The Abyss: Critic Reviews

The human stuff is more than worth the descent.

I'd sooner believe that Moby Dick could swim up the drainpipe.

The attempt to extract the essences of several genres (cold-war submarine thriller, love story, Disney fantasy, pseudomystical SF in the Spielberg mode) and mix them together ultimately leads to giddy incoherence.

A firstrate underwater suspenser with an otherworldly twist, The Abyss suffers from a payoff unworthy of its buildup.

Anyone looking for a discouraging word about this stupendously exciting and emotionally engulfing film should read no further. The Abyss confirms James Cameron as a world-class filmmaker.

The Abyss gains in some ways from its own Achilles heels, in a way most movies don't... its formal technique, its reckless obsessiveness, and its gutsy emotionalism are what I can't stop turning over in my mind.

One need not be a Cameron acolyte to recognise that The Abyss has aged better than some of the films that outshone it back in the day.

The movie was a bear to make and it shows onscreen, parading around a series of mesmerizing set-pieces that look deliciously hard-earned in ways our current CG-drenched filmmaking climate never allows.

As a follow-up to Cameron's great sci-fi Aliens, The Abyss is too verbose for an actioner and the special effects, striking as they are, are not well integrated into the narrative, but it's still worth seeing.

What ultimately saves the film are its extraordinary sets and phenomenal Oscar-winning visual effects.

Great blending of spectacle and drama.

Forget Titanic this is Cameron's best underwater flick

This overlong concoction is scuppered by dire dialogue, histrionic performances and maudlin sentimentality.

What was once a well-made, well-acted mess is now a very poignant and satisfying sci-fi adventure.

A gorgeous and fascinating underwater adventure.

A remarkable film...the vfx are super!

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For God's sake, make sure you have the director's cut. The theatrical cut was an abomination.