My Review of "Titanic"

Titanic was the biggest movie to come out back in 1997. I would say the popularity of this movie outshined the popularity of the actual disaster. People think you're referring to the movie rather than the actual ship when you talk about this title. I saw this movie way back when and frankly, I didn't like it. Maybe, after all these years, I've matured and might appreciate this movie more. In a way I do appreciate this movie a little more but it isn't one of my favorite movies.

The movie starts out with a treasure hunt. We have this team looking for a mysterious treasure at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. Of course it was at the sight of the Titanic. They got a tip that there is a precious diamond called, the heart of the ocean. I know that's a little on the nose, but it's the 90s. That stuff was acceptable back then. The last known whereabouts for this gigantic diamond was on the Titanic.

They're searching and they find this safe. In the safe is a nude picture of a woman with the diamond on her neck. Nothing else important was found in the safe. There's a TV news story about it and they get on TV. That's when an 80 year old woman by the name of Rose that claims to be the naked woman in the photo.

Full of excitement, they charter a flight for the old lady to join them on the search. Like grandpa Simpson she starts telling her story of how she got on the Titanic. It's a story of love, obligation and youthful exuberance. I have to say this first portion of the movie is a bit on the boring side. It doesn't help that the acting is kind of weird. It's as if they're reading lines from cue cards.

Like an old person telling a story, it is a long one. This movie clocks over 3 hours long. That's not to say there aren't a lot of exciting and fun things that happen. There is some fun to be had but you're going to have to shut off your brain to have fun with this one. If you watch this like a play it gets pretty fun.

I do like the fact that they have Rose fight her obligation to care for the family for her own self interests. This is an ageless conflict that a lot of us deal with so it makes us relate to her. She starts off as what seems to be a high born aristocratic lady but she still seems grounded.

Then we have Jack who is her love interest in this movie. He lives a carefree life because he's a person of poverty. It's idealistic and a romantic idea that individuals with nothing can live such happy carefree lives. We know that this isn't necessarily true in reality but it makes for a fun movie.

A lot of the characters and scenarios in this movie are quite over the top and that's why it would feel more natural if you view this movie as a Broadway act. This is supposed to be a large ship yet there never seems to be anybody on board. They're going to very popular locations on the ship and nobody is there. There are supposedly thousands of people on board as well. That's why some of the moments feel very weird and artificial.

By today's standards the special effects hold up surprisingly well. Although, there are moments where the CGI is so obvious and out of place. For the most part you can tell they added a lot of attention to detail in this movie. That amount of effort does not go unnoticed.

Overall, this movie is still fun and I can see why people like it now. It's a little too cheesy for me at times so I can't say I loved it. That's not to say I didn't like it. I thought it was really well constructed but there's a lot of things that made my eyes roll. I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10.