Back in December, James Cameron released his restoration of The Abyss theatrically, not just updating it to the technical specifics of modern times, but also tweaking it to his own director’s cut, releasing the version he wanted to release. For a director like Cameron, whose resume is actually quite small as he takes a lot of time to develop an idea, The Abyss is like the Moby Dick of his filmography. It has been pretty notoriously hard to find on any home media up until this point, but now that Cameron has a version of it that he approves of, you can pop into the Apple Store, and just download it with some really nice audio description from the team at Deluxe with Jedidiah Barton as the narrator. It’s a shame that True lies was made available at the same time, but without audio description.
I hadn’t seen this previously, so I have no idea what changed. It was interesting to watch a film about the workers of a rig in the middle of the ocean being called to serve their country, like in Armageddon. but, The Abyss came first, so turns out Armageddon is the rip off there. Then, in the same year where I criticized The Meg 2 for its nonsensical ocean floor stroll, here comes The Abyss. Is everyone just ripping off this film?
Stories about this film shoot are not great. The actors weren’t left with impressions of ever wanting to do this again, as being waterlogged for the shoot seemed to take its toll. On film, this is a solid science fiction film. The score is delightful, the performances are solid, especially from lead Ed Harris, and you can see Cameron thinking about the future. He always has been fascinated with water, whether exploring the depths in IMAX documentaries like Ghosts Of The Abyss, or conceptual in The Way Of Water. Arguably, the technology he used for Terminator 2, giving the upgraded Terminator a watery quality is even representative.
I always thought this was a horror movie, but it isn’t. It’s just science fiction, with a rather unnecessary subplot involving a nuke. Cameron swings big, and while this can’t possibly be his best work, it is interesting and entertaining.
My least favorite sequence is the seemingly unavoidable “lets explain thiss” moment, where Cameron has devised liquid oxygen, but needs to show the audience how it works, so there’s this scene with a rat that feels like the biggest foreshadowing in film history. I would have respected him even more as a director if he had never needed to use the liquid oxygen after that scene, as it was so obvious that it was about to be really important. It was.
Barton’s narration captures perfectly the various elements of the film, from what it is like to be deep underwater, to the feeling of being picked off by… something. And when that something is visible, Cameron’s cool use of visual effects translates rather well into the audio description.
Again, only because Cameron is such a solid director does this end up near the bottom of his filmography. However, it’s not much lower, as I’d put this pretty on par with the Avatar sequel.
Final Grade: B+
