Great, but overrated

Rating: 6/10 (13 April 1999)

Titanic is NOT the best film ever. In fact, it's not even the best film of '97. But it's a great movie. The visual effects are amazing, but some of the acting is awful (Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, and especially Billy Zane). The last 1 1/2 hours of it are an emotional powerhouse, but a LOT of the dialogue is cheesy. Also, it made me angry that Leo, Kate, and Gloria Stuart (she was good, but not great) got all the acting spotlight shined on them, when it was Kathy Bates' finely tuned performance that stole every scene and showed that she can truly do everything an actress can do and more. The Billy Zane character was poorly written, poorly acted, and poorly conceived. All he was missing was a pencil-thin mustache and an evil laugh. There was a lot of talk about how bad the script was. The script was great. Sure, the dialogue sucked, but dialogue is about 10% of a screenplay. And storytelling is the other 90%. James Cameron's storytelling abilities are, today, only matched by Spielberg's.
Something I really hated about it was when everyone compared it to Gone With the Wind. What is up with that?!?!?!?! Sure, there are some similarities in the plot, but Gone with the Wind is regarded by many as the best movie ever and a classic. There is no awful dialogue. There are no awful , one-dimensional characters. There are no bad performances. It's just full of good old-fashioned Hollywood storytelling at its best. It is more entertaining than Titanic, too. It is a half an hour longer, but holds your attention even better than Titanic ever could. Plus, if you take into account inflation, Gone With the Wind made twice as much as Titanic in America alone. That is a true epic. Titanic is only a pretender to the throne. But it is a great movie.
8 out of 10, ***1/2 out of ****