Christopher Nolan vs James Cameron

Which director do you like more? After seeing how the Fincher comparison went, decided to post this as both are blockbuster directors with different style and ambition.



It's a close one but I am going with Nolan due to the Batman films and Inception, and his various genres and mix of soundtrack, acting and spectacle films other than the tighter stories like Memento and Prestige.

I really wouldn't know who to put above the other...

1. NOLAN - Memento
2. CAMERON - The Terminator
3. CAMERON - Aliens
4. NOLAN - The Prestige
5. CAMERON - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
6. CAMERON - Titanic
7. NOLAN - Following
8. CAMERON - True Lies
9. NOLAN - Inception
10. NOLAN - Insomnia
11. NOLAN - The Dark Knight
12. CAMERON - The Abyss
13. NOLAN - Batman Begins
14. CAMERON - Avatar
15. NOLAN - The Dark Knight Rises
16. NOLAN - Interstellar

Like I said on the other thread, I haven't seen The Abyss in probably more than 20 years, so that's a ranking that should be taken with a grain of salt.

Also, the Top 4 are more or less a toss-up, but I do think Memento gets a slight edge over the others.

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I'd recommend giving a watch to Tenet, it's a decent spy movie with twists and a gimmick

Yeah, I have it (and Dunkirk) on the agenda.

+1, they should be better than Interstellar and TDKR for you XD

I guess so, even though I’m a big fan of TDKR tbh.

I thought I'd clicked onto the James Cameron vs David Fincher thread. They're starting to blur together.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Dunno, I wrote "better director" just to differentiate them.

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...d.php?&t=63168

What are your thoughts anyways?

In this case, I think I'll give it to Cameron. As Holden Pike noted elsewhere, it's hard to compare Cameron against other directors because he's less prolific (he's only done two narrative features in the time it's taken Nolan to build his entire body of work) so I think in this case I have to judge on a film-by-film basis. As a result, I think he gets the edge because of his Terminator films and Aliens, all of which I find myself returning to more than anything Nolan has done. Memento is the only Nolan film that really comes close to matching those films in my estimation while The Prestige and Inception are solid works. Beyond that, neither one of these directors really does that much for me.

I like Nolan about as much at their ceiling and way more in terms of their floor.

Aight but honestly I don’t see an issue with having less films, I mean Malick is the perfect example of quality over quantity (especially post TTOL).

Christopher Nolan is a very pretentious director, but, in that same respect, I have actually come to like that about him in the same way I have come to like that about James Cameron. At times, even the best feature films in cinema can feel safe and familiar, cozied up against what we know and what we are used to, and I appreciate that Nolan actively tries to add his own little quirks and intricacies to them. It shows he cares, maybe? Sometimes I disagree with him, but I know he is talented and I respect his desire to march to the beat of his own drum. In general, the difference between Cameron and Nolan, for me, is that I tend to enjoy nearly every one of Nolan's films I have seen.

I loved Memento. I liked Insomnia. I loved The Prestige. I liked Batman Begins. I loved The Dark Knight. I liked Interstellar, Inception, and The Dark Knight Rises. The only film I can think of of his that I didn't enjoy was Dunkirk, a film I appreciated the technique and execution of, but didn't gel with me as a film.

James Cameron vs. matter

I notoriously dislike Nolan, so Cameron all the way.

Let's refer to the latest Top 100 list provided by Yoda. Nolan is just a tad above a "B" director.