Visually, Titanic was a stunning masterpiece, but the story and the acting were mediocre and sometimes just outright bad.

Rating: 6/10 (30 August 2000)

At first glance, Titanic is an epic film. The scenery and cinematogrpahy are spectacular, and it is just a beautifully photographed movie. However, when you look past the superficial beauty of the film, much like Armageddon, its numerous shortcomings become clear. First of all, Titanic suffered badly from the transition from the big screen to video. This took away a lot of the hugeness of the film, and this inadvertently places more attention on the story and the acting, both of which were the biggest problems with the film. I went to see this movie to see the sinking of the Titanic, not to see some elaborately fabricated love story.
Titanic is a landmark film as a result of the sinking of the ship and the fact that it inexplicably turned out to be such a huge moneymaker. There is absolutely nothing great about the acting, the story is nothing that hasn't been seen dozens of times before, and the directing is awkward, probably due to the fact that James Cameron, who is an excellent director, is so used to directing the Frankenstein-like Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. This is not to say that the directing was bad, it wasn't at all, but there is nothing special to be said about the directing because James Cameron is not really a director of this type of film.
Kate Winslet was beautiful in Titanic. She delivered a wonderful performance in the film and was very convincing, as was Kathy Bates (as always) and even Billy Zane. I normally don't like him, but he was playing a dislikeable character, which is probably why I enjoyed his performance so much. Leonardo DiCaprio, however, delivered the worst performance of his career. If you want to see him really act, watch The Basketball Diaries or, even better, The Beach.
Titanic is a beautifully made film. It suffered in the story and the acting departments, but it is an entertaining and easy to watch movie. It was not, however, the best picture of 1997. Not even close. There were probably 20 movies that were released in 1997 that were better than Titanic, but the Oscar's wouldn't have gained as much public support had they not given the Oscar to Titanic. It was a quality film, but don't be fooled by all of the hype.