thoughts on Titanic 3D

So after yesterday's half-marathon festivities, I met up with a few friends to see Titanic in Imax 3D. I saw Titanic twice in the theater when it first came out, and I know that I owned it on VHS at one point, but before yesterday's viewing, I hadn't seen it for ten-fifteen years. I read one disparaging review of the movie upon its rerelease that indicated that it might not hold up for those of us who liked the movie as teens, but I've got to say, I still think it's a pretty solid movie.

For one thing, I'm impressed now in a way that I wasn't as a teen by the fact that it must have taken *a lot* of work to make this movie; I don't know a lot about the making of it, but the effects in the scenes where the ship was sinking were very impressive, so I've gotta respect that. Also, I remember when I saw the movie as a teen that I was less interested in the scenes where the ship was sinking than the rest of the movie because I was mainly just into the love story. However, this time around, I was really struck by the utter chaos that breaks out once the ship starts sinking, especially as the situation gets more and more dire: the utter disregard for the people in steerage; the futile attempts to maintain order, or an appearance of order, until it's absolutely impossible to do so; the fact that eventually it seems like people are pulling out guns left and right. It also struck me just how many mistakes had to be made for 1) the Titanic to sink and 2) its sinking to be as big of a disaster as it was. I'm sitting there all, "No! You don't need to go faster!," and, "Ahh! There aren't enough lifeboats!," and, "No! Why are you only putting twelve people in a boat for sixty-five?"

Other random thoughts: I remembered that Victor Garber was in this, but I didn't really even remember who he played, and certainly not that he had a slight Irish accent. After this viewing, I would definitely rank him in my top five favorite things about the movie. Also, while I remembered that Rose's fiance was a jerk, I did not remember just how crazy things get with him. He's chasing Jack and Rose with a gun at one point! And he just grabs some random kid and pretends she's his to get onto a lifeboat! Also, there were things that I didn't realize I remembered until I saw them: for example, when Jack is handcuffed and Rose is looking for a key, I'm all, "Doesn't this ship have an emergency axe somewhere? Oh! It does! That's actually what happens!"

Anyway, bottom line is, I enjoyed it quite a bit. You'll notice that I haven't even mentioned the 3D; that's because the 3D aspect of it wasn't all that impressive, and I don't really care for 3D that much as a whole. I don't hate it like Roger Ebert hates it, or anything, but I just haven't seen it used all that effectively, and it kind of gives me a headache. I don't think 3D really added a lot to Titanic, and I think if they needed an excuse to rerelease the movie in theaters, the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking would have been as good of one as any. Nevertheless, it didn't really hurt my viewing experience. I had a good time.