Aliens of the Deep

Reviewed by: Ron Henriques - 01.20.05

Jim Cameron has been my favorite filmmaker since my teens. Sure there are plenty of living directors who have proven themselves to be greater masters of the film medium. Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman, Godard, to name a few, but Jim Cameron appeals to me more because he continues to push the envelope. Before the colossal success of "Titanic" he was best know for visually striking sci-fi films that had well written characters. Those films were excessively violent at times, but the technical and visual achievements within them inspired many of today's top filmmakers, leading to a revolution in digital technology. If Cameron hadn't pushed George Lucas's ILM f/x house, the water tentacle from "The Abyss" wouldn't have evolved into the liquid metal "T-1000" of "Terminator 2" and inspired Spielberg to bring dinosaurs to life in "Jurassic Park", leading to Lucas himself fully realizing his "Star Wars" saga as well as "The Lord of the Rings" and other productions of immense scope. Evolution in technology, especially within the cinema usually begin with a single idea and James Cameron has had more than a few.

We've all become jaded with the bells and whistles that accompany the dvd titles we purchase each year: audio commentaries, documentaries and a wealth of production materials that give us insight into the filmmaking process. But before dvd was even a concept, Cameron was giving his fans supplements like these and more on Laserdisc. I truly appreciated the fact that he was always willing to share his process with the average viewer, unafraid that he was giving away some sort of Hollywood secrets. Long before dvd I learned a great deal about filmmaking just by watching the special edition Laserdiscs of Cameron's films than I did reading the average "how to "film book. He may have a reputation as a tyrant and a perfectionist, but the man is more than willing to share his knowledge with the average individual.

Besides pushing the technological envelope, Cameron always struck me as the type of filmmaker who continually sought knowledge, willing to soak up as much as he could. Although many of his fans have been yearning nearly a decade for him to return to Hollywood moviemaking, it seems that the success of "Titanic" has made him re-evaluate himself as a filmmaker and as an human being. I don't think he wants to make hard-core R-rated pics like "Terminator" and "True Lies" anymore. He readily admits that when he convinced the movie studio to finance a submersible dive to film the Titanic wreckage that he had an ulterior motive and I feel that the journey initiated a new phase of his life and career.

Cameron's 2003 Imax 3-D documentary "Ghosts of the Abyss" wasn't a completely engaging feature, but an impressive achievement. It seemed like an addendum to "Titanic" and although the 3-D footage of the real wreckage was amazing, it was difficult to get emotionally involved as we all did with the movie. If "Ghost of the Abyss" was an appetizer, "Aliens of the Deep" is the main course, a perfect companion piece to his 1989 feature "The Abyss" which was a fictional account of alien life below the ocean's surface. That film featured amazing visual effects to depict terrain and life forms never seen by light or human eyes. With his latest film, Cameron doesn't have to rely solely on Hollywood effects, it's all real and with the patented twin camera system he developed with his younger brother Mike we get it all in three-dimensions!

Armed with an experienced diving crew, a team of marine biologists and a set of submersible vehicles Cameron takes us on one of the wildest rides you'll ever see. This isn't the washy colored anaglyph 3-D from the old days, this feature uses the polarized lens process which may be familiar to Imax audiences and will eventually become the standard in digital theaters. I'm sure like "Ghosts..." when this film comes to video it will be in standard 2-D, but there is absolutely no comparison, the 3-D format is a dire ingredient needed to bring this fantastic world to life. You will see things that no one has ever seen before.

Two and a half miles beneath the surface of the ocean Cameron and his team discovered an incredible landscape inhabited by fascinating and complex creatures. These regions have never been penetrated by sunlight and the history of the earth's formation is traceable through amazing geological formations. Most impressive are a series of hydro-thermal vents, chimney rocks that spew plumes of black smoke and intense heat from beneath the earth's crust, strong enough to melt the windows of a submersible. What's fascinating is that amongst these rock formations, under intense pressure and temperatures far below freezing exists an entire eco-system! Our explorers discover a species of shrimp-like fish that live and crawl around this toxic environment, a region where scientists believed life couldn't exist. It's "a party that's been going on for a billion years and will continue for the next billion years," according to Cameron and seeing such a complex eco-system gives you perspective of just how insignificant you are in the universe. Cameron hits it on the nose when he says "The sun could burn out tomorrow and they wouldn't know or even care."

Also discovered during the series of dives are many species of fish including a type of jellyfish that is so beautifully fragile and complex it's impossible to determine how it lives, a new species of squid that appears to glow from within and expresses its intelligence by wrapping it's tiny tentacle around the ROV, and a group of bacteria that has a feathery appearance but an "ethereal" quality as Cameron puts it. Equally engaging amongst these life forms are a series of six-foot long tubes that appear to be plants but are actually a type of worm that sprout retractable red plumes that are quite beautiful.

Marine biologist Pam Conrad explains that the purpose of exploration into the depths of the ocean is to prepare for exploration on other planets. Impressive visual effects do come into play in this story, but its not what you think. Cameron uses f/x as a tool and a guide to explain how NASA hopes to launch a probe to explore the moons of Jupiter. Chief amongst these sixty-four satellites are the moons of Io and Europa. The intense friction caused by the state of rotation makes the moon of Io too hot, turning it into a lava covered volcanic world much like the setting for a rumored showdown in the next "Star Wars" movie. The moon of Europa is just right, covered entirely by ice, but theoretically may contain an ocean much like our own far beneath the surface. Cameron uses the type of visual effects we've seen in every space movie to depict a probe landing on the surface, drilling through the ice and exploring the ocean beneath for life forms, but it holds far more weight and meaning than any movie because this isn't your typical science-fiction story, but science eventuality.

Much of this may seem far fetched but so did many of the works of Jules Verne and mankind has made much of his fiction a reality. Cameron loses a point with me by stretching it a bit with a "what if" sequence involving underwater explorers discovering a new species and civilization on an alien planet, much like the climax of "The Abyss". Yet, I can easily identify with how he's found greater pleasure in exploration than creating a Hollywood sci-fi epic. We'll get to see more fictional films from him eventually, it's in his blood and he has a fertile imagination, but he can always make films like that when he's an old man, let him experience the joy of exploring reality while he's young.

In the meantime, he's taken his unique talents and opened up a whole new world not just for movie audiences, but the science community. Much credit should also go to his co-director Steven Quale, but the whole effort was spear-headed by Cameron himself. We've all enjoyed his works of fiction on the silver screen and he continues to give back with an even bolder adventure that takes us into a grandiose world that we didn't know was right in our own backyard. It's not just a journey but a true education as well. Bravo.