My Review of "Titanic"

I barely remember watching this movie. I think I first saw Titanic because at the time it was really hyped up. Now that I have a lot of time on my hands I thought it would be a good idea to see if this movie passes the test of time.

First of all, this movie is a 3 hour epic. I knew I was in for a heck of a time because I don't remember liking this movie the first time I saw it.

Watching it again I realize that if you can get over the first half of the movie you'll really enjoy the second half.

For those that don't know about Titanic. It's really a story about Rose. The older rose is over 100 years old and played by Gloria Stuart. The younger Rose is played by Kate Winslet.

A group of treasure hunters led by Brock Lovett, played by Bill Paxton, are looking for the most expensive necklace in the world called the Heart of the Ocean. The last known whereabouts of this expensive jewelry was on the RMS Titanic that sank in 1912. So they use the latest technology to search the wreckage and were able to pull up a safe.

Unfortunately there was nothing in the safe except for some lewd drawing of a woman wearing only the Heart of the Ocean. They televise their finding and soon find out it was a picture of Rose when she was a young woman. Rose then gives them a recount of her experience on board the RMS Titanic.

This would include her scandalous love affair with Jack Dawson, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. She was an aristocrat that was betrothed to a man named Cal Hockley, played by Billy Zane. Her mother had forced this upon her as her family had lost all of their money and needed to marry into money.

The big themes of this movie are basically Rose and Jack's relationship and the sinking of the RMS Titanic. That's pretty much all you need to know about the movie.

Watching the movie again made me realize that James Cameron really makes his movies black and white. You're either really good or really bad. He'll bang it over your head in order for you to understand which side a character belongs to. That doesn't really work as well today as audiences now expect more complicated protagonists and antagonists.

It seems like a more wholesome movie than what we're used to nowadays. A lot of the characters have old fashion values and it's kind of nice to see that. However some of the dialogue didn't really work for me. The dialogue seemed like the actors were reading word for word what they had in the script and didn't sound natural when they verbalize it on the screen. Occasionally you'll hear some corny lines as well. Today, this movie's dialogue kind of feels like it's for some made for TV movie. It's somewhat awkward and it really took me out of the movie at times.

Then you have the special effects. At the time I remember thinking that the special effects were amazing and they were in 1997. When I saw this movie again today it was kind of glaring how some of the special effects didn't pass the test of time. I don't know if it's because the movie is in higher resolution now or something else. There are certain scenes where you think they didn't fully finish the special effects. That's a shame because I kind of remembered being floored by the special effects back in the day.

That's not to say that this movie can't be enjoyed. The last half of the movie was my favorite part. The way that they dealt with the sinking of the ship was really great. You can see a lot of time and effort into making things as accurately as possible. I also thought that door issue that everyone talks about wasn't such a big deal. The internet is crazy sometimes.

Overall, I was able to enjoy the movie. I think maybe a little more than I did the first time I saw it. Does it pass the test of time? In some ways yes but in other ways no. The action of the sinking ship pass the test of time but some of the special effects and dialogue do not. I will have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. It's entertaining enough to say it's an okay movie but I wouldn't want to go out and watch this movie again.