Just like the Lucas vs Spielberg piece I only judge based on who's films I like more. I don't care about awards, too political voted on by old farts that rarely appreciate anything other than straight up dramas and so on

LOTR best trilogy ever bar none IMO. King Kong was very very good but it still didn't surpass the 1933 original IMHO except of course for the f/x. None of Jackson's other stuff stands out for me. I liked Dead Alive in its time and The Frighteners was ok

But Cameron's 2 Terminators, Aliens, The Abyss and even True Lies were so damn amazing that they top Jackson's accomplishments. I'm not even mentioning Titanic.

I've always said how Cameron isn't a very prolific director but when you measure the quality by frame output NO ONE (ok Spielberg maybe) matches Cameron. Once you start throwing quantity then and only then you can have maybe a couple of directors that may top him.

My opinion is solely based on what I consider "genre" cause that's pretty muych all I care about. I don't compare him to directors like Scorsese for example cause they don't rate in this genre
 

Matt Hoffman: "the Academy isn’t too fond of science fiction and prefers to encourage clearly superior works like The Reader."

Nice little jab there I must say. He shoots, he scores! As for this debate I'm a fan of both directors but this round is The Lovely Bones vs Avatar. Cameron wins this battle, I guess time will tell who wins the war.

Peter Jackson's King Kong also won three more Oscars...I'd say Jackson wins the Oscar race and it's not so much a tie after all. But I understand it being a tie if you consider LOTR film vs. Titantic.

For me, it's about rewatchability between the directors. I'd say Cameron wins there because where as I need to be in the mood to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy (can't just watch one since they all go together), I find myself watching Aliens, The Terminator, True Lies and The Abyss any time I come across them.

If I'm bored and I run across them on the satelite, I'll stick with them for sheer amusement. Where as the only Peter Jackson I do the same for is The Frighteners. Love that movie! The rest of Jackson's films, though, I have to be ready for a 9 hour trilogy quest or a 3 hour Kong fest.

All that said, if there would have been another Round on likeability, it would have went to Peter Jackson hands down. I love James Cameron's contribution to cinematic history but he strikes me as having a serious God-complex. Where as Del Toro seems much more down to Planet Earth.

The Lord of the Rings was "unfilmable".  Jackson filmed it.  No, he nailed it.  It's easily my favorite movie (in three parts) of all time.  I know it's not PJ's story, but he obviously treated it with alot of care and it showed.

I can't say that Cameron doesn't have a great amount of ability, but outside of the Terminator franchise I just don't tend to care about his body of work.  It's good, but doesn't really wow me.

It's not a fair comparrison for me because PJ is behind probably the most important peice of cinema to me personally.  Nobody is going to beat PJ in this fight when I'm judging it.

To me this is like comparing Apples to hamburgers...there is no comparison in my opinion. Cameron is King of the big movie..the box office and innovation speaks for itself. Jackson has made 3 good movies in my opinion; LOTR triology. King kong sucked HARD!Havent heard of most of his early work. As far as Cameron's early work yeah pirana 2 was garbage..but how can you not say Terminator and Aliens wasnt part of his early work? Terminator was 1984 and Aliens was 1986..how can you say they werent apart of his early work? Pirana 2 was in 1981 only 3 years before Terminator. I dunno in my opinion this is a non contest match up. Sure Peter Jackso can be a good director. But he basically made 1 very long movie cut up into 3 pieces...and then he made a giant turd called KING KONG..what has he done since then besides discover a good director in the guy that did District 9? Nothing really...Cameron took a 10 year break and is going to totally make up for it on the 18th!! :)

I would just like to add that James Cameron didn’t have final cut of Pirahna 2 and wasn’t allowed to edit his own movie. The film’s producer was constantly interfering with him and there is even some doubt today if Cameron actually got to film most of it. So Cameron’s true first film is The Terminator.

Oh and Jarrod I think you meant Jackson at the end of your post and not Del Toro. 
 

Jarrod, I had no idea Peter Jackson did The Frighteners.  I love that movie too!  I miss those Michael J. Fox movies from Teen Wolf to the Back to the Future trilogy.  The Frighteners fits with those to me.  Looking at IMDB it looks like Robert Zemekis produced it too.

Love them both. Didn't and wouldn't even have considered doing a "versus article" between the two.

I do tend to re-watch Cameron's movies more often simply because they pop up on TV frequently. Other than LOTR and King Kong I've never really watched any of Jackson's other works. But I will start watching LOTR whereever I happened to drop into it when it pops up on TNT.

A better comparison article I see is the LOTR trilogy and the Star Wars prequels. For a brief moment they were coming out the same year and I was comparing them in my mind. Both were epic fantasy dealing with the battle of good vs. evil. Both had heavy FX battle sequences. Both had main characters dealing with an internal battle with their dark sides and both had major characters who were toally CG. 

Though I love me some Lucas and everything he has done for film. And I know what he was trying to do with the prequels, LOTR wins that war hands down.

yeah I forgot about frightners..it was good but that wouldnt change my above opinion on Cameron OWNING Jackson :)

I'm totally with you Goldeneyez! i miss back to the future aand teen wolf things like that. They should do a Back to the future 4 and have MJ Fox in it and his son finds another time machine left by doc brown or something like that. That way MJF doesnt have to be a huge part of it but still be in it (since he has parkinsons and all) I dunno i want more BTTF but i dont really want a remake...Unless maybe if Zemekis came back and did it. Speaking of him Robert Zemekis is a good director too not many if any of his movies i didnt like.

I would definitely go with Cameron!  LOTR and The Frighteners are the only Jackson films I like.  You just can't match the repeat viewing power of the first 2 Terminators, Aliens, and eve True Lies and The Abyss!