[.ca] The Abyss (Special Edition)

From Amazon.co.uk:
Meticulously crafted but also ponderous and predictable, James Cameron's 1989 deep-sea close-encounter epic reaffirms one of the oldest first principles of cinema: everything moves a lot more slowly underwater. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some "issues" to work out, are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with a top- secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on earth, and the petro-techies have the only submersible craft capable of diving down that far. Every image and every performance is painstakingly sharp and detailed (and the computerised water creatures are lovely) but the movie's lumbering pace is ultimately lethal. It's the audience that ends up feeling waterlogged. For a guy who likes guns as much as Cameron (his next film after all, was the body-count masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day), it's interesting that the moral balance here is weighted heavily in favour of the can-do engineers; the military types are end-justifies-the-means amoralists, just like the weasely government bureaucrats in Aliens. --David Chute

Amazon.com essential video:
Meticulously crafted but also ponderous and predictable, James Cameron's 1989 deep-sea close-encounter epic reaffirms one of the oldest first principles of cinema: everything moves a lot more slowly underwater. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some "issues" to work out, are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with a top- secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on earth, and the petro-techies have the only submersible craft capable of diving down that far. Every image and every performance is painstakingly sharp and detailed (and the computerized water creatures are lovely) but the movie's lumbering pace is ultimately lethal. It's the audience that ends up feeling waterlogged. For a guy who likes guns as much as Cameron (his next film after all, was the body-count masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day), it's interesting that the moral balance here is weighted heavily in favor of the can-do engineers; the military types are end-justifies-the-means amoralists, just like the weasely government bureaucrats in Aliens. --David Chute

Simple title - complex movie:
All the elements are there to make this a fun "sit on the edge of your seat" movie. You have a nuclear sub accident that just gets worse as it goes you have conflict between authority types and free wheelers. There is a love interest (attraction at a distance). Will he make it or is it out of time or out of air or out of distance maybe out of patients. Who knows? Aside from the story there a re great effects and many panoramic scenes. There are lots of bubbles, an abyss and maybe some Ruskies. If you like all those submarine movies this fits in well. Again it is the people action and reaction that make the movie. Don't wait for some slam-bang surprise to appear out of no ware or you will have misses the story. This is one of those movies that have to grow on you and then you will watch it again.

False Advertising:
The Abyss single disc edition is a cool movie, but the actual movie is not in Dolby 5.0 as Amazon.com or Dolby 5.1 as the DVD jacket would have us believe, but only in Dolby 2.0 (2 channel) English or French. I tried both the theatrical and the special edition cut, same result. Buyer beware.

Beautifully made, a little dramatic:
I always had The Abyss on my to-see list and now I finally have. I was not dissapointed for it feels a little like an underwater 'Close Encounters'. The effects are great, the water space aliens are wonderful and the first time view of the underwater city is breathtaking. The morale of the movie is bad. Americans and Russians are screwing up the world so the aliens try to prevent it. 'Can't we all just get along!?' is what they want for us, then things will turn to better. Industrial Light and magic did a great job again in this 1989 movie, it's worth seeing for SF fans.

didn't live up to the potential:
i don't think this was a good film.first off,i just found it so tediously slow.it never really picked up much at all.when it gets to the "reveal" of some undersea life,it redeems itself somewhat,but not much.though i will say the special effects were pretty impressive in this regard.the problem is,we are not shown as many creatures as i would have liked.and for me,the whole movie hinges on that aspect.beyond that,there isn't a lot i liked about the movie.the acting was adequate,but nothing more.the movie is also way too long,in my opinion.i unfortunately watched the extended version,which clocks in at about 170 minutes,while the original theatrical cut was only 140 minutes.anyway,when you put it all together,the most i can give The Abyss is a 2/5

Simple title - complex movie:
All the elements are there to make this a fun "sit on the edge of your seat" movie. You have a nuclear sub accident that just gets worse as it goes you have conflict between authority types and free wheelers. There is a love interest (attraction at a distance). Will he make it or is it out of time or out of air or out of distance maybe out of patients. Who knows? Aside from the story there a re great effects and many panoramic scenes. There are lots of bubbles, an abyss and maybe some Ruskies. If you like all those submarine movies this fits in well. Again it is the people action and reaction that make the movie. Don't wait for some slam-bang surprise to appear out of no ware or you will have misses the story. This is one of those movies that have to grow on you and then you will watch it again.