James Cameron Praises ‘Terminator: Genisys,’ Calling It ‘The Third Film’ Of The Franchise

James Cameron directed the two highest-grossing movies of all time, Titanic and Avatar, but probably has the most artistic street cred for Terminator and T2. Artistic cred is something the latest Terminator movie, Terminator: Genisys is decidedly lacking at the moment (with less than a month to go before its July 1 release), on account of some terrible looking early leaked photos and a name that sounds like a prog rock album. Which is why it’s news that James Cameron has come out in favor of it.

[Cameron] released a statement to USA TODAY saying he’s a fan of the new one — even if he didn’t write or direct it.

“If you watch a film where you’re going on a journey, you’re following the story, and you care about the characters, then you can put the pedal to the metal and the action can be relentless. It gives you that kind of body experience where it’s exhilarating, where you’re actually getting an adrenaline rush.  That’s what I fought for in the first two films and I think this film delivers in exactly the same way.”

This in contrast to the lead up to Terminator: Salvation, about which Cameron was pretty cagey. In the accompanying video (I’ve posted it below – be warned, it looks pretty spoilery), Cameron says:

“In the new film which in my mind I think of as the third film, we see Arnold take the character even farther.”

I can’t tell if him calling Terminator: Genisys (I’m going to get an aneurysm from having to remember the correct misspelling of that title) the third Terminator movie was a stone cold diss of the Rise of the Machines and Salvation (directed by Jonathan Mostow and McG, respectively) or if he just means that the timeline of this one takes place after T2 and before those. I prefer to interpret it as the former to make it more interesting.

I’m tempted to assume that this announcement is just James Cameron doing some shill work for a franchise he probably still has a financial stake in, but I have to consider the source: it’s James Cameron. I can’t imagine James Cameron even slows his mega yacht for less than eight figures.

[protected-iframe id=”1d9a3a0aeafb0af84b182baa4d49925b-60970621-60061059″ info=”https://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isSlim=1″ width=”640″ height=”390″]

×