Rating of
2.5/4
Takes too long to become interesting
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/01/08
"Rose" (Gloria Stuart, also played in the scenes set at the time of the sinking by Kate Winslet), a woman who claims to be a survivor of the Titanic disaster, comes aboard a ship of researchers who are searching the wreckage for a blue diamond known as the "Heart of the Sea," which she claims to have worn hours before the ship sank after striking an iceberg.
She describes an incredible story with facts not publicly known which causes the lead researcher (Bill Paxton) to believe her story.
She describes how she met a poor, aspiring artist (Leonardo DiCaprio) whom she falls in love with, despite being engaged to an well-off, arrogant jerk (Billy Zane) who treated her like a piece of property more than the woman he loved.
She also describes interacting with such historical figures as "Molly Brown" (Kathy Bates) and "Thomas Andrews" (Victor Garber), the person who built the ship.
It takes around two hours before runs into the iceberg in this film. Only after the iceberg strike is when the movie gets interesting.
Prior to the iceberg strike, the movie lags on incredibly too much. In my opinion, I've never seen a movie with as many scenes that drag on as in this one. There are scenes which lags during the sinking, as well as after the ship goes down, but there aren't as many as there are in the first two hours of the film.
The script, and much of the dialog, is pretty bad. Much of it is hard to listen to. In fact, much of the dialog is dated -- and it's dated in our time, not like the way they spoke in 1912.
The only real reason to check this movie out is the special effects -- especially during the sinking. They went all out to make it appear as if the sets were actually a ship as it is sinking.
Despite the special effects, there is one scene which pans over the ship showing "people" on the deck walking around that is obviously computer-generated. It is painfully obvious the "people" in this scene are computer-generated figures.
Not one of the performances stand out and steals the movie, however Bates performance makes you wish you saw more of "'The Unsinkable' Molly Brown." Zane also does a pretty good job at making you hate his character, but his character, like others in the film, is pretty much one-dimensional.
"Titanic" is an incredibly slow, and way too long movie which I only recommend for a second-choice rental. I also recommend that you skip the first two hours of the movie.
