James Cameron panned J.J. Abrams acclaimed Star Wars: The Force Awakens film — in a new interview released this week.

James Cameron Slams J.J. Abrams ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’

“Well, George Lucas is a friend of mine,” Cameron said, when asked about his thoughts on Abrams’ latest Star Wars film. “I don’t want to say too much about the film because I also have a lot of respect for J.J. Abrams and I want to see where they’re taking it next.”

Cameron went on to criticize the Abrams film — remarking that it lacked the visual imagination of Lucas’ original Star Wars films.

“I have to say that George’s group of six films had more innovative visual imagination,” Cameron explained. “This film was more of a retrenchment to things you had seen before and characters you had seen before, and it took a few baby steps forward with new characters.”

In April, Cameron announced at CinemaCon that he has four sequels in the works for his hit 2009 fantasy film Avatar.

The director admitted that the Star Wars phenomenon inspired him to delve into visual effects for his own films.

“Everything just kind of blew up at that point in the visual effects world,” Cameron recalled. “It was a big revolution, and I wanted to be in on it. Star Wars was the film that made me want to go actually do it.”

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