The world has been astonished by the best James Cameron movies several times throughout his career, which covers many decades.
His storytelling abilities have transported audiences to various universes, including far-flung fantasy, realistic settings, and everything. Even now, several of his action movies are ranked among the top ones.
It’s a résumé that makes ranking the man’s entire filmography challenging and fun. The quality and skill of the works produced may be used to rank and classify even the most well-known professions.
Yet, criticism is not one of the things that Cameron’s works are immune to. Below is a list of the best James Cameron movies.
1. True Lies (1994)
- Director: James Cameron
- Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Art Malik, and Eliza Dushku
- IMDb rating: 7.3/10
James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger go together like peanut butter and chocolate in Hollywood.
Although they only worked on a few movies, each deserves to be considered among the greatest action movies ever created.
The high-concept narrative of Terminator and Aliens is abandoned in True Lies in favor of a more traditional Hollywood action movie.
It may not quite have the same level of personalization as some of the best James Cameron movies, but it certainly succeeds in its objectives.
True Lies also gets huge marks for giving Jamie Lee Curtis’ character plenty of attention, and Schwarzenegger is at the height of his gun-toting, wisecracking performance.
True Lies is also among the best James Cameron movies that are funny, even though the marital conflict narrative doesn’t hold up over time.
In retrospect, Schwarzenegger’s action movie career and Hollywood action movies, in general, seem like they are coming to an end with True Lies. They are no longer produced in this manner.
2. Piranha II: The Spawning (1981)
- Director: James Cameron, Ovidio G. Assonitis, Miller Drake
- Cast: Tricia O’Neil, Steve Marachuk, Lance Henriksen, Ricky Paull Goldin, Ted Richert, Leslie Graves, and Carole Davis
- IMDb rating: 3.8/10
While Piranha II: The Spawning is recorded as James Cameron’s first directing credit, many things can be argued about its production that would relieve him of blame.
Cameron took over the project after being hired to fill in for the original director, only to have the movie he filmed altered by a producer who recut the picture in his image.
Piranha II: The Spawning is the lowest-quality movie, despite its several cuts.
The result is quite at home in the discount section of B-horror movies, even though his abilities for effects are beginning to show some promise in directing a movie.
Even at his worst, James Cameron would never again descend to these levels, so your pleasure may vary.
The fact that the inexperienced Cameron, hired after working for B-movie legend Roger Corman, was regularly at odds with executive producer Ovidio G. Assonitis didn’t help.
It’s unclear how much of the movie was truly directed by Cameron and how much was Assonitis’s original concept.
Piranha II has a few positive aspects, so it’s not the worst way to begin a directorial career.
Several of the monster effects in the 1986 movie Aliens were made possible thanks to the prosthetics work.
Not to add, Piranha 2 marked the beginning of Cameron and actor Lance Henriksen’s lengthy and successful collaboration. This is undoubtedly one of the best James Cameron movies.
3. The Abyss (1989)
- Director: James Cameron
- Cast: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn, Leo Burmester, Todd Graff, John Bedford Lloyd, and J.C. Quinn
- IMDb rating: 7.5/10
Oceans are fascinating to humans. The ocean may be both fascinating and frightening.
This paradox is the foundation for James Cameron’s sci-fi movie The Abyss 1989, which has an intriguing idea but uneven execution.
An American submarine sinks into The Abyss after colliding with an unknown object.
A small squad of SEALs is sent to aid a group of scientists in finding the lost sub as the Soviets are rapidly closing in, and a hurricane is likely to impede the Navy’s rescue attempts.
The Abyss excels in creating three-dimensional people from underwater outlaws, and viewers care about each of them, especially Bud and Lindsey.
The psychological anguish of being confined in a tiny room with limitless amounts of water surrounding them is felt by viewers.
The protagonists’ surprise meeting with an extraterrestrial presence on the ocean below also gives them a sense of the thrill of discovery.
As in many other best James Cameron movies, the music does a fantastic job of drawing viewers in and enhancing the atmosphere.
Also, this is the first time a photo-realistic character has been created using CGI for a film. The liquid metal antagonist from Terminator 2 was developed due to the pseudopod tentacle.
Even without the ultimate director’s cut, The Abyss was a lengthy and somewhat tedious movie.
However, it is still a good genre picture with more going on than the ordinary movie about alien invaders and the people they visit. This is undoubtedly one of the best James Cameron movies.
4. Avatar (2009)
- Director: James Cameron
- Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, and Joel David Moore
- IMDb rating: 7.9/10
Avatar is one of the best James Cameron movies. Although it’s widely acknowledged that the plot of James Cameron’s 2009 masterpiece is rather simple, if not straight out of previous movies, the movie isn’t a complete loss.
If anything, the world-building and photo-realistic effects work that went into making Avatar were its greatest strengths.
When you think about Avatar, the scene when Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully addresses the Pandoran populace won’t be the first thing that comes to mind.
Instead, the narrative of the RDA vs. the Na’vi seems like a sci-fi Dances With Wolves.
However, you’ll remember how beautiful that planet was and all the stories that might be told beneath its suns.
It’s something that today’s franchise directors want to instill in those who watch their movies.
Moreover, it seems that the effort is already bearing fruit.
5. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
- Director: James Cameron
- Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, and Joel David Moore
- IMDb rating: 7.8/10
This movie is one of the best James Cameron movies. This sequel was made even more difficult by the setbacks that caused Avatar: The Way of Water to be out more than ten years after the first.
James Cameron has primarily bet on his potential entertainment powerhouse, taking his time to create the technologies that would help move his vision for the rest of the narrative forward.
The response from the audience suggests that the risk is going to succeed.
The second Avatar movie from 20th Century Studios, which continues the story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his expanding family on Pandora, is already superior to the first.
The whole chapters of the story highlight those lovely advancements with genuine heart, and the graphics are more spectacular than ever.
Avatar 2 may be lengthy and too ambitious, but it still has eyes larger than its stomach. Better or worse, The Way of Water would have been perfectly at home being released in the last decade.
Some of the same criticisms and accolades for the previous movie immediately apply to this one.
To return to something as imposing as Avatar and provide the same kind of broad appeal that captivated the audience in 2009 is a remarkable feat.
6. Titanic (1997)
- Director: James Cameron
- Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, and Bill Paxton
- IMDb rating: 7.9/10
It never pays to doubt James Cameron, as Titanic proves. What many anticipated would be a monumentally costly waste of money was a box office smash that equaled Ben-Hur for the most Academy Awards won by a single movie.
While delivering his notorious Oscars address, Cameron wasn’t lying. In 1998, he was indeed the king of the world.
Titanic skillfully demonstrates Cameron’s talent for fusing grand epics with intense personal drama.
Due to its meticulous reproduction of the notoriously lost ocean liner and the Romeo and Juliet-like romance, the movie captures viewers’ attention from the beginning.
The heartbreaking third act follows, in which the gorgeous vessel falls apart at the seams, and the frantic struggle for life occurs.
It’s difficult to see Titanic without feeling emotionally spent afterward. It didn’t, however, stop moviegoers from visiting the cinema again.
7. The Terminator (1984)
- Director: James Cameron
- Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Rick Rossovich, Bess Motta, and Earl Boen
- IMDb rating: 8.1/10
In 1984, viewers were unaware of how prophetic Arnold Schwarzenegger’s words would be.
The Terminator was a lean, gritty sci-fi/action movie before it became a franchise and a household name.
The idea of a killer robot being sent back in time to assassinate the human race’s savior might have made for a fun but straightforward thriller movie.
Cameron, though, exploits the idea to the farthest extent possible.
While evading the invincible Terminator, Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor develop a genuine relationship that finally results in a sad but hopeful ending.
Even after 25 years, The Terminator’s technological accomplishments are still amazing.
Even if, by today’s standards, the Terminator vs. Sarah stop-motion battle scene is a little clumsy, Cameron’s depiction of a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles is nonetheless breathtaking. Reese’s visions of the future give his struggle perspective and depth.
Also, Arnold’s Terminator is one of the greatest villains in modern cinema.
Even though Arnold’s terminator would ultimately be recast as a hero, this machine within a man’s body still gives many nightmares.
This is undoubtedly one of the best James Cameron movies.
8. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
- Director: James Cameron
- Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick, Earl Boen, Joe Morton, and S. Epatha Merkerson
- IMDb rating: 8.6/10
In the past, Hollywood produced sequels more to cash in on the first movie’s success than to recreate its charm.
The best example of a blockbuster sequel surpassing its predecessor is probably Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The fact that Cameron in Terminator 2 had greater expertise and financial resources certainly helped. Cameron and his crew gave a shape-shifting enemy composed of pure, liquid metal life by building on the ground-breaking CGI work in The Abyss.
Wait until you see Robert Patrick’s unrelenting T-1000 if you thought a huge cyborg with an Austrian accent was scary.
Terminator 2, more than any other best James Cameron movies before or subsequently, does a masterful job of balancing thrilling action sequences with intense emotional drama.
The first movie’s plot is a closed loop in which the present influences the past.
Terminator 2 interrupted that cycle and served as a timely reminder that the future is entirely up to everyone.
The movie explores whether Schwarzenegger’s character can grow beyond being a killing machine.
Even the countless later sequels cannot be held accountable for falling short of T2’s standard. This is among the best James Cameron movies.
9. Aliens (1986)
- Director: James Cameron
- Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and William Hope
- IMDb rating: 8.4/10
Aliens is a wonderful movie that masterfully blends character growth, terror, and action into a plot that may have been flimsy in the hands of a less talented director.
In this follow-up, Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley returns to LV-426, where she first met the Xenomorph in the 1979 movie Alien.
A colony of laborers and their families have moved onto that desolate planet, ringing the dinner bell for the Xenomorphs and their hideous Queen.
Aliens succeed in shifting to a more action-oriented kind of science fiction, even if the original movie is one of the best claustrophobic horror movies ever made.
Aliens still use a less approach to highlight the bloody clashes between the Xenomorphs and Weyland-elite Yutani’s Colonial Marines team, even if this is consistent with the franchise’s origins.
Viewers are kept on the edge of their seats by Cameron’s choice to retain Ripley and her little charge Newt as the movie’s emotional center, despite the growing dangers surrounding them.
The Power Loader vs. Alien Queen battle, accompanied by James Horner’s epic music, makes Aliens one of the best James Cameron movies ever produced.
