Won't ya let me take you on a sea cruise?

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2004)

*SPOILERS* I saw 'Titanic' the weekend it opened. I have always been a fan of the ship and disaster, etc. I was in a crowded theatre surrounded by teenage girls whom I expected to chatter all the way through. At the end of 3 hours, no one chattered, the theatre was silent and everyone was in tears. Myself included.
I watched it again on video recently for the first time in a long time. Overall the film was done well. The special effects were amazing. It made you believe you were there at the time of the accident. As many posters before me have said, the love story was contrived and not at all convincing.
What was even more distressing about this film is the transformation of Rose. She walked on the ship as a prisoner of the Elizabethan era and within a few hours she's suddenly a female Terminator. She also apparently goes through a time warp and becomes a woman of the 90's. She's swearing like a sailor, she spits in Cal's face, she tells her over the top prudish mother to shut up, she has a chance to be rescued twice and she gets back on the sinking ship. She runs through sinking hallways to rescue Leo. Surely she must have seen him on Growing Pains...that alone is a reason to let him drown. (Sarcasm).
And then, in the cold night air of the North Atlantic, in 28 degree water, she spends way too much time fawning over Leo the ice cube. Who by the way was too much of a 90's smart aleck for 1912. I think if the ship had made it to New York he would have been locked up the moment he got off the ship. Back to Rose, amid a sea of frozen bodies, seems to be the sole survivor. Another poster mentioned that she could have moved over a few inches and made room for Leo on the piece of wood.
Aside from the love story, this movie was done well. As mentioned, the special effects were the star of the show. The only special effect James Cameron couldn't pull off was to make Leo a character I cared about.