Why this movie is overrated

Rating: 7/10 (7 March 2006)

This movie illustrates very effectively what is wrong with most of major American cinema in the past 15-20 years. It can be summed up this way: It is the triumph of spectacle or style over substance. Way, way, way too often, Hollywood relies on special effects, attractive actors and flashy clothes and explosions. It's not that Titanic is a bad movie by any stretch, but it's certainly not a great movie either. The primary flaw is in Director James Cameron's attempt to write the script. I agree with most of the critics I've read that Cameron has a great eye but a somewhat defective ear. The characters are clichÃ©d, poorly written and in many cases the acting is quite sub-par. All of this goes unnoticed by most people of course because of the fact that most Americans don't read enough to know what good, realistic well-written dialog sounds like (not to mention the fact that character development is all but completely overlooked by most major studios these days so most people aren't routinely exposed to truly well-developed interesting characters). All this adds up to the fact that Titanic, while an entertaining and well-done picture, hardly qualifies as the best movie made in 1997 and definitely not one of the best ever as so many people would care to assert. I think that the provider of the overly praise-laden commentary displayed on IMDb for this movie should A) graduate from high school and remember that people who don't think this movie is superb are actually in the minority and B) watch a few more, older movies, particularly those made with great scripts--like The Godfather, Chinatown, The Usual Suspects, Casablanca, any Tarantino or Hitchcock movie--and those with some great actors--like Cary Grant, Kate Hepburn, Laurence Olivier, Ed Norton, Cate Blanchett, Jimmy Stewart, Daniel Day Lewis and Angelica Huston. Let's stop relying on the box office and the lame Academy of Motion Pictures (who somehow felt that Braveheart, Shakespeare in Love and yes, Julia Roberts deserved Oscars) to tell us what is a quality product.