Thursday, May 21, 2015

The Abyss (1989)


IMDb plot synopsis: A civilian diving team are enlisted to search for a lost nuclear submarine and face danger while encountering an alien aquatic species.
Directed by James Cameron. Starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn, and Leo Burmester.

Man, James Cameron's epics may be, well, of epic length but, boy, do they look fantastic. This is a movie that I imagine would be great to see on the big screen. Even watching it on my laptop, I was pretty impressed.

It should probably be noted that I watched the theatrical version of this, but having read up on the extended cut, I'm pretty happy with the version I saw. There was already a lot trying to be squeezed into this movie as is, and adding another essential subplot would have made the movie feel thematically stretched, rather than as rich as it was.

This is a movie that uses its length well, with little filler and very few scenes of waiting around for something to happen. It's a very solid film, and one I'm glad I finally got to see.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Abyss > Bunraku
The Abyss > Argo
The Abyss < Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Abyss < The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall
The Abyss < Billy Elliot the Musical Live
The Abyss < Bubba Ho-tep
The Abyss > The Reader
The Abyss < Hannah Arendt
The Abyss < Tropic Thunder
The Abyss < The Impossible
The Abyss > Educating Rita
Final spot: #569 out of 2359.

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