The utterly gorgeous special effects frequently overshadow the fact that The Abyss is also a totally gripping, claustrophobic thriller, complete with an interesting crew of characters.
The utterly gorgeous special effects frequently overshadow the fact that The Abyss is also a totally gripping, claustrophobic thriller, complete with an interesting crew of characters.
audience
79
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 98,971
Meticulously crafted but also ponderous and predictable, James Cameron's 1989 deep-sea close-encounter epic reaffirms one of the oldest first principles of cinema: everything moves a lot more slowly underwater. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some "issues" to work out, are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious
circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on earth, and the petro-techies have the only submersible craft capable of diving down that far. Every image and every performance is painstakingly sharp and detailed (and the computerized water creatures are lovely) but the movie's lumbering pace is ultimately lethal. It's the audience that ends up feeling waterlogged. For a guy who likes guns as much as Cameron (his next film after all, was the body-count masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day), it's interesting that the moral balance here is weighted heavily in favor of the can-do engineers; the military types are end-justifies-the-means amoralists, just like the weasely government bureaucrats in Aliens. --David Chute
The attempt to extract the essences of several genres (cold-war submarine thriller, love story, Disney fantasy, pseudomystical SF in the Spielberg mode) and mix them together ultimately leads to giddy incoherence.
Anyone looking for a discouraging word about this stupendously exciting and emotionally engulfing film should read no further. The Abyss confirms James Cameron as a world-class filmmaker.
The Abyss gains in some ways from its own Achilles heels, in a way most movies don't... its formal technique, its reckless obsessiveness, and its gutsy emotionalism are what I can't stop turning over in my mind.
The movie was a bear to make and it shows onscreen, parading around a series of mesmerizing set-pieces that look deliciously hard-earned in ways our current CG-drenched filmmaking climate never allows.
As a follow-up to Cameron's great sci-fi Aliens, The Abyss is too verbose for an actioner and the special effects, striking as they are, are not well integrated into the narrative, but it's still worth seeing.
After the phenomenal action classic, Terminator, James Cameron pushed the boundaries yet again with astounding special effects with The Abyss. This is a special effects milestone that helped advance the use of CGI in film. The result is a very good looking film that has breath taking special effects. Cameron has always
been keen on delivering a visual spectacle with his films and The Abyss definitely emphasizes that. In terms of special effects, The Abyss delivers some astounding effects. Where the film lacks slightly is in the story, the plot starts off well enough, but it ends somewhat on a dismal note. The film has an impressive cast of talented actors that are able to carry the film well enough to make it watchable, but halfway through the film; the story looses its fire and becomes a little silly. Of course that's a minor speed bump as you're more focused on the astounding visuals. The visuals are what really makes this film watchable, and this one of the films that James Cameron has made. The cast do a fine job with the script, and luckily the story manages to work for more than half of the film, but like I stated, it loses its fire slightly and some elements feel out of place. This is still a worthy film to watch despite its small flaws. There are more great things going for this film than bad things. Cameron crafted a fine special effects wonder that remains one of the best he's ever done.
August 27, 2011
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski
Super Reviewer
The Abyss is one of the Wonderful and Beautiful Alien Movies I have ever seen. I liked the Idea Aliens Underwater.
No quotes approved yet for The Abyss. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'The Abyss'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Top Critic
