Aliens of the Deep

I did not see the IMAX version, so maybe that makes a difference. I just watched the DVD, which was long. However, it seems like a lot of people did not get the point of this movie, which was absolutely excellent and very exciting. We are on the frontier of a lot of exciting discoveries, and leaps and bounds are being made in marine exploration.

People complain that the animals shown were not explained enough. That's because THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS. They say "Oooh, look at that! Wow! What is it?". This is exploration, people. They are finding new types of animals. If they can't capture it, they are going to have to take pictures of it and study how it moves etc. etc. and go through a long process of figuring out what it is and how it lives.

The point of this movie wasn't necessarily to show pretty pictures of all of the animals, although I was stunned by the visual beauty of it. The point was to tie marine exploration to space exploration, hence the title. I loved seeing what goes on with the machinery and finding out all of the different people involved in this research, showing us all the different groups that come together from different fields to explore together and work on their individual goals. A lot of people complained that they didn't want to see the engineers and the subs and robots, but the people who do that incredible work should get more credit than they often do and should definitely be introduced in the movie. This technology is absolutely amazing and the people who do it deserve to brag. They are showing us the incredible things that the human mind can achieve. I also loved seeing how excited they were.

This movie has a lot of very important things to say and did a great job illustrating the massive activity going on in this sector of science. Not only has it made me enthused about the things I'm going to see in my lifetime, it has made me believe that one of those things is probably going to be life on another planet.

After day after day of being depressed about the state the world is in, petty political and religious arguments, seeing this movie definitely made me feel hope for the human race again. These people put most of us to shame. This movie doesn't deserve to get blasted the way it has been and these brilliant folks don't deserve to be called "retards". How silly! So maybe you don't like the way it looked, or thought they should have done something different. Whatever. These guys are ridiculously hardworking, are doing amazing things, and are trying to show the world and let us get in on it. Geez. People just love to insult things.

"Yeah, hi, this is Jim... Yeah, Cameron... The genius who paired up Winslet and Di Caprio for that awful TITANIC movie... No, Mr.Markowitz, I don't have time to explain why I cast a skinny effeminate nerd, that's not why I called you, I'm a busy man... Listen, I need some scientists for an underwater documentary... A-ha... Charles, John, Mike... Well, no, actually I was thinking more of women, you see. I want this to be a politically correct film, so get me some female marine biologists. That way I have a better shot at getting a prestigious award. Have you got any?... You do? Great. A black- I mean, an African-American girl with Bob Marley hair? Excellent! What's more hip than that!? I'll get her to narrate a bulk of the movie... No, no, nevermind her credentials, I don't need them... She's just a student? Who cares... just send her and the other gals over."

In making this solid documentary, James Cameron behaved more like an actor than a director, i.e. someone who is always behind the camera. The major flaw of AOTD is that we see far too many shots of Jim and his dull female science team, and too little of the fascinating deep-ocean creatures which Cameron promised. Who cares to listen to the crews go "wow!" and "unbelievable!" every five minutes? The viewer is supposed to say it or think it, not these dull scientific clowns. The narration sounds flat, usually coming in form of barely audible, weak female voices. One of these narrators is a scientist who actually left her 5-month old infant to be on this expedition. Are we supposed to be impressed by her career ambitions? How very feminist. But I suppose Cameron was so adamant about having nearly all the scientists be women that he didn't even care about separating a mother from her infant.

I thought that the focus occasionally shifting on space exploration was a good idea, but there was too little of real scientific info of that nature. Too much screen time goes to waste on showing us the logistical difficulties of sending these subs down - as if anyone apart from engineers cares. Show me a fish with teeth like Edward Fox! That's what it's all about...

If you want a truly awe-inspiring documentary on deep-sea critters, check out "The Blue Planet": one of the six episodes delivers what Cameron here only partly manages to do.

Perhaps Cameron wants to be the next Jacque Cousteau, who was a self-centered egomaniac who pretended to only care about the preservation of nature when in fact it was exhibitionistic self-promotion that was always in the forefront. Damn, I'm tired of all these hyped-up idealists/humanists getting rich at the expense of our collective naivety.

Aliens of the Deep finds visionary filmmaker James Cameron teaming up with NASA scientists to undertake a deep-sea expedition in order to explore the mid-ocean ridges where they discover & examine ecosystems housing some of the strangest life forms on Earth. And through this research & investigation, this documentary suggests what life beyond Earth might actually look like.

Providing ample evidence of life prospering in the harshest of conditions on our planet, what Cameron & his team pull off here is no doubt essential work from a research standpoint but as a documentary, Aliens of the Deep is unfortunately unable to intrigue & stimulate us in ways best documentaries manage to. Watch it only if you share Cameron's curiosity in the subject matter.

When it comes to action movies, James Cameron is one of my favorite directors. In particular, "The Abyss" and "Terminator 2" are two of my all-time favorite movies. Like others, I'm disappointed to see that since "Titanic" Cameron is only making documentaries and I'm looking forward to see his "Battle Angel" (currently scheduled for a 2007 release), which will be his first feature in 10(!) years.

I didn't really like "Expedition: Bismarck" and "Ghosts of the Abyss", so my expectations from "Aliens of the Deep" weren't that high. Still, I got disappointed. I watched the 95-min DVD version and felt like I was watching a "behind the scenes" featurette of the real movie.

The movie promises to show us "aliens" from the bottom of the sea. It surprised me that during the entire duration, you don't get to see more than 10 minutes of that - most of them are the same creatures. TV shows like the excellent "The Blue Planet (2001)" by the BBC already gave us all these creatures (and many others not shown here) in a MUCH clearer view and better photography.

Instead, this movie focuses on showing all the people and equipment involved in making the dives. It was interesting in the first 10 minutes and it would have been alright if I wanted to know more about the making of the movie. But it's not interesting to see Cameron and crew for 95 minutes discussing how things should be made.

Except for the few short computer animations in the movie, I got a feeling that I was watching an unedited material. Cameron puts himself and lots of people with Ph.D. in front of the camera, but he is more interested in showing us them playing, making faces, modeling to the cameras and having really shallow discussions instead of giving some in-depth analysis of the subject.

Most of the underwater dialog consists of "Wow" and "That is amazing". The narration is horrible right from the beginning and the lowest point - for me - was during the explanation how these creatures were first discovered, which actually used the phrase: "These scientists went like 'Wow!'".

Most of the underwater material shows the submarines and the people instead of the creatures. Is it because they didn't find what they wanted and didn't have enough material to shows us? When you finally get to see some creatures, you have absolutely no explanations about them. So many educated scientists around and you don't even get to know the names of the creatures! You just watch it like you would if you dived yourself. Cameron himself sums it pretty well in one scene, when a beautiful jelly-like creature passes and he says "I have no idea what that is". I don't blame you - you're not a scientist, but what are all the people around for?

Summing it all up - this movie was a big disappointment and boring enough for me to fast-forward parts of it. If you want to see the creatures promised here, see another documentary; if you want to see a good Cameron project - go and watch any of his brilliant action movies. But save yourself from watching this.

One of the best things about this movie - specifically with regard to bringing kids to see it - is this: we see attractive, personable scientists who are excited - genuinely _excited_ - to be doing science.

And, of course, the eye candy of the science they're doing - submersibles, robot cameras, and so on. I'm convinced there'll be a few marine biologists twenty years from now who'll remember this movie as the first step on their road to discovery.

I'm raising a lively and inquisitive seven-year-old son, and one of my personal challenges is inoculating him against the pervasive anti-intellectualism of this culture. This movie makes being a marine biologist look cool and fun, and for that I'm profoundly grateful.

The ending _is_ a bit cheesy, but hey - most people like cheese.