Neither as good nor as bad as you've been told

Rating: 6/10 (21 October 2002)

If only James Cameron could write dialogue!
This is a well-produced fictionalization of the Titanic and her maiden voyage, with all the historical details just right (well, except for some really minor stuff ...). The romantic story overlaying it all lends poignancy and drew in the crowds, in record numbers. The performances are, by and large, good-to-excellent, except for Leonardo DiCaprio, who did much better in his earlier movies (up to and including The Quick and the Dead), and Billy Zane, who's never been able to do more than look like a movie star.
Cameron is a great director of action, and a good visual story teller. Too bad he's such a control freak, he ought to allow someone to re-write all his dialogue so that it sounds like humans talking, not T-1000's.

I give this a "five" only because the "seven" it's currently averaged at is too high.