Last March, two of James Cameron's most beloved movies, Aliens and True Lies, were re-released as 4K remasters. That was long-awaited by fans and, in particular, physical media collectors.
Unfortunately, they proved to be a disappointment for many. The picture quality was deemed subpar and social media was flooded with comparison videos and complaints that a 2010 remaster of Aliens, for example, was vastly superior.
They did largely appear to be a subpar upscale of old scans of original prints and, in the case of True Lies, there was evidence of artificial intelligence usage to enhance video quality.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron - the visionary director also responsible for Titanic and the Avatar franchise - didn't mince his words when asked about the criticisms.
"When people start reviewing your grain structure, they need to move out of mom's basement and meet somebody," he stated. "Right? I'm serious. I mean, are you f—ing kidding me? I've got a great team that does the transfers. I do all the color and density work. I look at every shot, every frame, and then the final transfer is done by a guy who has been with me [for years]."
"All the Avatar films are done that way. Everything is done that way. Get a life, people, seriously."
Those comments may sound harsh but likely stem from frustrations over the backlash he faced online when these movies were released.
In another recent interview, he talked more about the complicated process of remastering movies like these when he said, "We recompose, shot by shot, going through the film, and I'm pretty serious about this. I don't just let somebody else go through it because I have such a vivid memory of what the color was and what we fought for on the set and in post."
"It was important to get it just right because, theoretically, we shouldn't have to do it again. 4K is sufficiently above the innate resolution of the photochemistry of that period. Are we going to do 8K? 12K? You're going to see the grain more clearly," Cameron concluded.
Back to this latest conversation with the filmmaker, though, and he also briefly weighed in on what he's seen from the upcoming Alien: Romulus, a movie his name has been attached to in several different interviews over the past year or so.
"I saw a rough cut six months ago, so I’m sure it’s changed a lot. And I viewed it once. I gave some notes to [director Fede Álvarez]. He and I aren’t close pals. I mean, I wish him the best with it, but I think it’s been overstated that I had some big creative input to that film," he said. "I think Ridley [Scott] did because Ridley was an actual producer on the film. So I’m just putting it in perspective."
Let us know your thoughts on Cameron's comments in the usual place.