Has its flaws, but in my opinion was pretty good

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 1999)

Yes, it was wildly over-rated, in that respect serving only to inflate Jim cameron's ego. Yes, it is certainly not the best movie ever made. Yes, the script was weak, and the acting isn't really too wonderful. Leonardo DiCaprio has the blandest, most obvious lines I've ever heard, does not act them very well at all, and basically suvrives only on his smile and the fact that everyone knew millions of teenage girls would be swooning. I didn't understand Billy Zane's character, but he wasn't on very much, so I didn't have to be confused by him a lot. I do think it's awful that all those girls cried only over "Leo" and not over the thousands of people who died, but for those who were watching for another reason, there is still a pretty good movie there, in my opinion. The scope is amazing, with all the sweeping shots, lavish, mostly accurate details, and spectacular effects. Cameron really orchestartes the mood of every scene wonderfully; though some of it is pretty cheesy, for the most part I really was caught up in it. While the acting isn't spectacular, as I said, some of the people turn in pretty good performances. Kate Winslet did for the most part, though in the action scenes, where she's given the role of hero, instead of doing something with it she just pants away and screams for Leo and does nothing else. Otherwise, she handles the acting pretty well. Frances Fisher, Kathy Bates, the captain, the designer of the ship, and the many third-class passengers were also good. Even though the movie focused on fictional characters and not on these people, there's enough there to really affect you. Seeing them being so cruelly and unjustly shut up in steerage and not being allowed to get to the lifeboats is a pretty powerful scene. And just tell me you weren't in some way moved by the mother singing her kids to sleep, the old couple (who were real) hugging each other in bed, the people getting shot and killed by smokestacks, the captain shutting himself in as the windows break, and the band playing on and on and on. I mean, come on! This really happened! It was the most affecting part of the movie for me. I guess it was because I was so affected by it that I felt sad when Leo went under. All the nay-sayers concentrate on the fiction part, which admittenly isn't up to the standards of these scenes, but also is not the only thing there. Perhas if people just didn't look at the first part and only at the second part, they'd understand one reason why this movie was so successful. Yes, the teenage girls were a big factor, or so we hear, but plenty of other people went two and three times besides them, and they went because they were so affected by it that they just had to see it again. Maybe it doesn't deserve to be the most successful movie ever made, but it deserves to be a classic, and undoubtedly will be no matter what anyone says. Yes, it has flaws, but what movie doesn't? There's more to this movie besides those flaws, if you just look.