You wouldn't hate it so much if you didn't like it in spite of yourself

Rating: 7/10 (9 September 2006)

My son was born the year this was made, and he's had a life-long interest in the Titanic; as a result, I've seen the '53 and '58 movies as well as this one several times.
Yes, all the supporting characters are one-dimensional, the screenplay has holes you could drive a truck through, and the dialogue is poor to god-awful. "I really like the way he uses color," says Jack of a Monet on board.
Rose and Jack's second scene will make you cringe on so many levels the more times you see it. The 17-year-old Rose, spoiled, depressed, and well-schooled in Freud, takes a gratuitous interest in Jack's sketchbook, then unexpectedly decides in the course of a few seconds that he's really some artist. You'd think in a 200+ minute move they could take a little more time with this bit, which is a turning point in their relationship. It's too bad that Cameron doesn't seem to think it matters whether anything that happens with the characters makes sense.
But in the end, the characters aren't really what matters in terms of whether the movie works, at least for me. Silly as Jack and Rose's story is, it does move the action along. Neither DiCaprio nor Winslett look right for their parts (no getting around her looking at least 5 years older than him), but the actors provide enough spark to distract you from the movie's many flaws, at least for the first viewing or two.
And the fact is, I didn't mind the the 200+ minutes at all when I saw it in the theater. (Contrast this with the vastly overpraised Return of the Kings, the last 20-30 minutes of which might have been the most excruciating experience of my movie-going life.) I'm sure there are flaws in the cinematography I didn't notice, but that combined with the score drew me into the experience and feel of being on the great ship at that point in history. I generally don't care for special effects, but there's no denying that those in Titanic '97 are integral to the action.
As a three-year-old my son sat through the whole thing. Could be that makes the point for the people who hate Cameron's Titanic, but I sat through it too. I think Gloria Stewart deserved her Oscar. In the end, I think Cameron is over-criticized for not trying to make the movie many people wanted.
Probably many of the "haters" had already seen the '53 and '58 movies. The former has the acting, screenplay, and dialogue that Cameron lacks, even though it obviously provided much of Cameron's inspiration, while the latter is serious in ways that Cameron apparently didn't appreciate.
Still, Cameron's movie triggered a massive revival of interest in the Titanic, which it could only have done if it effectively communicated the awesome scale of the event in history. There's no getting around that even with his limitations, Cameron does care about the story of the Titanic, and the story, if not the characters, is well served by Cameron's strengths.