Dir. James Cameron & Steve Quale, US, 2005, 47 mins
Cast: Pamela Conrad, Djanna Figueroa, Kevin Hand, Loretta Hidalgo, Maya Tolstoy
Review by Jarrod Walker
Since plundering 11 statuettes at the 1998 Academy Awards with Titanic, James Cameron has taken a self-imposed hiatus from feature filmmaking, preferring instead to indulge his fascination with all things aquatic. Undergoing a transformation of sorts, into a self-styled Jacques Cousteau, he is content instead to explore the undersea world, visiting wrecks and natural phenomenon via submersibles. His filmmaking instinct no doubt too strong to ignore, he has married both obsessions; the result being a clutch of slickly executed undersea documentaries.
The first, 2002's Expedition: Bismarck, was an exploration of the famed WW2 wreck made for the Discovery Channel, this was followed by 2003's Volcanoes of the Deep - with Cameron serving as producer. Soon after came Ghosts of the Abyss - a 3D IMAX documentary merging two of Cameron's obsessions: his awe-inspiring cash-cow Titanic and his unquenchable thirst for technological pioneering inside (and often times outside) the realms of filmmaking, a penchant that eternal perfectionist Cameron shares with an equally obsessive, cinematic tech-geek: Stanley Kubrick.
Now, in 2005, we see the release of his second 3D IMAX venture: Aliens of the Deep. An exploration of pacific ocean deep-sea thermal vents and the breathtakingly bizarre life-forms that exist around them, without sunlight (which, as previously thought, is the one thing life cannot exist without) and in extreme temperatures and pressures that would kill any other life-form. Cameron's sci-fi leanings lead him to draw comparisons between the exploration of the undersea unknown and deep space.
Some nifty computer animated sequences describe a mission to search for the beginnings of inter-planetary life, diving the depths of the ice encrusted oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa. In the 3D IMAX environment, these sequences are a highlight, as are the creatures Cameron's expedition discover at the three-mile deep thermal vents back on earth, which in 3D are quite simply awe-inspiring. Various scholars & techno bods narrate the documentary, lending scientific credence to the proceedings, but the final sequence (which has echoes of Cameron's undersea odyssey The Abyss) is slightly dubious scientifically and tips fully towards the sci-fi whimsy into which Cameron so clearly buys. An enjoyable slice of IMAX entertainment, Aliens of the Deep should be viewed within the context of Cameron's grand design for his vision of the future of cinema.
Ghosts of the Abyss was Cameron's initial experiment with the potential of what has become his preferred cinematic process: 3D. Once the domain of 1950's B-movie gimmickry, 3D is no longer the bastard child of 'smell-o-vision' and 'Fear-o-rama'. Modern filmmaking's melding of computer software and celluloid has given 3D a new lease of life. Throwing High Definition digital video into the mix opens a whole new dimension in not only IMAX documentaries but in feature films, with a depth, clarity and dynamic that will shift the effects-driven, event-film experience into the stratosphere. This is what Cameron envisages for the future of film as he sees it. Not content to just hope for the change, Cameron is initiating it. He is lobbying for the gradual introduction and installation of digital projection systems in more than 2000 US theatres.
2007 should see this analogue-to-digital projection system transition well under way, in preparation for the release of his first feature film in almost a decade: Battle Angel . A 3D science-fiction-action-epic that will without a doubt, revolutionise cinema going as we know it. It will also feature a wholly computer generated lead character, something no filmmaker has yet been game enough to attempt. Cameron's last excursion into science fiction (aside from his producing duties on Soderbergh's criminally underrated Solaris and his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days ) was 1991's sci-fi classic Terminator 2 - Judgement Day.
Cameron's desire to push technological boundaries and pioneer new filmmaking and storytelling techniques has changed film as we know it. One of the first filmmakers to use computer generated effects with winning results in The Abyss and subsequently Terminator 2, Cameron has proven himself as a solid storyteller and creator of true cinematic spectacle. As a window into his vision for the future of film, Aliens of the Deep is an engaging and fascinating look into the hidden depths of our oceans and indeed our own future as a film going audience.
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