Two stories intertwined - one works, one doesn't.

Rating: 6/10 (26 August 2006)

Titanic seems like a split movie. On one hand, there is the implausible and badly scripted romance between the fictional characters, Jack and Rose. On the other hand, it is a spectacular re-telling of the story of the world's most famous shipwreck. Whether you like this movie or not depends on which half you focus on.
The bad: The scripting is very bad. There are many, many lines which cause me to groan and wince. The dialogue comes off as stilted, and oftentimes an annoying stereotype of 1912 speech. The fictional characters are annoying and unlikeable. The whole film seems to have a left-wing anti-first-class bias where only the poor can actually feel love and the rich are simply snobs trying to one-up each other, never mind how many real first class couples had much deeper love for each other than Jack and Rose's fairytale relationship. There are some very disrespectful scenes in here that have little grounding in history. Officer Lightoller is portrayed as hysterical and unstable. Officer Murdoch is made to shoot two passengers before killing himself. The film's score is often repetitive and bombastic. The "Heaven" scene comes off as very contrived.
The good: The movie is spectacular to see. Titanic buffs will love to see how good and accurate the large scale model of the ship looks. Thomas Andrews and Bruce Ismay are portrayed very well by Victor Garbor and Jonathan Hyde. The sinking scenes are quite accurate and show the violence of the event very well. One feels very sorry for the passengers because of the horrors that they suffered. The special effects look very good, even the CGI. The underwater photos of the wreck in the beginning are very beautiful and Cameron would go on to do some very important research with his submersibles after this film. In the end, this film generated a lot of interest in the story of the Titanic.
Verdict: The Titanic itself is the real star of the film. Focus on that, and you should enjoy it.