“Jim Cameron, Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Aliens”: A Pioneer in the Digital Film Era
In 1998 the film “Titanic” won best picture and James Cameron quoted “I’m the king of the world”. With the release of “The Way of Water,” he could be named the king of the sequel because he joined “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Aliens” on the honor roll.
Both of those films came 7 years after the first movie was released, Paving the way for multiple sequels that followed. In each case, Cameron (who wrote or shared screenplay credit on all three) cleverly expanded upon, rather than simply replicating, the existing template, perhaps most impressively with “Aliens,” which was based on a movie directed by Ridley Scott as opposed to his own.
The movie called in the Marines for a more muscular and adventurous battle, one that included introducing the complex bug-like dynamics of the alien creatures. Cameron similarly revised the formula in “Judgment Day” by turning his original villain into the hero, introducing a new and different mechanized threat for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s catchphrase-spouting cyborg to face.
The second “Terminator” also marked a massive leap forward into the world of computer-generated visual effects with its shape-shifting liquid robot, which helped lay the groundwork for “Jurassic Park” and the technological explosion that followed. “Avatar” also advanced that ball, and “The Way of Water” feels as if it has again moved the goalposts in terms of the horizons for digital filmmaking.
“Jim Cameron is the ultimate pioneer in this arena,” Stan Winston, who designed the special makeup effects on “Terminator 2” and countless other films, said in a discussion about “Judgment Day” coinciding with its 25th anniversary.
While talking to a reporter in Chicago, the director summarized his approach to sequels by stating that they are going to be different from the first one and then giving them a reason not to like it.
There is a taste of the gruesome prospect of being turned into an alien host in the movie “Aliens,” but the bulk of the movie is more rip-roaring thriller than horror.
The Way of Water: Making the Most of a New Vampire in Films with a Families: A Case Study of Two Years of Covid-19
In addition to the technical advances and the fact that there is a new clan with its own distinctive culture and adaptation, the major part of the new “Avatar” is giving the central couple a family and exploring those dynamics.
It doesn’t technically make him the king of anything, but it is the ticket to being a certain kind of royalty.
But will that be enough to get people into theaters? There is a feeling that The Way of Water is going to be a litmus test for a certain kind of blow-the-doors-esque films, even though movies like Top Gun: Maverick and Spider-Man: No Way Home have proven boffo box office is possible. The first film ended in that way. The New York Times Magazine recently noted that of all the questions raised by the film, the most pressing is who asked for it. Sure, Maverick was able to pull in audiences 36 years after Top Gun, but Top Gun also left a longer-lasting cultural footprint. One side of the spectrum is fans who still say they need speed but the other is those who say they don’t remember much about the movie.
The movie, out now, hits theaters under much different circumstances than its predecessor. The year 2009, despite the recession, still felt like a hopeful time, with all of the technical 3D marvels that conquered the globe still felt like marvels. The movie’s story was not very interesting even though the audience was busy. In 2022, movie-making bells and whistles are the rote part, and audiences, two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, may be leery of being immersed in a theater for 3 hours and 10 minutes.