Despite some glaring faults,Cameron's mixing of romance with real life disaster is still impressive and occasionally brilliant

Rating: Null/10 (28 November 2005)

It's really quite odd. When Titanic first came out,the reviews were mixed but the public generally loved it,those who disliked the film were definitely in the minority. Over the years,it has became somewhat fashionable to slag Titanic off,even if a great many of those people who did so were probably amongst those who made it such an enormous hit in the cinemas. Titanic is flawed,definitely,sometimes greatly so. However,it's also a tremendous achievement for it's director James Cameron. Mixing a real disaster with romance is harder to do than some might think. Maybe he did have a right to say "I'm king of the world" when the film won Best Picture at the Oscars. Just once.
The modern day opening is excellent,making effective use of some of Cameron's real footage he took of the sunken Titanic. There is a real sense of mystery. Than we flash back to the Titanic being boarded,and the film stalls just a little for around two hours. The attention to detail is amazing {even all the cutlery matched,you know} and there is nothing wrong with an extremely slow build up to action-think of The Seven Samourai. However,the central romance between Leo and Kate is often badly written and unconvincing. For a start Kate's Rose would certainly not have done two things she does in the film as quickly as she did {Obviously thousands of teenage girls seeing the film in 1997 would disagree with my views}. We also have to suffer Cameron constantly labouring the point that the poor people on the ship are better than the rich people.
However,the final 80 or so minutes,detailing the sinking,is simply brilliant film making. The suspense is built expertly,even though we know what will happen,and climaxes with some technical shots which are still impressive. Perhaps there is a little two much emphasis on the central couple,but there are some truly moving moments,and it really feels true,although of course Cameron did play with the facts a little here and there,as at least one descendant of one of the survivors has pointed out. The following sequence involving the boats is extremely haunting,with some especially good use of sound. As for the final scene,it does manage to be pretty moving,it's schmaltzy but it works {though hardly original,think of Somewhere In Time and various 40s romantic fantasies}.
Titanic has some excellent use of CGI {watch out for the transitions from present to the past on the sunken ship} and one glaringly bad special effect-the iceberg which looks like polystyrene. James Horner's best selling score is really quite poor and only occasionally brings the emotion it should do. Performances are generally excellent and sometimes succeed in overcoming some thin characterisation {such as Billy Zane as Rose's fiancée,who even has to suffer with far too much eye make up!}
Overall Titanic is still worth seeing,and sometimes it really does hit the heights that it should. It succeeds more than it fails,which is impressive in a film as ambitious as this.