Movie Review by Bill Rendall

The Abyss

Although it is set underwater The Abyss is much like a space movie. People who create space movies generally don't try very hard to be realistic and simply ignore things like the laws of gravity and motion. Creating a realistic underwater environment in a movie is challenging and expensive but is achievable.

James Cameron, the director of The Abyss, has a fascination with the ocean depths and a fastidious attention to detail. To create The Abyss he used a containment tank in a former nuclear plant to house the biggest submerged movie set ever built. He directed the action from underwater and insisted that his actors and most of his crew were able to work underwater too. The result is the most realistic underwater environment I have seen in a movie.

One of the most memorable things about the movie is the leading man (Ed Harris) using breathing fluid to allow him to dive very deep. That would have to be a very strange and unsettling experience. Cameron got the idea some years earlier when he saw a presentation by Frank Falejczyk, the first person to breath oxygenated liquid. Falejczyk actually tried breathing a saline solution first but couldn't handle that. He had more success with a fluorocarbon emulsion like they used in the movie. Harris didn't really have to breathe the fluid for the movie but a rat did, to the displeasure of some animal rights groups.

What matters most to movie viewers is the end product rather than what went into making it. Sadly The Abyss falls short of what it could have been and does not justify the work that went into it.

What spoils The Abyss for me is the unnecessary inclusion of aliens, a staple element of space movies. The special effects technology which created their watery bodies was subsequently used more appropriately by Cameron to create the liquid metal body effects in Terminator 2.

A special director's edition of the movie was later released which expands on the alien subplot. This version just makes things worse. The movie is too long anyway and would have been greatly improved by cutting out the aliens altogether. Dealing with a psychotic Navy Seal and threats of war with Russia is enough for one movie.

Despite its flaws The Abyss is still well worth watching for the great underwater scenes.

Director: James Cameron

Screenplay: James Cameron

Music: Alan Silvestri

Declaration of possible bias:

Movies that run for over two hours usually exceed my attention span. I think that overly long movies are a sign of hubris in a director.

Further viewing:

I highly recommend watching the Making of the Abyss promo documentary. You will really appreciate the extraordinary demands on the cast and crew to make the movie.  

Movie Reviews | Home | Top