A Gargantuan Disappointment

Rating: 6/10 (29 May 2009)

Titanic sinks itself on technical, artistic and ethical reasons. Firstly, the script is horribly corny and tedious. Everyone speaks as though they're one day out of acting school, over-emoting even the simplest, most minor of thoughts. I never felt anything genuinely warm or tender between the two stars. For a 3+ hour movie, there's ridiculously little time spent on character development. And the shallow clichéd narration of the old lady gets extremely tedious.
Secondly, the effects do not hold up today, in 2011. You might say that's an unfair criticism, to hold a 14 year old movie up to modern technical standards. The effects, it turns out, are the only part I originally liked back in 1997. At that time I would have given the movie a 6 or 7 just for the visual spectacle. It now looks dated and awkward, and it's just not enough to justify any effort to watch it today.
Finally, and most importantly, the story just falls down by not playing up the doubts and fears that many people had at the time of the ship's construction. There were experts in maritime engineering that forewarned of such a possible catastrophe, but neither the owners nor the public were concerned. The notion of being able to safely maneuver such a Leviathan was loudly challenged by nautical men, but the Great Ship is presented as an unquestionably positive, glorious achievement. The film conveys that it was entirely the fault of chance—an act of nature, a freak accident, a stray iceberg—that downed the ship, and not ignorance, pride, hubris. As it is I was waiting eagerly for it's inevitable demise, I almost felt everyone deserved it. James Cameron should have gone down with his tremendous, beautiful beast.
And it certainly is beautiful. We are treated to near pornographic views of gleaming stacks, sumptuous accommodations, and throbbing mechanical drives. The best of society are so eager to participate in this obscene orgy of excess, but Mr. Cameron wants me to feel sympathetic with these self important gluttons. OK, so Leonardo and Kate are "different", but still they are deluded. Their only crime, perhaps, is their youth, so yes, their story is a tragedy. Their standing on the bow of the mighty ship is an iconic image that's truly impressive, but there's no underlying sense of conscience to give it high contrast. It comes off as just a shallow, slick promotional ad for the cruise line.
My point is that I feel it's so sad to see how seemingly convinced people were that technological marvels were proof of man's superiority and divine place on Earth. We now know that such absurdly over-sized endeavors truly only serve a very few at the great expense of very many. And it's happening today right now at an at even more frantic pace. We are doomed if we stay the course, but "Titanic" celebrates the choice to not reconsider our way. By intentionally creating such a tremendous sensation in our culture this movie, Mr. Cameron, and every one involved in some way took on a responsibility to reward our attention with something worthwhile and substantial. It does not. It purposely avoids any such responsibility or awareness. It is pure escapist fantasy of the highest order that defies it's viewers to question any of it's splendor. I find this insulting to be expected not to think for myself. That's just so depressing, and so tragic in ways which James Cameron is apparently oblivious.
I feel that this film is just too much fluff and glitter, not worthy of it's efforts and costs. We are supposed to be smarter today about not living for such trivial wasteful excess. It's exactly this kind of consumption that is accelerating our ecological decline and inflicting extreme hardships on so many millions of disadvantaged people the world over. That's a very big heavy thought, for sure, but this massive movie is just asking for — demanding — this kind of consideration. Titanic omits the most important compelling bit of the story. The old lady's love may live on, but her planet is sinking...