5/10 (just to get that out of the way)

Rating: 5/10 (13 January 1999)

Sorry to add to the clutter, but isn't this just one of those films you *have* to comment on?
Contrary (perhaps) to my rating of 5/10 I will say now that I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit. However, 45 mins of enjoyment out of three something hours ain't a lot. Really.
I feel this movie was an odd joining of two completely separate films. One half was a good disaster movie, the other was one of the worst romantic movies I have ever seen.
My dad (and another IMDB commenter) has called this 'Romeo and Juliet on the sea'. What an insult! William Shakespeare wrote some of the greatest dialogue ever in that play, and it is probably the best romantic storyline ever. On the other hand, Titanic has some of the most awful dialogue this side of Power Rangers and is so absolutely and utterly cliched I could easily have written it myself. In fact, I'd be willing to bet Jim Cameron had a friend's 5 year old son write the first half of the script. It's that bad.
The acting. Hmmmmm. Most of the supporting cast are wonderful (Kathie Bates, Billy Zane, et al) but Kate and Leo have no idea how to handle the romantic leads. Not that they were given much to work with, mind you, so perhaps they're not to be blamed. I doubt even Robert deNiro or Al Pacino (or any other great actor) could really make that trash sound realistic.
On the other hand, I enjoyed much of the second half (though not all). It was suspenseful and very moving. The quartet was a wonderful touch, playing as the ship sinks, and there are many other nice moments. But for this bit of nice filmwork to be lumped onto an extraordinarily long piece of crap is a very odd dramatic choice.
By the way, I enjoy long movies if they're good. I love things like 'Wyatt Earp', 'The Postman', 'Dances With Wolves'... um, any Costner movie that's long actually. But Titanic was two movies sandwiched together, and that just makes it feel clumsy and drawn out.
Finally, the score is very nice, and I do like the tune for 'My Heart Will Go On' which is used in the score, but I hate Celine Dion. That doesn't affect my enjoyment of the score overall though.
To conclude the way I began: 5/10