MOVIE REVIEW

Ghosts of the Abyss  (2003)

Starring: James Cameron, Bill Paxton, Lewis Abernathy
Director: James Cameron

Rating: G

Studio: Disney

Review Posted: 4.12.03

Spoilers: Minor

By Sara Michelle Fetters

"Cameron Magnificently Returns to Titanic"

James Cameron has been AWOL for quite some time now. Sure, he’s flirted with television on Fox’s short-lived Dark Angel and he produced last year’s misunderstood Steven Soderbergh film Solaris, but as to following up Titanic with another cinematic adventure he’s been a bit slow. Granted, if I’d made a film that grossed more than 600-million in the U.S. and walked away with 11 Academy Awards, I’d probably be a bit slow on the upbeat myself.

So it is more than a little surprising that the self proclaimed (no ego here) "king of the world" has chosen to follow up his own fictional film about one the world’s greatest maritime disasters with an IMAX documentary about the same subject. But with Ghosts of the Abyss, that’s exactly what Cameron has done. And you know what? Thank goodness for that, for this is one of the most remarkable visual documents of the new millennium.

Using pal Bill Paxton (Aliens, Titanic) as guide and narrator, Cameron and a team of scientists take IMAX audiences under the water to attempt the first inside views of the Titanic since its sinking. What more, Cameron decided to make this document as interactive as possible by inventing new IMAX 3-D cameras expressly for the purpose of bringing this film to life.

Do they ever. I’ve never seen 3-D technology like this before. It’s as if I was sitting in the small three-man submarine with Paxton, surrounded by the pounding pressures of the ocean. It’s breathtaking, but once the novelty of the technology wears off, what’s even more astounding is how magnificently affecting the tale of the doomed liner still is after all these years.

Using newly improved ROV’s –mini-underwater robotic cameras Cameron had invented for his flawed, magnificent and under-appreciated underwater adventure The Abyss – for the first time explorers get a glimpse of what it was like inside the Titanic. Nicknamed Jake and Elwood, these two mini-robotic units become part of the crew, even having their own adventure late in the film. Through these views; a magnificently decorated plate glass window somehow still left intact, a bathroom cabinet with glass and decanter seemingly untouched, glorious woodwork unhurt by the ravages of pressure and time and many, many more such wonders; Cameron uses his team of scientists and historians to tell the story of the liner from the perspective of those that built, manned and traveled upon it. Ghostly images of crew and passenger filter in and out seamlessly entwined with 3-D visions of the ship as it now lay as well as with computer generated recreations of how Titanic once was.

But, technical wonderment aside, the real glory of Ghosts of the Abyss is how valiantly it speaks to the humanity this ship’s sinking led to by those on board. In fact, Cameron recreates much more fluidly and effectively the acts of the Titanic’s crew here than he ever did in his Oscar-winning epic. For all of Titanic’s strengths as a motion picture, painting a clear picture of the events surrounding the crew’s involvement in the cruise ship’s destruction wasn’t one of them. He changes that here, and the effect is haunting.

As to tour guide Paxton, he’s a genial enough presence. Granted, he’s fond of throwing off platitudes like they came fresh out of a screenwriting 101 class, but his reactions to everything going around him at the bottom of the ocean floor are so genuine this is a fault that’s easily forgiven. I was especially fond of his first trip aboard the small sub. With English skills being a barrier between Paxton and the ship’s pilot, the increasingly uneasy actor valiantly questions his host in regards to their vehicle’s safety, ending in an exchange only a mightily scared Hollywood actor could utter.

But this is a film about taking an audience to places and depths the likes of which they haven’t seen before. As such, Cameron succeeds beyond expectation. Maybe not the most in-depth look at the sinking of the Titanic, all the same it is easily the most visually stunning. Taking me places I am unlikely to see in my lifetime and making me feel as if I was almost there, Ghosts of the Abyss is a profound document of a disaster that cannot be forgotten.

Rating: 3.5 out of 4

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