Titanic in 3D

The date is December 19th 1997. James Cameron's 200+ million-dollar long awaited epic, "Titanic" has finally hit the multiplex to what will be the highest grossing film of all time. I guess Cameron didn't make enough money the first time around, so this being the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ill-fated ship, he decided to re-release the film. Not only did he re-release it, but he did it in Cameron fashion-- in 3D process.

84 years later, a 100-year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater (Gloria Stuart) tells her story to granddaughter Lizzy (Suzy Amis), Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton), Lewis Bodine (Lewis Abernathy), Bobby Buell (Nicholas Castone), and Anatoly Mikailavich (Dr. Anatoly M. Sagalevich) on the Keldysh ship about her life set in April 10th 1912, on a ship called Titanic when young Rose (Kate Winslet) boards the departing ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater (Frances Fisher), and her fiance, Cal Hockley (Billy Zane).
Meanwhile, a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his best friend, Fabrizio (Danny Nucci) win third-class tickets to the ship in a poker game. At this point, she explains the whole story from departure, the meeting and getting to know Jack until the sinking of Titanic on its first and last voyage April 15th 1912 at 2:20 AM.

Others to round out the cast are Kathy Bates as Molly Brown, Bernard Hill as Capt. Edward Smith, David Warner as Spicer Lovejoy, Cal's man-servant, Victor Garber as Thomas Andrews, builder of Titanic, Jonathan Hyde as Bruce Ismay, owner of Titanic, Jason Barry as Tommy Ryan, a steerage-class passenger, Ewan Stewart as 1st Officer Murdoch, and Bernard Fox as Col. Archibald Gracie, a 1st class passenger.

This was wonderfully written and directed by Cameron ("The Terminator" '84, "Aliens" '86, "The Abyss" '89, "True Lies" '94, "Avatar" '09), and as one can see, with this epic of a resume, Cameron is the king of the high-budget epic film. This film was so grandiose, that the running time of it was 3 hours and 15 minutes, whereas it took only 2 hours and 40 minutes for Titanic to sink in the North Atlantic Ocean. Hey, there has to be a story in this, otherwise all we have is a documentary. Even though DiCaprio and Winslet weren't the best pairing with the then DiCaprio looking younger than the then Winslet, this story still kept one riveted.

I'm not usually a 3D fan, but this process made this film Rock! And with the visual effects predominantly by ILM (Industrial, Light & Magic) and Digital Domain, it made the combination that much more stunning. You've got to see this in the theater to even get the full impact that Cameron wanted to convey. All aboard!

Out of 4 stars: 4                    Rated: PG-13                        195min.