Funny, first I was going to say I never saw Terminator 2 but I went and looked it up and turns out I have but the truth is I don't remember a damn thing about it. I think that indicates I probably did not like it. I tried to watch Titanic twice. The first time I just turned it off because I found the writing so terrible and the second time I fell asleep 20 minutes or so into it. The thing is I guess I can't take the cheese and soap that his films contain. This is what annoys me about him, he seems to demand bad writing so that his visuals are not interfered with by a compelling story. I think it's great that he can create these amazing visuals and obviously that is a huge part of what can make a film fun and interesting. I don't knock anybody for enjoying them but why not combine that skill with some good writing? I really think he demands the worst possible script so it does not compete with his visuals. CGI is his domain because like Lucas I don't think these guys actually want to work with people.

In the end I really can't say if one film is better than the other because obviously the reasons for seeing Avatar and The Hurt Locker are different. I think Avatar probably would be a fun night at the movies due to the spectacle of being surrounded by this giant 3D world in an Imax theater. No question, everybody I know that saw it raved about it.

The thing about The Hurt Locker was it used a movie cliche over and over, the ticking bomb, and in a way also portrayed the main character as a ticking bomb as you waited for him to "go off" and do something crazy. Yeah, I would not have picked The Hurt Locker as best picture either because as you said it would probably not even make it into a list of the 20 best films about war but wow, what a weak list of films it was up against, at least based on the ones I saw.

For what it's worth my favorite sci-fi film, and I would probably say it was a better film than all of the best picture nominees I saw, was Moon. Sam Rockwell was great in it, it was a movie with a twist but the twist was not central to what the film was about and the effects were old fashioned but very effective and only served to help tell the story and help you feel the sense of isolation the main character is experiencing. It was also an open homage to lots of old sci-fi films because David Bowie and his son Duncan Jones (the filmmaker) loved these films. So not only did he give the characters a lot of heart but there seemed to be a lot of heart behind how the film was made. Cameron's films always feel cold to me.