Review of The Abyss (1989) by Andy N — 23 May 2015

This film is over hyped and goes on way too long. What starts out as exciting and intriguing only goes downhill after about the first 45 minutes or so. The special effects are some of the best on display, if Cameron is great at anything, it's getting the most out of his special effects department/budget.

Towards the end the visuals haven't held up well over time, but still a lot of imaginative stuff. I think had the film just been about the research and was more intelligent characters discussing how to communicate wit the aliens and less ham fisted hijinks by a twirly mustachioued army guy who likes guns and because he can't handle the pressure.

..literally the pressure...just becomes insane and wants to blow up aliens he thinks are Russians...the commentary is just worn on the sleeve here...and all with a nuke. It becomes too much of a satire that it just ends up bogging down the whole film and derails the mystery surrounding the film.

I still wanted to see the aliens, I never lost interest in that mystery, but I began finding myself more and more wanting to just look up plot spoilers and google search some images. It's that bad.

The Abyss is a hokey, overstuffed, visual feast for the eyes about underwater aliens, and the people that fail to understand them.