Fall of the Titans

Rating: 5/10 (12 October 2009)

Just as the ship that couldn't be sunk sank in 1910, the movie "Titanic" which should not have failed went belly up and fell to the bottom of the sea. I seem to be going against the grain here and maybe I was the only one seeing this movie who didn't get it. I readily that there are great moments in this movie. The dramatic sequence where the Titantic ship becomes flooded with water and eventually sinks to the bottom is brilliant. What director James Cameron also does very well in exposing the sheer unfairness that some were allowed on the life boats, while others were not. In that connection, there was a emotive scene with a navy officer who, often against his own will, enforced this unfair system to the letter, not because it was the right thing to do, but because there were only so many life boats to go around and the prevailing view was that the few life boats available should go to the rich -- with the result that the rest were, in effect, left to die. What is also very good is that scene where some of the passengers are floating in the ice cold water, clinging on to whatever they could get their hands on, and quickly freezing to death.
Yet, the film still does not quite work because of what preceded this sad, dramatic tragedy that was the sinking of the titanic. Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack and Kate Winslet's Rose were plausible characters, but they were very annoying to watch. Some of their lines were so out of place and absurd that I felt deeply embarrassed watching these people. The love story seemed rather contrived and unbelievable. Finally, James Horner's music in the background just made the whole thing worse. In short, I did not feel anything for these characters or identify with their love story; and that, more than anything else, was what dragged this movie down.