A waste of the money it cost

Rating: Null/10 (8 January 1999)

There is an unfortunate belief in Hollywood that special effects makes a movie good or bad. I prefer to think that what matters is the human aspect of it: the writing, directing, acting. So it is unfortunate that many try to defend Titanic based on the special effects quality.
There were many great movies made in 1997, including but not limited to Good Will Hunting, As Good As It Gets, Kundun, Dark City and Gattaca. And one interesting thing about these movies is that each of them, with the possible exception of the latter two, could be made at not twentieth the tithe of the production cost of Titanic. With that money, many great movies could be made.
When a movie has a high special-effects budget, it is the job of the effects not to support the poor quality of the film, but to serve a spartan purpose of whatever it is they are used for. If Cameron were to try to show one tenth the sincerity shown in a good movie, instead of showing off special effects, Titanic would have been far better than the disappointment that it was.