Brilliant visual effects along lavish sets and costumes do not a great movie make.
First and foremost, that horrible, cliche-ridden, cheesy screenplay with those stereotypical characters right out of central casting.
The acting: Billy Zane should be suspended from the Screen Actors Guild as punishment for the most severe case of ham acting I've seen in 30 years of moviegoing. Leonardo DiCaprio (who can occasionally do good work) is out of his element. He's a valley boy trying to a historical piece. Even an actress as talented and beautiful as Kate Winslett can't make that cheesy dialogue work. Kathy Bates is good but her role is little more than a cameo. And Victor Garber's delicate performance as architect Thomas Andrews allows him to subtly steal the few scenes he is in. Frances Fisher and Gloria Stewart are embarrassing to watch just what the heck is going on between Bill Paxton and Suzy Amis in that ridiculous story bookend. The rest of the cast seems to have been inspired by the central casting stock character actors of the 1930's (the high society snob; the bumbling billionaire and his heavily accented manservant; the poor pitiful Irish peasants; the arrogant industrialist; the hero's comically zany best friend who meets an untimely death; the first class gentlemen who behave like gentlemen while the third class men push women and children out of the way to get on the lifeboats, I could go on and on...
James Cameron direction has a few inspired moments (mostly some interesting camera angles) but for the most part each scene tries to out cliche the previous one.
To see a real movie about the Titanic with real characters and real story rent "A Night to Remember".
First and foremost, that horrible, cliche-ridden, cheesy screenplay with those stereotypical characters right out of central casting.
The acting: Billy Zane should be suspended from the Screen Actors Guild as punishment for the most severe case of ham acting I've seen in 30 years of moviegoing. Leonardo DiCaprio (who can occasionally do good work) is out of his element. He's a valley boy trying to a historical piece. Even an actress as talented and beautiful as Kate Winslett can't make that cheesy dialogue work. Kathy Bates is good but her role is little more than a cameo. And Victor Garber's delicate performance as architect Thomas Andrews allows him to subtly steal the few scenes he is in. Frances Fisher and Gloria Stewart are embarrassing to watch just what the heck is going on between Bill Paxton and Suzy Amis in that ridiculous story bookend. The rest of the cast seems to have been inspired by the central casting stock character actors of the 1930's (the high society snob; the bumbling billionaire and his heavily accented manservant; the poor pitiful Irish peasants; the arrogant industrialist; the hero's comically zany best friend who meets an untimely death; the first class gentlemen who behave like gentlemen while the third class men push women and children out of the way to get on the lifeboats, I could go on and on...
James Cameron direction has a few inspired moments (mostly some interesting camera angles) but for the most part each scene tries to out cliche the previous one.
To see a real movie about the Titanic with real characters and real story rent "A Night to Remember".