James Cameron has been at the helm of iconic big-budget, visually stunning films such as The Terminator, Titanic, Avatar, The Abyss, and Aliens. This has led a section of ardent cinephiles to argue that his films lean more toward spectacle than engaging storytelling. However, in a recent interview, the screenwriter of Project Hail Mary, Drew Goddard, has come to Cameron’s defense, championing him as an exceptional storyteller.
James Cameron is more than just spectacle, argues Drew Goddard
In an interview with Variety, while discussing Project Hail Mary—his second adaptation of an Andy Weir novel after The Martian—Drew Goddard defended James Cameron’s ability to weave “profoundly emotional” stories within visually expansive settings. In doing so, he cited several of Cameron’s films to illustrate his point.
Referring to The Terminator, Goddard explained that Sarah Connor serves as the emotional anchor of the film, as she grapples with the chaos brought on by a robot sent from the future.
“If you look at The Terminator, it’s a profoundly emotional film. It’s not just about a robot who shows up to kill people. It’s about this woman and how she deals with this chaos,” the screenwriter said.
“From my point of view, for big event movies, there’s nobody better at structure than [James Cameron],” he added.
Moreover, in the epic Titanic, the Martian screenwriter highlighted that Cameron explored the dynamic between Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater against the backdrop of the ship sinking after hitting an iceberg. “If you look at something like Titanic, we meet two kids, they fall in love, we root for them, the ship hits the iceberg, right?” he said.
Similarly, in The Abyss, the screenwriter pointed out that the focus was on a couple trying to save their marriage amid an encounter with an alien species living deep in Earth’s oceans.
“Look at The Abyss, there’s a couple trying to put their marriage back together when they encounter this fantastic thing. Both these movies are about two individuals dealing with these big emotional things in the middle of wildly complicated situations,” he noted.
Goddard effectively underscored that even if Cameron’s films are big-budget spectacles, they remain grounded in emotional, human stories. Safe to say, the Titanic director has mastered the art of building emotional stakes between relatable characters and placing them in massive, escalating crises. While the filmmaker may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it would be difficult to deny that this formula has translated into remarkable box office success.
