artillery of their adversaries but using their knowledge of the terrain and the element of surprise to their chilling advantage, then it is easy to see this influence at work. Sigourney Weaver was initially reluctant to reprise her role as Ripley, but eventually gained an Oscar nomination for her return to her most famous role, Ripleys transformation to bad-ass in Aliens has to have been the template for Sarah Connor in T2. Rumours suggest that the making of Aliens was far from a cake walk with production problems and on-set fighting both supposedly rearing their ugly heads James Remar, in one of the worst career moves since Tom Selleck turned down Indiana Jones, left his role as Corporal Hicks one week into filming due to that old chestnut creative differences to be replaced by Michael Biehn who, once again, gives a fine performance for Cameron. Yet in spite of these reported issues, Aliens was and still remains a triumph the measuring stick by which all future sci-fi action/adventure films should and will be measured. In a storied career encompassing some of cinemas most memorable movies, characters and moments, Aliens stands out as the greatest piece of work by the visionary James Cameron. What do you think?Do you agree with my choices or should I be targeted for termination for compiling this list!?