Ghosts of the Abyss ('03) 2003, Rated G Buena Vista

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A Buena Vista release; written, produced and directed by James Cameron. Released to DVD on April 27, 2004.

It’s an interesting technique because, as a consumer, you are now linking a proven quantity like Jurassic Park with a film like Timeline, that hasn’t yet had a chance to establish an identity of its own.

With this in mind, it shouldn’t come as much a surprise to learn that Disney promoted Ghosts of the Abyss by mentioning it in the same breath as the film Titanic as often as was humanly possible, especially since both films were directed by James Cameron and prominently featured actor Bill Paxton interacting with the wreck of the RMS Titanic. As a matter of fact, I was hard pressed to look at the press materials for this film and read more than a line or two before another reference to Titanic popped up. For the DVD release of Ghosts of the Abyss, the box cover contains no less than four mentions of the movie, Titanic. This grew even more noteworthy when I realized that the ship itself is only referred to twice, and it’s the subject of this new documentary.

After screening Ghosts of the Abyss, it became quite obvious as to why the merits of this particular film weren’t being trumpeted in the Disney marketing campaign: Cameron’s latest project is as close to a one-trick pony as I’ve ever seen.

When Titanic was released to theaters in the winter of 1997, much was made of the fact that Cameron actually visited the wreck site of the Titanic is a small submersible. Four years later, Cameron decided to make the return journey to Titanic’s final resting place, inviting friend and frequent collaborator, Paxton along for the ride. Documenting his and Paxton’s journey for IMAX theaters, Cameron created a very big-screen ride-along to see Titanic.

Extremely heavy on the scenes of the wreckage that were shot at the bottom of the Atlantic, Ghosts of the Abyss came across as so dry and unappealing to most test audiences that Cameron and company felt it necessary to enhance their footage of the present day Titanic with computer generated effects of what the different portions of the ship must have looked like in their prime. Complete with people walking and going about their business–imagine The Sims: Titanic Edition–Ghosts of the Abyss does whatever it can to instill any kind of emotion at all into the proceedings. This includes featured scenes of a worried Paxton inquiring about the nature of the escape-hatch in his submersible and of Cameron fretting over the temporary loss of one of his remote-operated vehicles.

No matter what Cameron tried to do though, I had an enormously hard time getting into the flow of Ghosts of the Abyss. The simple truth of the matter is that I could have cared less about looking at the rusted, sunken form of the RMS Titanic. There are certain things that interest me and there are certain things that don’t. Vicariously viewing shipwrecks from the comfort of a movie theater is one of those things that contains no inherent joy for me.

Sadly, getting back to the one-trick pony nature of the project, Ghosts of the Abyss has little else going for it to generate enthusiasm or viewer interest. It’s viewing the wreck of the Titanic or bust. If Disney wanted to market this film with an element of honesty, that would have been Ghosts of the Abyss’ tag line. As it is, the only thing visible to the naked eye on the box is Dean Richards’ quote that Ghosts of the Abyss picks up where Titanic left off. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Chris Neumer

yes, it's true: Take your pick: Ed W. Marsh is credited as being Ghost of the Abyss' "Creative Producer". This merits mentioning because we have never seen anyone else with that credit. Or: This was originally called Titanic 3-D.