James Cameron or Christopher Nolan, who you prefer?

The Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss are worlds better than anything Nolan has done except maybe The Prestige. Christopher Nolan is one of those directors that nerds cling on to because he's done comic book stuff but hey at least he's not as bad as Joss Whedon or Zach Snyder.

The Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss are worlds better than anything Nolan has done except maybe The Prestige. Christopher Nolan is one of those directors that nerds cling on to because he's done comic book stuff but hey at least he's not as bad as Joss Whedon or Zach Snyder.

Aljosa23

Cameron, by far.  Is this a serious question?

Nolan has proven to be very capable, but he is a total noob relative to Cameron.

I like them both a lot, but while I love both of the original Terminators, Nolan takes the cake for the Batman franchise alone. I still don't get why people think Rises was A) boring B) severely flawed (it IS flawed, but so is every movie) and C) had bad action scenes.

Cameron but only for Aliens, Terminator and Terminator 2. The only film on Nolans list that I actually enjoyed was Man of Steel, I thought the Batman films were terrible (didn't help that I can't stand Christian Bale though).

Tough call. Nolan is definitely the better writer and is also better at directing actors to great performances. But I have to go with Cameron.

As far as action directing goes, nobody touches James Cameron IMO. The sinking of the Titanic might be the single greatest "action" sequence in movie history. While the story is cliche and corny, I was blown away last year when I re-watched Titanic in theatres. It seemed like a movie from another planet. A bygone era, when filmmaking was actually a craft.

Today, action movies are all shot the same, either shaky cam, or its all about placing a thousand cameras and shooting a scene from all angles and finding the best stuff to use in editing, also CGI. It's just incoherent. While I think Nolan's films are excellent, the action suffers from these shortcomings. I don't even think its the director's fault, it is simply the new status quo. DPs that started on music videos and moved on to movies. 

But you go back and watch the way Cameron shot action sequences, you can see there's so much going on in terms of planning and staging, and how they meticulously planned and prepered every single shot. Everything was shot perfectly, and everything made visual sense. It was a craft. Even if the movie had a cheesy story and two-dimensional characters, his direction and craftmanship was enough to elevate those movies to another level. 

Samurai_Xavier

[QUOTE="mems_1224"][QUOTE="nunovlopes"]

:lol:

No

nunovlopes

:lol::lol:

2x No

[QUOTE="Samurai_Xavier"]

Tough call. Nolan is definitely the better writer and is also better at directing actors to great performances. But I have to go with Cameron.

As far as action directing goes, nobody touches James Cameron IMO. The sinking of the Titanic might be the single greatest "action" sequence in movie history. While the story is cliche and corny, I was blown away last year when I re-watched Titanic in theatres. It seemed like a movie from another planet. A bygone era, when filmmaking was actually a craft.

Today, action movies are all shot the same, either shaky cam, or its all about placing a thousand cameras and shooting a scene from all angles and finding the best stuff to use in editing, also CGI. It's just incoherent. While I think Nolan's films are excellent, the action suffers from these shortcomings. I don't even think its the director's fault, it is simply the new status quo. DPs that started on music videos and moved on to movies. 

But you go back and watch the way Cameron shot action sequences, you can see there's so much going on in terms of planning and staging, and how they meticulously planned and prepered every single shot. Everything was shot perfectly, and everything made visual sense. It was a craft. Even if the movie had a cheesy story and two-dimensional characters, his direction and craftmanship was enough to elevate those movies to another level. 

PannicAtack

B) severely flawed (it IS flawed, but so is every movie)

battlefront23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkdkAe0GgbA

I know now why you cry. But it's something I can never do.

Inception is great movie, but all this action feels so fake. I mean shooting scene looks so fake. Nolan can´t make a action movie.

Really, Nolan action is very lame... I mean running around, and when there are fight scenes, then it´s too short. Gun shooting looks always too fake.

I'm a Nolan fan so I will go with him. I do really like the Terminator movies though.

In short... superhero fanboys vote for Nolan but if it had no superhero fanboys, then everyone would voted James Cameron who changed hollywood forever.

Sure, except for the ridiculous statement about Nolan films suffering from CGI which of goes against Nolan signature which is the targeted and narrow scope of using CGI. Inception being the exception. . Master_Live

.

[QUOTE="Master_Live"]Sure, except for the ridiculous statement about Nolan films suffering from CGI which of goes against Nolan signature which is the targeted and narrow scope of using CGI. Inception being the exception. . sammyjenkis898

.

Nolan. Mostly because fvck Titanic, stupid romance drama drivel and HAVE YOU SEEN MEMENTO? 

James Cameron made T2.. So him.

[QUOTE="Master_Live"]Sure, except for the ridiculous statement about Nolan films suffering from CGI which of goes against Nolan signature which is the targeted and narrow scope of using CGI. Inception being the exception. . sammyjenkis898

.

I think a better comp would be Ridley Scott, if only for the obvious Alien v Aliens comparison.

• Alien 9/10
• Blade Runner 9/10
• Gladiator 7/10
• Hannibal 7/10
• Black Hawk Down 8/10
• American Gangster 7/10
• Prometheus 8/10

For me, Scott over Cameron too.

I think a better comp would be Ridley Scott, if only for the obvious Alien v Aliens comparison.

 

• Alien 9/10
• Blade Runner 9/10
• Gladiator 7/10
• Hannibal 7/10
• Black Hawk Down 8/10
• American Gangster 7/10
• Prometheus 8/10

For me, Scott over Cameron too.

Master_Live

[QUOTE="Master_Live"]

I think a better comp would be Ridley Scott, if only for the obvious Alien v Aliens comparison.

 

• Alien 9/10
• Blade Runner 9/10
• Gladiator 7/10
• Hannibal 7/10
• Black Hawk Down 8/10
• American Gangster 7/10
• Prometheus 8/10

For me, Scott over Cameron too.

Aljosa23

Why do people always ignore Thelma and Louise? :?

[QUOTE="Master_Live"]

I think a better comp would be Ridley Scott, if only for the obvious Alien v Aliens comparison.

 

• Alien 9/10
• Blade Runner 9/10
• Gladiator 7/10
• Hannibal 7/10
• Black Hawk Down 8/10
• American Gangster 7/10
• Prometheus 8/10

For me, Scott over Cameron too.

Aljosa23

Have never seen The Dualists. And Alien and Blade Runner will probably 10/10 on my list after I watch them again. I'm sure others would agree that some movies you appreciate more in repeating viewings. For example, Blade Runner started at 7/10 the first time that I saw it.

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"]

[QUOTE="Master_Live"]

I think a better comp would be Ridley Scott, if only for the obvious Alien v Aliens comparison.

 

• Alien 9/10
• Blade Runner 9/10
• Gladiator 7/10
• Hannibal 7/10
• Black Hawk Down 8/10
• American Gangster 7/10
• Prometheus 8/10

For me, Scott over Cameron too.

DharmaMember77

Why do people always ignore Thelma and Louise? :?

Why do people always ignore Thelma and Louise? :?

DharmaMember77

Outside of those 3 films from Scott I think Matchstick Men is pretty awesome too.

[QUOTE="nunovlopes"]

[QUOTE="mems_1224"] :lol: yesmems_1224

:lol::lol:

2x No

I lost of track of the argument. What were we debating about?

[QUOTE="sammyjenkis898"]

[QUOTE="Master_Live"]Sure, except for the ridiculous statement about Nolan films suffering from CGI which of goes against Nolan signature which is the targeted and narrow scope of using CGI. Inception being the exception. . Master_Live

.

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"]

[QUOTE="Master_Live"]

I think a better comp would be Ridley Scott, if only for the obvious Alien v Aliens comparison.

 

• Alien 9/10
• Blade Runner 9/10
• Gladiator 7/10
• Hannibal 7/10
• Black Hawk Down 8/10
• American Gangster 7/10
• Prometheus 8/10

For me, Scott over Cameron too.

DharmaMember77

Why do people always ignore Thelma and Louise? :?

they're both good directors and they both make big action movies now. for that sort of movie, i guess it's more about which excites me more.

with cameron, i know the movie will be well made but also very traditional in terms of storytelling and genre. i suppose there's the argument for avatar, 3D, and how that effects storytelling, but overall his movies feel conservative (not that i think that makes them bad).

nolan is the more exciting director to me. there is of course memento and its plays with basic storytelling tropes, but i think that nolan is gone now. even then, he's still taking genres and doing things that i think are very fun. there are the batman films, which are still very much superhero movies but they also have these really exciting crime thriller elements to them. then there's inception which plays with heist films, pure actioners, and science fiction and makes this crazy concoction of all sorts of things i love about movies.

Christopher Nolan, because I actually like his movies. :P

Christopher Nolan has Memento, KO chaplainDMK

Terminator 2 and Aliens are my top films. But I chose Nolan. 

Why? Simple. Nolan is better than Cameron NOW. Avatar was garbage compared to the Bat Trilogy and Inception. Thats 4 films while Cameron made 1 garbage one in the same time span.  He sucks now. Stick to going underwater.

I will be clinical and simply will go with my IMDB ratings:

 

Cameron:

• The Terminator 8/10
• Aliens 5/10 
• Terminator 2 9/10
• True Lies 7/10
• Titanic 9/10
• Avatar 8/10

 

Nolan:

• Following 6/10
• Memento 8/10
• Insomnia 7/10
• Batman Begins 10/10
• The Prestige 7/10
• The Dark Knight 10/10
• Inception 10/10
• The Dark Knight Rises 8/10

 

For me, Nolan.

Master_Live

I won't judge the movies I haven't seen which kind of leaves James Cameron a bit bare, but whatever here it goes.

Cameron:

• The Terminator-7/10 I've only seen this once and really should give it a rewatch. I just remember it looking realistic and scaring the sh!t out of me as a kid.
• Aliens 10/10 I actually saw this for the first time shortly before Promethius and I fvcking loved every second of it. Same with the first. 
• Terminator 2 N/A
• True Lies 9/10 Love this film. Due to it being comedy I find it infinitely rewatchable and it's one of Arnold's finest.
• Titanic N/A
• Avatar 4/10 It gets points for being pretty, but loses a lot for having zero original content when it comes to plot. Hell can't even call the plot solid tbh it was downright flimsy in a few places.

Nolan:

• Following 3/10 Couldn't get through this movie tbh, tried a couple of times.
• Memento 8/10 Very good film, I recommend people track it down if they haven't seen it.
• Insomnia n/a 
• Batman Begins 8.5/10 an excellent Batman film to be sure. Not without flaws (bats effectively killed a guy afterall), but highly entertaining overall
• The Prestige 6.5/10 Not as gripping as everyone say, and not as good as The Illusionist. Good though.
• The Dark Knight 10/10 .....I can't even.....I mean DAMN!
• Inception 8/10 You know for such a cool concept of a story I really wish Leonardo could have been a bit more emotional at certain points in the film. I feel nothing for him when he is talking to his wife. Also Nolan should have figured out more ways to get across information in this film by showing us rather than telling us every last detail. All that being said this had cool action, cool visuals, and a cool story.
• The Dark Knight Rises 7.5/10 plotholes large enough to drive a truck through, and villain that couldn't get emotion across due to  covered face (don't get me started on the poor dub of Bain's voice), but still somehow a decent enough film. I just wish it had been as good as TDK.

Terminator 2 and Aliens are my top films. But I chose Nolan. 

 

Why? Simple. Nolan is better than Cameron NOW. Avatar was garbage compared to the Bat Trilogy and Inception. Thats 4 films while Cameron made 1 garbage one in the same time span.  He sucks now. Stick to going underwater.

 

Jankarcop

Avatar is great movie. It earned more than Batman trilogy total!

Box office proved that people watched it 3 time more than Batman Trilogy total in cinema. No, don´t say it was 3D thing becuase i remember when it came out, people re-watched it so many times because it is good movie. It has story and message what Batman Trilogy does not have. Batman is just about fighting against bad guys while Avatar is so much more. Dark Knight Rises was garbage.

[QUOTE="Master_Live"]

I will be clinical and simply will go with my IMDB ratings:

 

Cameron:

• The Terminator 8/10
• Aliens 5/10 
• Terminator 2 9/10
• True Lies 7/10
• Titanic 9/10
• Avatar 8/10

 

Nolan:

• Following 6/10
• Memento 8/10
• Insomnia 7/10
• Batman Begins 10/10
• The Prestige 7/10
• The Dark Knight 10/10
• Inception 10/10
• The Dark Knight Rises 8/10

 

For me, Nolan.

Serraph105

I won't judge the movies I haven't seen which kind of leaves James Cameron a bit bare, but whatever here it goes.

Cameron:

• The Terminator-7/10 I've only seen this once and really should give it a rewatch. I just remember it looking realistic and scaring the sh!t out of me as a kid.
• Aliens 10/10 I actually saw this for the first time shortly before Promethius and I fvcking loved every second of it. Same with the first. 
• Terminator 2 N/A
• True Lies 9/10 Love this film. Due to it being comedy I find it infinitely rewatchable and it's one of Arnold's finest.
• Titanic N/A
• Avatar 4/10 It gets points for being pretty, but loses a lot for having zero original content when it comes to plot. Hell can't even call the plot solid tbh it was downright flimsy in a few places.

Nolan:

• Following 3/10 Couldn't get through this movie tbh, tried a couple of times.
• Memento 8/10 Very good film, I recommend people track it down if they haven't seen it.
• Insomnia n/a 
• Batman Begins 8.5/10 an excellent Batman film to be sure. Not without flaws (bats effectively killed a guy afterall), but highly entertaining overall
• The Prestige 6.5/10 Not as gripping as everyone say, and not as good as The Illusionist. Good though.
• The Dark Knight 10/10 .....I can't even.....I mean DAMN!
• Inception 8/10 You know for such a cool concept of a story I really wish Leonardo could have been a bit more emotional at certain points in the film. I feel nothing for him when he is talking to his wife. Also Nolan should have figured out more ways to get across information in this film by showing us rather than telling us every last detail. All that being said this had cool action, cool visuals, and a cool story.
• The Dark Knight Rises 7.5/10 plotholes large enough to drive a truck through, and villain that couldn't get emotion across due to  covered face (don't get me started on the poor dub of Bain's voice), but still somehow a decent enough film. I just wish it had been as good as TDK.

http://whatculture.com/film/50-reasons-why-terminator-2-is-the-greatest-film-of-all-time.php

[QUOTE="Jankarcop"]

Terminator 2 and Aliens are my top films. But I chose Nolan. 

 

Why? Simple. Nolan is better than Cameron NOW. Avatar was garbage compared to the Bat Trilogy and Inception. Thats 4 films while Cameron made 1 garbage one in the same time span.  He sucks now. Stick to going underwater.

 

FreedomFreeLife

Avatar is great movie. It earned more than Batman trilogy total!

Box office proved that people watched it 3 time more than Batman Trilogy total in cinema. No, don´t say it was 3D thing becuase i remember when it came out, people re-watched it so many times because it is good movie. It has story and message what Batman Trilogy does not have. Batman is just about fighting against bad guys while Avatar is so much more. Dark Knight Rises was garbage.

uhhh

[QUOTE="Jankarcop"]

Terminator 2 and Aliens are my top films. But I chose Nolan. 

 

Why? Simple. Nolan is better than Cameron NOW. Avatar was garbage compared to the Bat Trilogy and Inception. Thats 4 films while Cameron made 1 garbage one in the same time span.  He sucks now. Stick to going underwater.

 

FreedomFreeLife

Avatar is great movie. It earned more than Batman trilogy total!

Box office proved that people watched it 3 time more than Batman Trilogy total in cinema. No, don´t say it was 3D thing becuase i remember when it came out, people re-watched it so many times because it is good movie. It has story and message what Batman Trilogy does not have. Batman is just about fighting against bad guys while Avatar is so much more. Dark Knight Rises was garbage.

[QUOTE="FreedomFreeLife"]

[QUOTE="Jankarcop"]

Terminator 2 and Aliens are my top films. But I chose Nolan. 

 

Why? Simple. Nolan is better than Cameron NOW. Avatar was garbage compared to the Bat Trilogy and Inception. Thats 4 films while Cameron made 1 garbage one in the same time span.  He sucks now. Stick to going underwater.

 

Serraph105

Avatar is great movie. It earned more than Batman trilogy total!

Box office proved that people watched it 3 time more than Batman Trilogy total in cinema. No, don´t say it was 3D thing becuase i remember when it came out, people re-watched it so many times because it is good movie. It has story and message what Batman Trilogy does not have. Batman is just about fighting against bad guys while Avatar is so much more. Dark Knight Rises was garbage.

The Day After Tomorrow is crap.

 Avatar story is alone more original than a whole Batman trilogy beucase Batman is just a cop who fights against bad guys, every superhero movies has same plot. Avatar, when you see other race, then war and love beetween it? And all just beucase of money? None movies.

Avatar message was not about environment but about god damn humans. This is really happening, look at Iraq, Afganistan, again USA went to army just to get money, in Avatar it same way, they went there to get money. If you can´t have a money, then you just going to kill everyone to get money. It has political message too.

FreedomFreeLife

[QUOTE="FreedomFreeLife"]Avatar message was not about environment but about god damn humans. This is really happening, look at Iraq, Afganistan, again USA went to army just to get money, in Avatar it same way, they went there to get money. If you can´t have a money, then you just going to kill everyone to get money. It has political message too.

PannicAtack

Avatar showed what is happening today. You should open your god damn eyes. How can you say terrorist attacked USA and USA went to kill terrorist when they did for theimselves? Oh look Vietnam war too...

[QUOTE="PannicAtack"]

[QUOTE="FreedomFreeLife"]Avatar message was not about environment but about god damn humans. This is really happening, look at Iraq, Afganistan, again USA went to army just to get money, in Avatar it same way, they went there to get money. If you can´t have a money, then you just going to kill everyone to get money. It has political message too.

FreedomFreeLife

Avatar showed what is happening today. You should open your god damn eyes. How can you say terrorist attacked USA and USA went to kill terrorist when they did for theimselves? Oh look Vietnam war too...

And all your song and dance about "this is what's actually happening" is completely irrelevant when we are talking about the merits of something as a movie. And as a movie, Avatar falls short because of its trite plot and terrible characters.

[QUOTE="FreedomFreeLife"]

[QUOTE="PannicAtack"]And guess what? Avatar's political message is a load of crap because literally everything the main character does, he does out of selfishness. The story has no place trying to be an anti-war commentary when it itself is pro-war out of its ass.

PannicAtack

Avatar showed what is happening today. You should open your god damn eyes. How can you say terrorist attacked USA and USA went to kill terrorist when they did for theimselves? Oh look Vietnam war too...

And all your song and dance about "this is what's actually happening" is completely irrelevant when we are talking about the merits of something as a movie. And as a movie, Avatar falls short because of its trite plot and terrible characters.

[QUOTE="PannicAtack"]

[QUOTE="FreedomFreeLife"]Then why did he fight against humans if it was pro-war?

Avatar showed what is happening today. You should open your god damn eyes. How can you say terrorist attacked USA and USA went to kill terrorist when they did for theimselves? Oh look Vietnam war too...

FreedomFreeLife

And all your song and dance about "this is what's actually happening" is completely irrelevant when we are talking about the merits of something as a movie. And as a movie, Avatar falls short because of its trite plot and terrible characters.

James Cameron.

Christopher Nolan