james cameron | the m0vie blog

437. Predator: Badlands – All-ien 2025 (#—)

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Jess Dunne, this week with special guest Emma Keily, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands.

And alien hunter named Dek is given an opportunity to prove himself by travelling to the hostile world of Genna and hunting the deadly kalisk, a beast so fearsome that the legends say it cannot be killed. In the hostile jungle, Dek finds unlikely allies and unexpected enemies.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: action, all-ien, cgi, colonialism, dek, emma kiely, film, graphic, horror, imdb, james cameron, jess dunne, masculinity, Movie, podcast, predator, predator: badlands, vietnam, violence | Leave a comment »

428. Aliens – Special Edition (#64)

Posted on July 19, 2025 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, James Cameron’s Aliens.

57 years after the destruction of the Nostromo, Ellen Ripley is found adrift in space. Her account of a strange encounter with a monstrous creature is met with ridicule and scorn, particularly considering the colonisation of planetoid LV-426, where Ripley claimed to have found the alien. However, when the colony suddenly falls silent, it becomes clear that Ripley may not be entirely free of her trauma.

At time of recording, it was ranked 64th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: alien, aliens, feminism, film, imdb, james cameron, Movie, podcast | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On How James Cameron is Corny as F&!k…

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a fortnightly video companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch every second Monday, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel. And the video will typically be separate from the written content. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

This week, with Avatar: The Way of Water continuing to dominate the global box office, it seemed as good a time as any to look at the life and career of director James Cameron. In particular, what is it that drives Cameron? What’s the glue that holds this director’s filmography together? It’s a fascinating deep dive on one of the most successful filmmakers of all-time.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: aliens, avatar, avatar: the way of water, Cameron, james cameron, masculinity, the way of water, titanic | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Avatar: The Way of Water is Visually Stunning, Narratively Fine”

Posted on December 20, 2022 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie and television reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a five-minute film review Avatar: The Way of Water, which was released in cinemas this weekend.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avatar: the way of water, escapist, jake sully, james cameron, neytiri, review, the escapist, the way of water, titanic, water | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Avatar: The Way of Water” is an Archetypal James Cameron Movie…

Posted on December 16, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the looming release of Avatar: The Way of Water, it seemed like a good time to take a look at Cameron’s aquatic, which might be his most personal and intimate movie ever.

Cameron’s filmography is interesting and varied, working in a number of genres and registers across his career. However, he has a set of familiar preoccupations: water, industrialisation, militarism, environmentalist, parenthood, feminism and so on. However, it’s fascinating that one of the most consistent threads across Cameron’s filmography is an evolving idea of family. Cameron’s epics are often stories of families pulling themselves together in the face of crisis. The Way of Water is no different.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: aliens, aquatic, avatar, avatar: the way of water, family, fatherhood, filmography, found family, james cameron, Movies, the terminator, themes, True Lies | Leave a comment »

New Irish Independent Column! On James Cameron’s Big Bet on “Avatar: The Way of the Water”…

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Irish Independent this evening. With the looming release of Avatar: The Way of Water, it seemed worth taking a look at James Cameron’s approach to the sequel.

Over the past few years, it has become quite common for critics to argue that Avatar has no cultural footprint, that nobody can remember the names of its leads or it villains. This is interesting, because it offers a very modern conception of a “cultural footprint”, one that makes sense after decades of comic book movies have imprinted characters like Thanos and Doctor Strange on the public consciousness. Cameron isn’t releasing a blockbuster to compete with these films. Instead, he’s hoping that his sequel can make money by appealing to an older ideal of the cinematic experience.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avatar, avatar: the way of water, irish independent, james cameron, the independent | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On Modern Hollywood’s Daliance with Decadence…

Posted on December 9, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. The year’s awards season has a whiff of decadence about it. Movies seem to be getting longer. Directors are making autobiographical movies about their own childhoods. There’s a fascination with tearing down old Hollywood myths.

Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the re-emergence of water tank movies, of expensive blockbusters set in and around water. After all, water is expensive and dangerous. More than that, there’s no real evidence that audiences are particularly enthused or excited by water, it’s simply something that costs a lot of money to do. Throughout Hollywood’s history, whenever the blockbuster industry drives itself into a heated frenzy, movies embrace the water. James Cameron has always been riding te crest of that particular wave.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avatar, avatar: the way of water, black panther: wakande forever, escapist, in the frame, james cameron, speed 2: cruise control, splash, the abyss, titanic, water | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Spookies Podcast – “Fanboy Industrial Complex II: With Darren Mooney”

Posted on December 8, 2022 by Darren

I was thrilled to be invited to join the wonderful Michael and Stephanie Little for an episode of their new podcast, The Spookies Podcast.

It was a fun conversation, if a little bit chaotic. We got to talk about everything from Aquaman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: Way of Water, through to the state of the Star Wars brand, and even to the differences between Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

You can listen directly to the episode below or by clicking here.

Filed under: Movies, Podcasts!, Television | Tagged: aquaman, avatar: the way of water, better call saul, Breaking Bad, james cameron, saul goodman, star wars, vince gilligan | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On How “Aliens” Responds to “Alien”…

Posted on July 13, 2021 by Darren

So, as I have mentioned before, I am launching a new video series as a companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch with every second Monday’s article, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel the following week. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

This month, with Aliens celebrating its thirty-fifth anniversary, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the film. In particular, how James Cameron designed one of the great sequels by refusing to simply repeat what worked about the original Alien. Instead, Aliens works in large part because it actively responds to and engages with Alien, in a way that enriches both films.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: alien, aliens, escapist, feminism, gender roles, james cameron, motherhood, omar ahmed, stereotypes, the escapist, video | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On James Cameron’s “Aliens” as a Challenge to Ridley Scott’s “Alien”…

Posted on July 5, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. James Cameron’s Aliens is thirty-five years old this July, so it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at one of the best sequels ever made.

Aliens works in large part because it’s smart enough to avoid directly challenging Alien, in that it avoids simply recycling the original formula with a shift in location or with a new cast. Instead, it offers a very different approach to the core material. More than that, James Cameron positions Aliens as a direct challenge to Alien, deliberately and pointedly inverting some of the core themes of the original film. This choice enriches both films, turning Alien and Aliens into a conversation.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.