James Cameron will almost certainly be remembered as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Aliens, and Titanic are among his most beloved directing efforts and then there's...Avatar.
While the 2009 movie was a jaw-dropping technical achievement, it drew criticism for what some felt was a so-so story and "cringeworthy" dialogue which his blockbusters have often come under fire for over the decades.
Talking to Empire Online about the 40th anniversary of The Terminator, Cameron said, "I don’t think of it as some Holy Grail, that’s for sure. I look at it now and there are parts of it that are pretty cringe-worthy, and parts of it that are like, 'Yeah, we did pretty well for the resources we had available.'"
He added, "I don’t cringe on any of the dialogue, but I have a lower cringe factor than, apparently, a lot of people do around the dialogue that I write. You know what? Let me see your three-out-of-the-four-highest-grossing films - then we’ll talk about dialogue effectiveness."
Cameron is referring to Avatar ($2.9 billion), Avatar: The Way of Water ($2.3 billion), and Titanic ($2.2 billion). Ultimately, he's not wrong; "cringe" dialogue or not, moviegoers have embraced his movies and made them some of the biggest hits in history.
Of course, this isn't the first time the filmmaker has hit back at his critics. In 2022, he lashed out at those complaining about Avatar: The Way of Water's mammoth three-hour runtime.
"I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours," he said at the time. "I can almost write this part of the review. 'The agonizingly long three-hour movie...' It’s like, give me a f*cking break. I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row. Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it’s okay to get up and go pee."
"The trolls will have it that nobody gives a shit and they can’t remember the characters’ names or one damn thing that happened in the movie," Cameron said of Avatar's biggest haters. "Then they see the movie again and go, ‘Oh, okay, excuse me, let me just shut the [frick] up right now.’ So I’m not worried about that."
Love or hate Avatar, those movies are dominating this stage of Cameron's career and Avatar: Fire and Ash is up next on December 19, 2025.