Every James Cameron movie, ranked according to critics

Rotten Tomatoes score: 6%

Synopsis: The 1982 horror film and sequel to "Piranha," marked Cameron's directorial debut, and centered on a diving instructor (Tricia O'Neil), her estranged husband (Lance Henriksen), and a biochemist (Steve Marachuk) as they investigate a series of vicious attacks on tourists at a Caribbean resort, eventually linking them to genetically altered, flying piranhas. (Yes, really.)

Cameron's first film, by and large, is a low-budget, cinematic disaster, rife with bad acting and fake-looking rubber fish. In fact, the director disavowed the film for years until the 1984 release of "The Terminator."

"After special effects work for Roger Corman, who is responsible for the starts of more major careers than any film school, Cameron got his first megaphone gig on this sequel to an early Joe Dante movie, and turned out a soggy dud which shows none of the skills his subsequent monster pictures would demonstrate," wrote critic Kim Newman for Empire Magazine.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 70%

Synopsis: Harry (Arnold Schwarzenegger) leads a double life. To his family, he's just a computer salesman, but in reality, he's a highly skilled agent for the Omega Sector, a secret US government agency.

On one mission, Harry is tasked with tracking down nuclear missiles in the possession of Aziz (Art Malik), an Islamic jihadist. But things get more complicated when he realizes his wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) is on the verge of an affair with a used-car salesman passing himself off as a spy. When Aziz kidnaps Harry and Helen, the secret agent must save the day while fixing his marriage at the same time.

"Once again, the joint force of Schwarzenegger and James Cameron unleash the full power of big-budget filmmaking, exploding the frame with all the filmic firepower of state of the art wizardry and robust storytelling," wrote Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter. "Indeed, Cameron brings his own unique meaning to the words 'over budget': He has put a look on the screen that is way over whatever the budget was."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 78%

Synopsis: Set 13 years after the events of the first film, "Avatar: The Way of Water" revolves around former Marine-turned-Pandoran native Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who is now a Na'vi chief intent on keeping humans from plundering the Na'vi rainforest after having destroyed the environment on Earth.

After being forced to flee their home for the ocean, Jake, his Na'vi mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their four children join the water-based Metkayian clan and learn a new way of life.

Like the first film, Cameron spent years working on "Avatar: The Way of Water," working with Weta Digital and deploying a $350 million to $400 million budget to offer some of the most dazzling special effects on-screen today.

"With an over-three-hour running time, Cameron delivers on not just expanding the mythology of the franchise but creating a story that would still be fully engaging if you had never seen the first one," wrote Insider's Jason Guerrasio. "But just like the first movie, you need to see this one on a massive screen, preferably in 3D. You won't be disappointed."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 82%

Synopsis: Set in 2154, Cameron's visually stunning science-fiction film sees Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora in avatar form as part of a mission to escort Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver).

But when Jake is attacked by Pandoran wildlife, he is rescued by Neytiri, a member of the Na'vi race, a blue-skinned humanoid race native to Pandora.

As Jake and Neytiri fall in love, he finds himself in the unenviable position of uniting the Na'vi tribe to protect Pandora, which has become his home.

Cameron went to painstaking lengths to create the world of Pandora, from hiring a linguist to develop the Na'vi language to using newer technologies, including advanced performance-capture techniques to capture actors' movements. The end result was perhaps the most technologically advanced film of its time.

"Even those unwilling to think about 'Avatar's' major themes can still have a good time, as the movie is an action-packed crowd-pleaser that hits all the right notes," wrote Collider's Marco Vito Oddo, adding the film further resonates with audiences through an underdog story about a broken man who becomes a leader against all odds.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 87%

Synopsis: One of Cameron's crowning achievements, ironically, remains a film about one of the greatest disasters in modern history.

But by pairing the Titanic's sinking in 1912 with a love story between Jack Dawson (Leonardo Dicaprio) and Rose Dewitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), the director managed to humanize the event. The film's painstaking attention to detail and use of special effects in recreating the Titanic were also extremely impressive at the time.

"Titanic" remains a milestone in Cameron's film canon for becoming the director's most successful box-office hit before Avatar, generating nearly $2.2 billion in global box-office sales.

It also catapulted the careers of two already well-known actors, DiCaprio and Winslet, into the stratosphere. And it spawned the hit Celine Dion power ballad, "My Heart Will Go On," which soared to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold 18 million copies.

"DiCaprio and Winslet fall for one another in some remarkably contrived scenes, but their inevitable fate is nevertheless very touching," wrote BBC's Almar Halfidason. "Surrounding them is the opulence of a movie that is technically excellent. The sinking of the great ship is no secret, yet for many exceeded expectations in sheer scale and tragedy. And when you consider that it tops a bum-numbing three-hour running time, then you have a truly impressive feat of entertainment achieved by Cameron."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%

Synopsis: An oil rig team is called upon to locate a nuclear sub that has mysteriously plummeted to the deepest waters of the Caribbean.

The civilian team, which includes Dr. Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and her estranged husband Virgil "Bud" Brigman (Ed Harris), face less-than-ideal conditions: a hurricane is churning up the seas, and because the sub went down roughly 80 miles from Havana, Russian submersibles are suspected.

But as they eventually discover down in the watery abyss, an alien lifeform is the real force behind it all.

"The Abyss," which won an Academy Award in 1990 for best visual effects, remains one of Cameron's more underappreciated films despite glowing reviews from critics, having grossed just $90 million at the global box office.

But the film set a new benchmark for underwater special effects at the time.

"What you see and hear in 'The Abyss' has a you-are-there immediacy that makes other undersea films look hopelessly hokey," wrote Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. "This is monumental, mold-breaking entertainment."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%

Synopsis: Set 11 years after "The Terminator," young John Connor (Edward Furlong), who is the key to humanity's victory over a robot uprising in the future, becomes the target of the shape-shifting T-1000 (Robert Patrick), a Terminator sent from the future to kill him.

Another Terminator, the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), has also been sent back to protect the boy. As John and his mother (Linda Hamilton) go on the run with the T-800, the boy unexpectedly bonds with the cyborg.

While "Terminator 2" offered some surprisingly touching moments, the film is remembered for its innovative work by Industrial Light & Magic, which envisioned the T-1000 as a nearly-invincible shapeshifting creation fashioned out of liquid metal.

"Inarguably one of the greatest sequels ever made, 'Terminator 2' builds itself upon a few key ideas that upend the audience's expectations and work like gangbusters with industry-altering technological execution," wrote Ed Travis of Cinapse.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 98%

Synopsis: After floating in space in a cryostasis capsule for 57 years following the destruction of her ship, the Nostromo, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is rescued by a deep space salvage team and eventually reassigned to accompany a group of marines to investigate a colony on the moon LV-426, which has ceased communications.

They stumble upon one survivor, a 9-year-old girl named Newt (Carrie Henn), and learn the colony was overrun by the same aliens that killed Ripley's teammates on the Nostromo.

The marines ultimately discover an unfortunate truth, that all their experience and cutting-edge weaponry can't save them from the aliens in the end.

"James Cameron, who directed his own script (based on the story he wrote with David Giler and Walter Hill), has crafted a near-perfect structure of suspense," wrote Bob Thomas of the Associated Press. "Just when you think the survivors have reached safety, he springs another horrific surprise."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%

Synopsis: "The Terminator" may have spawned a slew of sequels, but in this case, the original remains the best.

In Cameron's electrifying sci-fi thriller, the cyborg assassin known as the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton).

Sent to protect Sarah is Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), a human soldier who reveals to her the coming of Skynet, a highly-sophisticated artificial intelligence defense system that will one day ignite a nuclear holocaust. Skynet is targeting Sarah because it knows her then-unborn son John will eventually lead the human rebellion against it.

With the Terminator in pursuit, she and Kyle attempt to outrun it. In the process, Kyle admits his feelings for Sarah, the two make love, and Sarah becomes pregnant.

"A remorseless killer, time travel, tense chase scenes, Stan Winston's spectacular practical effects, and even a spot of romance, James Cameron's genre-blender caters for literally everyone," wrote NME's Howard Gorman. "And, although not a horror movie in the strictest sense, the film also introduced us to one of cinema's most iconic final girls, Sarah Connor."