Terminator and Aliens says he can do whatever the freak he wants.
Both excellent movies, but he hasn't really written anything with any kind of originality since.
T2 was a rehash of the first movie but was a brilliant film for its special effects,
Titanic and
Avatar made the Hollywood accountants extremely happy but were both incredibly tired stories.
I'm not disputing what he has been able to achieve or the boundaries he has pushed as a director, but it's freaking rich for him to criticise the guy who made
Super 8 and
Cloverfield for a lack of originality.