O Abismo

The best of Cameron’s work for me. Excellent direction, perfect atmosphere and a rather pleasant story, which is spoiled only by the stupid open conclusion, apparently made to order "to make it work". Otherwise, however, I consider this underwater variation on Close Encounters of the Third Kind to be one of the best adventure films made in Hollywood, to which the excellent Ed Harris in the role of the manly captain of the undersea station certainly contributes. To the aforementioned conclusion – in a special edition, it is extended and drawn into a very naïvely proclamational, but still better form. At least you'll know why these little transparent men do it all. (27/01/2004)

Is this really from 1989? I can't believe how attractive and appealing the visuals of the film are. I'd guess 2005, too bad 80s horror films weren't as high on the technical side as The Abyss. At first I thought it was going to be a space sci-fi flick, after all it is set in a nuclear submarine (which I'm not too fond of), but luckily the film was spiced up with an alien visitation as well as a lot of other fitting elements. For its running time, the film has a decent pace and doesn't get boring. The highlight for me is the emotional resuscitation and exploration of the ocean floor by Ed Harris. The only thing I see as a minus is that the thriller psychosis didn't develop into a more vigorous massacre. 80% (03/06/2015)

When Cameron wants to do something, like shooting an entire film in a water tank, he just does it and the result is always perfect. Although this film wasn't nearly as big a hit as Terminator 2, I put it higher in James Cameron's filmography, and it’s further proof of his immense perfectionism – he just can't make a bad film. And since I've seen the director's cut, I have to say that the extended ending with a stunning (for its time) visual effects scene puts this film in a completely different light. (01/06/2002)

From a purely filmmaking point of view, this must have been hell to film in such cramped spaces. And when a chink of space appears, it immediately fills with water. But purely from a viewer’s point of view, it’s good that Cameron decided to go accept the challenge of making it. This has a fundamentally positive impact on the atmosphere. But this makes the ending all the more annoying, because Cameron is no good at presenting (selling) a message like this. The movie simply lacks even a drop of Kubrick inside it and not even the longest of director’s cuts can help. (23/12/2009)

I watched the extended cut, fortunately, because I wouldn’t like to have missed a single minute. I don’t really know what the “original” shorter cut is missing, but I wonder what they could have left out for the film to still make sense, and my conclusion is that it must be the twist. The Abyss is a very good and tense sci-fi film full of minor clichés, which I wasn’t a fan of, but I came to terms with them. Cameron probably cares more about visual spectacle (the special effects are of course brilliant) than smart unpredictable scripts. (12/06/2010)