We make fun of him for Avatar… and truthfully, I did too. Though I was late for my theatre screening of this movie because my friend decided to be a complete fool and not show up on time. So I sat front row at a 3-D movie, and honestly didn’t know if I came away hating the movie or my experience.

I also find the hubbub around the Avatar sequels stupid. This movie came out 11 years ago, I don’t care that it was the highest grossing movie of the year. It’s Pocahontas in space.

But then I was forced to watch Aliens and Terminator 2 this weekend, and guess what? They slap. (SPOILER ALERT FOR TERMINATOR 2 AND ALIENS… But it’s also been decades so…)

Sure, the dialogue is so brittle and hollow it might as well be an IKEA bookshelf. But I think they more than make up for it with their memorable set pieces and ability to deliver a sequel that gives us everything we loved about the first movie with new and surprising twists.

Alien to Aliens was a great feat. But Cameron gave us suspense, jump scares, and not only elevated the iconic Xenomorph puppet (without it looking like a reverse Mermaid, but beetle instead of fish) but gave us the Xenomorph Queen costume.

He also turned Sigourney Weaver into an action star, and made Ripley an even more iconic female lead than before. While the end was a bit of a copout, giving Ripley a pseudo family with Newt gave her more complex femininity without compromising her rough lead exterior. Ripley in the first movie was kind of… Just a crew member? But this movie gave her lead roll more meat to chew on. Plus you know, flamethrowers.

Cameron also flipped a lot of tropes established in the first movie on its head, with Bishop actually being a good Android. He also loves his little chekhov’s guns with that mech suit! I think I just liked Aliens better because I don’t like spooky scary stuff, and that was the first one… Not that this movie didn’t have it’s moments, because it did!

Terminator 2 was also a subversion of expectations, as Arnold Schwarzenegger was set up in the same way as the first movie, but then turned into being the good guy. Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor also progressed quite a bit since the first movie from being a little bit of a frightened young women to a hardcore survivalist freak (in a good way)!

Also, the set pieces in Teminator 2 were iconic? I mean, Aliens had the knife game that Bishop plays to “GAME OVER MAN.” But nothing will be better than some of Arnolds lines:

"Come with me if you want to live”

“Hasta la vista, baby!”

Truly moments in culture.

But what I think stood out in these movies are their climatic moments. Each movie carried their climaxes with a suspense and grandiosity that would make Michael Bay quake!! Ripley plowing through Xenomorphs with her flamethrower, killing all the eggs and sending the Queen packing into space. Exploding the tech lab that leads them to the smelting construction site; liquid nitrogen freezing the T-1000 only for LAVA to heat it back up with Arnold clawing his way over a gear and grenade launching him into the lava. These movie… WOW.

That’s just these movies. I haven’t even talked about Titanic, which was the highest grossing movie BEFORE Cameron beat it… He beat his own record…

So yeah, let this man do whatever he wants. He’s more than earned it. Especially a sequel!

That’s it… Thanks for Reading!