by Chris Petersen

I am kind of known for having a dislike of James Cameron. While he has created some of the most entertaining films of the last 20-25 years, he is kind of a snob and seems to have completely disconnected himself from being a human. I was not a fan of his comments about Piranha 3D, which you can read about here, because he was trashing a director about production quality, particularly 3D, who didn’t nearly have the millions upon billions that Cameron could call upon. Plus, he just completely missed the point that the film was a satirical homage, and so on and so forth.

But, while I despise him, I have to agree with his recent comments in an interview with the German website, Spiegel Online, about the upcoming Peter Berg film, Battleship, which is based on the Hasbro board game. Here is what he had to say about it:

“We have a story crisis. Now they want to make the Battleship game into a film. This is pure desperation. Everyone in Hollywood knows how important it is that a film is a brand before it hit theaters. If a brand has been around, Harry Potter for example, or Spider-Man, you are light years ahead. And there lies the problem. Because unfortunately these franchises are become more ridiculous. Battleship. This degrades the cinema.”

Yes, it does, Jimmy. Films that are attached to brand are far more likely to get the greenlight and the funding than original projects. Great directors and filmmakers really have to prove themselves over the years, with little to no funding, before their projects find the light of day and receive recognition. Hollywood knows that the average moviegoer is going to stick to what they know, they are like sheep, following a name they recognize, rather than branching out to find truly great films. If they see a brand they know, they are going to go to it, even if it lets them down time and time again, complain about it, and then fall prey to the same scheme as before.

Even with all this criticism of Hollywood, it will probably not change until the average moviegoer stops rewarding them for their dastardly schemes. It is getting to the point where not only are people not smart enough to stop giving Hollywood their money for crap, they are starting to believe that the cinematic garbage is actually good. Did you see the People’s Choice Awards? How can Grown Ups and Twilight Saga: Eclipse actually win Best Comedy and Best Picture? This wasn’t just the MTV Movie Awards, this was the People’s Choice Awards. The people are dumb enough to think that this stuff is actually good, probably because they didn’t go to see anything that actually was, because it wasn’t familiar or flashy.

Even though I agree with James Cameron this time, I have to pause and question his originality as well. He is making an Avatar 2/3, and he made a sequel to Terminator, and only tried to improve on Ridley Scott’s success with Aliens. Also, Avatar wasn’t really original either. Yeah, it looked great visually, but just look at this mash up of the story of Pocahontas vs. the story of Avatar.

What are your thoughts about Cameron’s comments? Is he right? Or should he just keep his mouth shut?