The title doesn't lie in " James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction," a six-part series -- under the banner "AMC Visionaries" -- that draws heavily on the "Avatar" director's cachet and connections. Inevitably scattered as it flits from topic to topic, the show offers a breezy romp through movie and (sparingly) TV history, highlighted by Cameron's discussions with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and other cinematic titans of the genre.
Cameron doesn't exactly bring an interviewer's touch to the task, instead engaging in what amount to peer-to-peer conversations with Lucas, Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro and Christopher Nolan. Those chats provide the spine of the series, augmented by an array of actors (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Will Smith, Keanu Reeves among them) there mostly for their star power, as well as authors, academics and critics.
Although each episode is built around specific themes -- aliens, space, monsters, dark futures, intelligent machines, time travel -- there's inevitably a fair amount of crossover and overlap among them.
Purists can quibble about the emphasis and oversights, which include giving short shrift to early movies and TV shows -- something like "The Twilight Zone" is mentioned, but not enough -- to focus on more recent fare, especially where there's big-name talent attached that's participating in the show. Sure, it's fun watching Cameron and Schwarzenegger banter, but his "Terminator" star doesn't really have that much to say on the subject relative to others.
At its core, the project is elevated by its unifying love of the genre, and the sense of wonder the key filmmakers bring to reminiscing about movies that had a formative impact and influence on them. Del Toro, for example, recalls hiding under his seat during "Alien," while Lucas lauds "2001: A Space Odyssey" as "the best science fiction film ever made."
