User Reviews

In the wake of the overwhelming success of Titanic, writer-director James Cameron took a break from making traditional Hollywood pictures to pursue his love for deep sea exploration. In the process, we got two IMAX documentaries from Cameron. The first was Ghosts of the Abyss, which followed Cameron and a team of experts as they explored the undersea wreckage of the Titanic. His follow-up documentary, Aliens of the Deep, sees Cameron and a new group of scientists return to the bottom of the ocean; this time to get a glimpse of some of the most remarkable creatures and ecosystems on the planet.

Aliens of the Deep is a 47-minute IMAX documentary, originally shown in 3D. It follows a team of explorers comprised of engineers, marine biologists, NASA scientists, and one Oscar-winning filmmaker, as they take a series of high-tech submersibles to the hydrothermal vents at the bottom of ocean. The short length doesn't allow for a developed narrative regarding the team. Instead, we get the condensed highlights of the trip. We meet the crew, see the sights, and speculate on the importance of such missions. Aliens of the Deep mostly serves as something like an extremely big-budget home movie, with James Cameron inviting us to experience all of the best moments of the expedition.

However, apart from the documentary footage of the deep sea voyage, there are a few sequences speculating on missions to discover similar underwater life on Jupiter's moon, Europa. These sequences are surprisingly well-animated and engrossing. Cameron suggests that the water under the ice of Europa may harbor life without the need of the sun in the same way that Earth's hydrothermal vents support organisms who thrive at the bottom of the ocean. The possible similarities of Earth and Europa's oceans are the most interesting scientific questions raised in Aliens of the Deep, which otherwise consists of looking at neat underwater scenery and hearing the scientists exclaim, "Wow!", and "Look at that!".

That is not to say that the underwater visuals are not often spectacular. While more time than needed is spent looking at the submarine equipment and murky rock formations, there are indeed some incredible sights in Aliens of the Deep. The mysterious silk-like invertebrate, flowing across the glass bubble of Cameron's sub, is a enduring take away from the film. A lot of time is spent on the hydrothermal vents and the massive swarms of shrimp and other sea life that huddle around them. Thankfully, the sheer mystery and sense of discovery keeps these less-than- remarkable sights interesting.

There is more than enough in Aliens of the Deep to recommend experiencing. It is well shot, its profiled scientists are colorful real-life characters, it is sometimes engaging on an intellectual level, and it stands as a very cool visual experience. Some may find the space exploration speculation to be a little corny, but I really bought into it. The 99-minute extended version (which I have not seen) no doubt adds context to the team's expedition, but the theatrical version is still worth a look. If you are a James Cameron fan, if you are interested in the mysteries of the deep ocean, or if you just want to take a visual trip somewhere completely new, find the biggest screen possible and see this solid documentary.

73/100

wow.this is a truly beautiful piece of work.it is a documentary By James Cameron.Cameron and his crew basically explore the depth of the ocean,looking g for clues to life in outer space.they meet some very beautiful creature on their journey an some very strange ones.the movie is beautifully photographed,giving the viewer an astounding look at life under the sea.it is a slow moving film at times,ad veers off into talking about the people involved and other projects they are working on.i don't mean to be callous.i believe the people involved should certainly be introduced to the viewer,as all involved make a worthy contribution to the film.However,in a film such as this,the focus should be more on the creatures found,than the human beings.This movie sometimes plays like a National Geographic film,many of which also suffer from the same flaw.that said, this is very watchable film.just have your hand on the fast forward button. 6/10

James Cameron does a bang up job on the cool looking IMAX-3D adventure to the depths of the sea and beyond.

The futuristic aspect and effects get to be a bit much, but otherwise it is enjoyable, educational, brief, and somewhat enlightening.

Effects--> the computer rendered graphics of aliens was a bad way to end the film, but that is Cameron's own belief/touch. One cannot fault him for what he truly believes in and the effects aren't bad in a cheesy way, just a different way to end an educational film (not really a spoiler since aliens are on the poster and in the preview).

Brief--> All IMAX (except for feature length Hollywood) are short, with the ending it probably was short enough, but could have been longer with more oceanographic footage (an interesting note is that DVDs of IMAX movies seem to have extended versions) Which begs the question of if they are going to charge $30 or so for the DVD and you get extended footage, why spend $8-15 to see a cool documentary like flick on the IMAX 70mm screen? For the most part IMAX is the only place for 3D and thus a reason to pop down the dough. Plus a lot of Zoos and other institutions of education which show films like this tend to have giveaways of the movies official posters and such, so supporting them and possibly winning merchandise is an additional incentive for the decent to very good experience.

How can we learn how to explore other planets in space? By exploring the extreme environments in the deep sea. That is the premise of this documentary. So, to put it clearly, this is not a nature movie that shows a lot of fantastic animals and show us how the ecosystem works down there. This is a movie about how we do to get that knowledge, the technology aspect, the possibilities and unexpected problems. We get to know a few of the explorers thoughts, and strategies how to learn something new, and their visions and dreams (some of which is now reality). Of course, we get to see some of the extreme nature, some really freaky animals, but it is not really the main point 8even though I too wish they could have shown a little more of the animals and plants they studied). If you want to see a nature movie, you should probably pick another movie. If you are into exploration, how to break frontiers in real life (and not science fiction) this is more for you.

What a disappointment! I felt so robbed after seeing it that I was inspired to get an IMDb account and so that I could warn others.

I went to this movie after hearing it touted on Talk of the Nation Science Friday. I went expecting to see wondrous sea creatures and learn more about deep ocean life. What I got was a bunch of shiny smiling model-types talking about how important it is to explore space. Half of the crew on the mission filmed worked for NASA, and were practicing for space exploration. This film was clearly meant to convince the public to support funding their NASA projects. Very few animals were shown and almost no information was given about those we did get to see. The film shows the scientists oohing and ahhing over what they saw out their windows, but most of the time they and the narrator didn't even give the creatures' names. There were some high spots, such as a 3-D view of the exploration vehicles floating through a rain of krill. The geological formations were interesting looking, but not well explained. The 3-D seemed wasted on people talking about how great sea and space exploration is.

If you actually want to learn something, stick to PBS