The Abyss 1989
The Abyss is a great achievement in movie making. It did some great CGI, but the director, James Cameron, did an amazing job of filming so much of the movie underwater with all kinds of great machinery as well as a strong cast of characters, and still managed to dial up tension and suspense. There are amazing action sequences and Cameron is at his best showing all this futuristic equipment knocking around and being pushed to its limits. There are flaws that Cameron brings as well, but at least in this movie those take a back seat to the successes. I recently got a digital copy of the Special Edition of the movie that adds 30 minutes to the original movie, making it almost three hours long. I'm not sure of everything that was added or improved, but there is now a big anti-war message included and more footage of the aliens that makes things way too sappy. It was probably better knowing less about the aliens and their motivations. I feel like the pacing of the movie is off a little as well. So much happens in the first hour that I couldn't believe I was only a third of the way through. The rest of the movie generally delivers, but some of the big action sequences are maybe too long and drawn out, though I wouldn't want to have to decide what to cut. It just seems like it goes on and on. For those flaws I have to take off a little, lowering the grade from an A to an A-. That doesn't mean that most of the movie isn't still an A.
Written: 21 Aug 2024
Owned on: Digital