Review of The Abyss (1989) by Francisca M — 30 Dec 2010

The movie is almost 3 hours long and I love it. I don't notice it at all. First off, I adore Ed Harris. He's another one of those charming actors that are adorable. Now the title of the film is clever.

It plays on the abyss in the sea and what's going on above the surface. The entire story was nice because it had a message and we got aliens. The aliens were not the entire movie. Almost an afterthought but not, well played.

Now to the performances - I don't understand why they were campaigning for Michael Biehn to get an award nomination. He was good and crazy but I don't believe Oscar worthy. Either way, he played the Marine very well even though his mustache was just strange on him and added to creep factor.

Now, the really awesome performances came from Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. The drowning scene in the boat was awesome and then the following resuscitation scene, which is one of the longest I've seen.

I loved it. Those two had good scenes and dialogue. James Cameron filmed the movie amazingly. Anything underwater or in space is terrifying especially at that depth. I enjoyed it and at the beginning when Virgil went to answer the phone from the surface, I felt cramped with him because he had to keep his head down.

Most of the story was about surviving and it was balanced well with action and dialogue. The plot moved along and it was real and then we got a little kick of NIT's. I'm sad that they lost friends especially in that drowning scene in one of the compartments.

Everything was paced well and though predictable as Flickster has written in the description, it is crafted well and does make you think. Sometimes it's not the story that we've seen a hundred times but the way it is produced that makes it worth while ("Avatar" for example).

The thing is I wasn't thinking while watching that this was going to happen next. I was there and didn't go on predicting. That makes it different. Awesome film.