35th anniversary of The Abyss (1989)

James Cameron's underwater sci fi film turns 35 and I am happy to celebrate it with you. The Director's Cut might be one of my favorite films.  This was a hard movie to shoot but it was worth it in the end. The special effects for the most part hold and look real (with the exception of the part where the alien brings Harris aboard the ship), Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are both great and bring real emotion to their roles and to the entire movie, and what happened to Michael Biehn? Him vanishing was a huge blow to Hollywood. Alan Silvestri also delivers one of his best scores. Of course the ending turns from an underwater sci fi action flick into Close Encounters/The Day the Earth Stood Still but Cameron manages to not make it cheesy. He brings out his inner Spielberg and I say it works. I am not too shocked the movie bombed originally. No stars and the theatrical cut seems like a chopped up version. An incomplete movie.





Watching this however makes me sad as it reminded me that James Cameron will spend the rest of his career/life making Avatar sequels.