James Cameron is a renown directors is is known for many known titles such as, “Titanic” and “Terminator” but he two films that are being brought into comparison are his sci-fi space themed films “Avatar” and “Aliens.” Avatar follows the the heroic journey of Jake Sully, who is a disabled war veteran on the alien moon “Pandora.” Jake has loss his ability to walk but on Pandora he’s giving the opportunity to change that. The native aliens of Pandora are called the “Na’vi” and are a race of advanced blue creatures that resemble humans. The purpose of the humans being there in the first place is to mine and collects Pandora’s resources, taking it form the native Na’vi people. Jake is assigned to talk to the Na’vi people and find out information about them, through “becoming” a Na’vi creature by putting his conscious into a vessel of sorts called a “Avatar.” If Jake does this, the corneal promised to give Jake a surgery that would restore his ability to walk. With interacting with the Na’vi, Jake ends up falling in love with one of them and embracing and participating in their rituals and culture and eventually fights back against the humans when they move in to attack/kill the Na’vi to steal their resources and ends with the Na’vi and Jake winning the fight. This film all round was one of James Cameron’s most visually stunning scenes and memorable messages. “Aliens” on the other hand I would say is a little different. Aliens is a sequel film that follows Ripley, a strong woman who has felt with the Alien before and is asked to help when the species is found again. Ripley ends up going to a planet with a squad of marines where the aliens where known to be and after finding all the colonizers there dead, get stranded there with tons of these creatures consistently trying to attack and kill them. Throughout the film, Ripley is shown in some pretty awesome scenes where she does great in being a strong independent role. The movie had a lot of really cool effects but nothing compared the CGI that was shown throughout Avatar. Although these films had some differences, I feel they both were able to use different types of special effects/technology to talk about and show different stances on social issues.

As said by Roger Ebert, “Avatar is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It’s a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war message.” This quote I would have to agree with 100%, Avatar not only displays crazy visual effects to draw in its crowds, but uses those special effects in crazy ways to get the messages across of “anti-war” and “green” peace. Throughout the film, James Cameron does a great way to get the point across of this, with the plot being centered around the symbolic “white man” coming in and driving out the indigenous people to steal their resources while destroying families and their cultures. Another quote from PluggedIn that helps support this is, “And, as mentioned, the film’s environmental message is set against this spiritual backdrop.”Avatar doesnt only show the Na’vi resources being threatened, but also the “spiritual” rituals and culture that they hold so close and worship. James Cameron does a amazing job at touching on these social issues while also giving a visually awesome story in return. The amount of work put into this film visually can be seen alone in the trailer and moi poster, where the realisticness of the Na’vi people is easily visible and just the beautiful scenery on the planet is outstanding. Aliens on the other hand has a couple messages, but I feel goes about it in a completely different way.

Aliens is a film that stars Sigourney Weaver as the main character, something I feel is little unconventional and not usually seen. I feel James Cameron is able to make the character Ripley look strong and brave by putting her in these scary situations when fighting these aliens. One quote from Roger Ebert says, “The ads for “Aliens” claim that this movie will frighten you as few movies have, and, for once, the ads don’t lie.” I believe this connects to the overall vibe the movie gives, with lots of scary scenes throughout while Sigourney Weaver always fighting through and coming out on top. Another quote to support this comes from the HollywoodReporter, saying “Cameron isn’t as concerned with scares or atmosphere, the staples of traditional horror films, as he is with setting up difficult situations for his characters to get out of, leaving audiences deliciously on edge.” Throughout the movie Ripley is placed in back against the war situations and every time uses her smarts and headstrong thinking to fight back, shown within the movies poster with Ripley standing on top wielding a large gun.

This idea of a head strong women lead can be seen throughout the film, specifically with the last scene at the film where Ripley is seen being in a giant mech fighting off the alien at the end of the movie.

So overall, I would have to say that James Cameron is able to represent different social issues throughout his films by amazing use of effects and technology. Cameron’s hit blockbusters are able to represent and shed some light on what he thinks about these issues. Avatar and Aliens do this in different ways and different themes, but both are able to hold audiences attention and keep watching through Cameron’s use of crazy technology to produce these experiences that made you feel like you were in the film.