So he's good at making movies, it's just a shame he can't write them.
James Cameron's "Avatar" (grading and discussion)
- Thread starter chrisspringob
- Start date
Dr. Lovecraft has been nominated for multiple Nobel prizes in biological sciences, but the nominations have invariably been withdrawn following protests from human rights organizations, the UN Pan-Faith Council and animal rights activists.
uh yeah no surprise there. Experimenting on convicts? human-animal hybrids? Yowzers!
I might argue that the Termimator movies are "decently" written and Titanic has a little bit of merit to it, hell even THIS movie has merit to the story and how it's written. It's just not greatly written.
He only co-wrote Terminator & Terminator 2.
He certainly writes *well enough*, wouldn't you say? 
BTW, for the curious, FOX today released the shooting script (dated 2007) for Avatar, it can be downloaded in PDF form here. (A bunch of stuff was cut out from it, and some changed, but it might be an interesting study in his script writing abilities)
Writing dialog is perhaps not his best aspect, BUT he is a great script writer when it comes to story structure. (as he has shown in all his films) His scripts are always very lean - almost every scene serves a purpose. For example, there isn't a single 'deus ex machina' moment in Avatar, because almost everything is setup in earlier scenes. Almost every scene has a 'checkovs gun' that comes into play later or in the final conflict resolution.
He is also fond of working with character archetypes - and while some yearn for more complex characters, it is certainly not a *wrong* approach to use archetypes. They have been in use for as long as literature has existed (and beyond). You may want to see more complexity, but it simply will not be found in his films. He writes his characters in way that makes them appealing to a lot of people, they are 'simple' for a reason.
As for cribbing other material, he is clearly inspired by what he has seen and read. And I think if you look at your own favorite films, you'll see that a lot of them are probably not that original either.
BTW, for the curious, FOX today released the shooting script (dated 2007) for Avatar, it can be downloaded in PDF form here. (A bunch of stuff was cut out from it, and some changed, but it might be an interesting study in his script writing abilities)
Writing dialog is perhaps not his best aspect, BUT he is a great script writer when it comes to story structure. (as he has shown in all his films) His scripts are always very lean - almost every scene serves a purpose. For example, there isn't a single 'deus ex machina' moment in Avatar, because almost everything is setup in earlier scenes. Almost every scene has a 'checkovs gun' that comes into play later or in the final conflict resolution.
He is also fond of working with character archetypes - and while some yearn for more complex characters, it is certainly not a *wrong* approach to use archetypes. They have been in use for as long as literature has existed (and beyond). You may want to see more complexity, but it simply will not be found in his films. He writes his characters in way that makes them appealing to a lot of people, they are 'simple' for a reason.
As for cribbing other material, he is clearly inspired by what he has seen and read. And I think if you look at your own favorite films, you'll see that a lot of them are probably not that original either.
Aliens, The Abyss and True Lies were extremely well written films.
And I'm pretty positive that Cameron did most of the leg work on the Terminator films.
I'll even say Titanic was extremely well written. I know lots of people complain about the dialogue, but his deft handling of the interplay between actual history as can possibly be known, mixed with his fiction, and the grace with which he handled the geography and timing of everything was quite well done.
And I'm pretty positive that Cameron did most of the leg work on the Terminator films.
I'll even say Titanic was extremely well written. I know lots of people complain about the dialogue, but his deft handling of the interplay between actual history as can possibly be known, mixed with his fiction, and the grace with which he handled the geography and timing of everything was quite well done.
I think the Avatar script is mostly as well as you could do given the story. It's swift, punchy, to the point, and really does just about everything you could to ameliorate the problems fundamental to this film.
Of course, Cameron is entirely responsible for the story flaws, so this will likely be viewed as splitting hairs.
Of course, Cameron is entirely responsible for the story flaws, so this will likely be viewed as splitting hairs.
Considering dialogue is a pretty important part of any film, I'd say this was a major flaw.
Exactly. I've never had issues with Cameron's dialogue, in fact, he has come up with some pretty memorable dialogue bits in modern memory. I just love the little things in Cameron films like Seffridge chomping down on a bag of chips when he was telling the excavator driver to keep going. Its the subtle things like that that I really look out for.
Just saw it Tuesday in "Tru 3D" whatever that is at my non iMax theater, it was only $6 and was the best experience I have ever had at a movie. The story is typical sci-fi bullshit, but you don't care because the world is so amazing. The glow in the dark plants, the animals, the world created is so beautiful I didn't care, I just wanted to watch more and more.
What do you mean he never gets credit for it? It's practically Cameron's hallmark as a writer-director.
After seeing the astronomical success of Avatar "Operation: Stealing James Cameron's mojo" commences... Now.
Amongst his fans, yes. But sometimes it seems you wouldn't know it since the detractors came out of the wood work since Titanic.
Metropolis too?
Isn't this sort of like saying visuals are important in fiction and then countering that by pointing out the Amos and Andy radio series?
Metropolis came out before or right around the time sound was just starting to become used in film. So, no, Metropolis doesn't count. But since sound, and dialogue, was introduced in film then, yeah, it became pretty damn important.
Now, this isn't to say all films that want to be important need to have dialogue. Hell, aside from the mostly secondary human characters "WALL-E" has no meaningful dialogue, especialy between our two lead characters.
But if a film's main characters have speaking parts, and their dialogue is supposed to be important and is supposed to drive the story and plot forward then, yeah, the dialogue better be good and meaningful.