Journey into the deep...mediocrity.

I've always been a James Cameron fan. In many an argument, I have defended him against his many detractors. I do admit that what his detractors say is true, but in most of his films the problems are small next to the big picture. While watching "The Abyss," I saw everything that his haters always see, and it's rather unsettling.

I'm not saying that "The Abyss" is a bad film. It's just an okay film. It has some great moments, but it's also surrounded by many dull spots. The story is interesting, but the characters (with one exception) are not. The visual effects are astounding, but the feel empty. "The Abyss" is a real hit and miss affair.

The story is about a nuclear submarine that sinks deep in the ocean. The government wants a team of underwater oil drillers in a high tech movable oil station to assist some Navy SEALs on a rescue mission. Naturally, everything goes horribly wrong, and the crew finds themselves stranded. To complicate things further, there appears to be an alien presence in the water deeper than them.

If my memory serves me correctly, "The Abyss" is the first film to seriously use CGI. It had been used in bits before, but this may very well be the first film that truly required it's use. Despite the film's age, the CGI still holds up today, proving for the bajillionth time, that James Cameron is a technical genius. Also proving this, is Cameron's staging of the action. It's not quite to the "edge of your seat" level of his other films, but it's certainly "a little left from the center of you seat." The story is also truly unique. Cameron has written yet another script with an original premise and extraordinary promise.

As much as he excels as a technical director, Cameron's weak point has always been as an actor's director. The acting in "The Abyss" is WEAK. Ed Harris, whom I usually can't take my eyes off of when he acts, seems to be sleepwalking. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is just plain bad. The supporting cast is a snooze. The lone great actor here, is Michael Biehn, a Cameron regular (he was Hicks in "Aliens" and Kyle Reese in "The Terminator"). He plays a SEAL who has been driven insane and declares "war" on the aliens. The performance is terrifying, and there was Oscar talk for him around the film's release. Nothing came of it, but it is the performance of his career. Biehn is one of the few actors to make Cameron's dialogue sound good. Cameron's dialogue ranges from fantastic ("True Lies"), to very good (The "Terminator" films and "Aliens"), to average ("Titanic"), to terrible. Here it is terrible. The musical score is also overbearing and loud. I first noticed this when I heard the music on the DVD title screen, and that's a bad sign.

Even with these major problems, "The Abyss" manages to be a thrilling and interesting adventure...that is, until the final fifteen minutes, where the movie take a strange turn and becomes so ridiculous, so STUPID, that the grade drops from a B to a B-. It's sappy, overdone, and simply the antithesis of everything Cameron has ever done. I wish they could have somehow trimmed this ending, after all, the film is terribly overlong. I watched the theatrical version of the film (141 minutes) and it felt long. I wisely opted not to watch the special edition (171 minutes).

Am a glad I watched the film? Yes. Cameron's technique is brilliant, even when his actors stink. I will never watch it again, though, and those without patience should stay away from this film. It's slow-moving and more of a drama than a Sci-Fi. Cameron's resume is filled with great films, and this one really sticks out. "Average" is not a word Cameron is used to.

© Written by Jacob Hall

How We Rated This Film TC Candler - A- Richard Propes - C- Jacob Hall - B-

TC Candler's Comment

This film really holds up well for me.  I think it is a brilliant example of understated sci-fi.  It never gets ridiculous at any point.  I never think the film steps over into that mindless action genre.  The effects are state of the art and the performances from Mastrantonio and Harris are just right.  "The Abyss" is one of the few films in this genre that has help up over time.

Richard Propes' Comment

I'm not sure there's any person TC and I disagree on more than James Cameron.  I personally find him vastly overrated, and this train wreck of a film is the perfect example of his inability to handle dramatic tension in an effective manner. Is this film awful? Nope. I just find it bland. Bland is about the last thing I expect from a sci-fi film.