Titanic

Titanic (1997)

Runtime: 194 minutes long

Directed by: James Cameron and his ego

Starring: Leo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher

From: Paramount/20th Century Fox

I realize people will be flabbergasted when I say this was a first time watch for me... and yet it is true. I will explain all below, including how I thought this was pretty good:

If you live close by an AMC Theatres (in particular, one that has Dolby Cinema at AMC), for the upcoming week you will be able to see this film, either in 2D or 3D; I saw the 2D version. Some may be astonished to hear this, but until yesterday I had never seen this movie before. True story. I was old enough to where I could have gone to a screening back 20 years ago on my own, but I never did.

I'd have to say it was the mania surrounding the movie and how people overreacted to it (and Leo DiCaprio) that was a turn-off; plus, James Cameron has made some awesome films but I'd prefer something like The Terminator, T2, and Aliens to a “romance”. That Celine Dion song also got pretty old pretty quickly, to be honest. In the subsequent years, I never had the desire to finally give this a chance, even with all the moments that entered pop culture. Finally, I decided this would be the perfect opportunity for the first viewing. I can say that the movie looks and sounds great in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos; it will be an impressive 4K UHD release once that happens sometime in the future.

As for the movie, it is pretty good. Many people not liking it at all is an idea I can comprehend. I realize the epics of old this tried to emulate also had cliches but this movie was awash in it. At times I did sigh or roll my eyes at the rote moments or the one dimensional characters or the dialogue... even in Cameron's best films, dialogue is the weak point. At times I felt the over 3 hour runtime.

Yet I can still give this a nice-enough rating. A big reason is that the two leads were DiCaprio and Winslet, and their chemistry with each other. They were great in their roles and I enjoyed those two being together, whether it was their first interactions, the unforgettable moment where Jack draws Rose nude (by the way, why did Jack have to do drawings of naked women... oh right, because it's Hollywood), and them having hot sweaty sex in the back of a vehicle where Jack “docks his ship into Rose's port.” If that wouldn't have worked as well, those 3 hours would have felt much longer for me. And that is even taking into account how well Cameron brings 1912 and the legendary ocean liner to life. Oh, and I'd be remiss if I did not mention how well Billy Zane played a real D-bag.

That element feels authentic as much time & effort was spent in being true to life, and it'd be fascinating to have been on the Titanic... except for the whole sinking part or how chaotic it was as the ship was seen as unsinkable so there was only about half the lifeboats needed, everyone was unprepared and there was obvious class bias as there were several obvious and different social strata present... those elements were presented very well, especially the sinking of the ship itself. In addition, my opinion of Dion's song aside (although in hindsight it's a masterpiece compared to how terrible the Top 40 scene has been in recent years) the James Horner score was quite good.

The movie definitely has flaws and maybe my heart is like an iceberg in finding various moments to be annoying. Yet I do understand why this was such a massive hit and even with inflation, in the United States this is the 5th highest grossing movie of all time. Considering that, the director and cast it was about time I finally watched the motion picture. I now know all of those pop culture moments in context, which is nice. I remember before this came out, how it went wildly over budget and was predicted to be another Waterworld, which technically did not lose money but was still a disappointment. Instead this became a film beloved by many. There definitely are Cameron movies I love more than this yet I do not regret finally seeing something that is still popular today.