25 Misfires From Otherwise Great Film Directors

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – April 22, 2018

Last week, we looked at 30 filmmakers who made only one well-reviewed movie over their entire careers. Today, we examine the opposite group: directors who have nearly flawless careers, with only a single misfire (with a Metascore of 60 or lower) standing in the way of a perfect record of all-green scores.

Note that we only looked at directors who have made at least five films since 1980.

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James Cameron

The one misfire:
15 Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1982)

Joe Dante's 1978 B-movie Jaws spoof/homage Piranha wasn't exactly crying out for a sequel, but it got one anyway—as the fully forgettable feature-length debut from a man who would go on to become perhaps the most financially successful filmmaker in history. Cameron, of course, would later have slightly greater success with aquatic movies, but The Spawning showcases few (if any) of the director's talents. It's hard to find another Cameron film where a critic complains that the "sound and image are consistently bad."

Oddly, Cameron didn't direct the third Piranha film, but he would again direct the second chapter in another filmmaker's franchise, though with much better results.

Everything else:
83 The Terminator (1984)
86 Aliens (1986)
62 The Abyss (1989)
75 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
63 True Lies (1994)
74 Titanic (1997)
67 Ghosts of the Abyss (2003)
83 Avatar (2009)

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