Impressive enough to make up for flaws

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2013)

James Cameron takes budget-busting to a new level for his bold, ambitious attempt to create a film set around the titular ship's doomed voyage.
It becomes clear after awhile there's only one 'character' the director is really interested in - the Titanic. And what an impressive job he's done at recreating the sights of what was then the world's largest ship. Truly a loving ode to the tragic White Star liner.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are just likable enough as lovers from different social states, that one can almost stomach the schmaltzy slushy moments of the film, not to mention some pretty weak dialogue. Certainly Kate makes us guys like her a lot more when she doffs her clothes...
The rest of the cast are good enough but tend to boil down into one-dimensional stereotypes, including the ones playing real people. Billy Zane on the other hand, while perfectly hissable, is only missing a moustache he could twirl. 'Mwahahaha, you are marrying me pretty, mwahahaha.' When the ship finally hits the damn iceberg after about 90 minutes have passed, we get to the best part of the film. The sinking provides moments as tense as the Terminator stalking Sarah and Kyle in the computer factory, and Ripley making her way through an alien nest in her search for Newt. It is in this segment we see the relentlessness James Cameron often puts into action set-pieces. At first, there's slow-build tension with the ship slowly taking on water, before it drives the film into full-blown panic. The later scene of floating frozen bodies perhaps does more to convey the true horror of the sinking than the actual effects work.
All of this is told in flashback by a much older Rose to a treasure-hunter and his team searching for a diamond. These are actually the weakest moments in the film, and often detract from the tone of the 1912 scenes. Gloria Stuart's narration pushes the film further into schmaltz overload, but that's nothing compared to an ending, recently voted as the corniest scene ever put on film.
One factor that helps absorb you into the viewing experience, and just stops you from vomiting, is James Horner's sweeping score. Fortunately, we don't hear Celine Dion until the end credits.
For all it's flaws, it still works on the level of a grand old-fashioned epic.