Good for Titanic buffs but a missed opportunity

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 1999)

Everyone seems to give either high praise or damnation to this film. Well, I enjoyed it thoroughly and have now seen it six times over the last fifteen months. Basically the good thing about it that it faithfully recreates the "Titanic" and if you've been obsessed, sorry, fascinated by the Titanic for a long time you'll be in a nostalgic heaven. The problems with it originate purely from the fiction part of it. My mother watched it recently for the first time and thought what I thought: the script is diabolically lame! She just about threw up at the scene 'Cal: *Holding up expensive diamond* "I've got my security" Lovejoy: *showing gun in bravado way* "So do I"'
It represents a big missed opportunity on James Cameron's part. A movie made on this scale could surely be vying to compete with Gone with the Wind and Citizen Kane in terms of artistic quality, but it seems that all that matters is size. Instead, the plot only competes with with your average cheap romance novel and a typical hollywood churned out action/adventure movie.
If you're disappointed with the history, you should see the JC Titanic Explorer CD-Rom as it fills in many gaps and contains many scenes cut from the movie which will make the Director's cut very worthwhile. They could re-make it perhaps if they havn't dismantled the sets and make the necessary improvements.
But, all round, it's great watching it.