Review of The Abyss (1989) by Ben F — 15 Feb 2011

The 1980's were a period of time where I just absolutely loved James Cameron. Nowadays, I don't really like him as much as I used to, for reasons that I'm too lazy to talk about. But during this time period, he had such great imagination, and such passion for the science fiction genre. His ingenuity played a huge roll in cinema without a doubt. "The Abyss" was one of his like classic films. It may go unnoticed now, but it's without a doubt one of his best.

What's so effective about this movie is that you have no idea what your going to see. Ed Harris' character and his group of oil rig drillers or whatever go with a group of U.S. Seals to search a sunken submarine, and discover what happened. The build up to the intensity is nerve-wracking. You can slowly see people claustrophobia and paranoia build up through internal conflict and problems with other characters. It's so awesome. At any moment, someone could pop.

The acting is awesome here. Everyone does a good job. I thought that Ed Harris was particularly good, and I usually like him a lot. He came through. During scenes where he needed to give it his all, he did just that. He didn't fail to disappoint. I thought Michael Biehn was good too, and apparently Cameron thinks so too, that's why he used him in so many of his movies. Yeah..overall awesome performances.

But what really makes the movie, as usual in a Cameron film, is the special effects. For the time, they were without a doubt groundbreaking, and I still think that they are excellent. I don't wanna describe the visuals in such depth because somehow I might give stuff away, but it's phenomenal. It's not overdone, like some other movies...and the beautiful visuals come in at all the right places.

It's really a great movie, because it's starts in one place, and ends in a place that you would have never expected. It really progresses in such an interesting fashion. The ending will have your mind blown, and you'll probably have a grin on your face.

"The Abyss" in my opinion, is a sci-fi classic. James Cameron really put all of his talent in this movie. I think that the late 80's into early 90's was his best time period, and this is one of the reasons why. See this movie.