One of the better IMAX films I’ve seen. A little hokey, but it’s for kids. The giant 3D fish are terrific. Seeing James Cameron in a wet suit has its own weird reward. Oddly, each of Cameron’s IMAX docs mentions one of his previous films. “Aliens of the Deep,” “Ghost of the Abyss.” What does this mean?
I was lucky enough to be Kerry Douglas Dye’s date at a special screening where the very eloquent (I first noticed this on the “Solaris” commentary track) Mr. Cameron spoke with host Joel Siegal. Evidence of this below:
It was a fine talk, two smart men doing in depth in a way that you just don’t see on TV outside the Charlie Rose Show. But then. . .but then it was opened up to Q & A. Now, this little event was set up by the Learning Annex, an organization which I’ve always considered just one step removed from Scientology. When Siegal wondered if there were any questions about 2 dozen hands shot up, and one man actually leapt from his seat. He was allowed to speak first, at which point he began to stutter out his resume. He was a musician cum actor cum filmmaker and he lived here and studied there and his name was X and and and what he wants to know is. . . um. . .what’s the entertainment biz going to be like in 10 years. In other words, he had no question at all, he just woke up that morning and realized that if he didn’t get a chance to tell James Cameron his name he might’ve gone Travis Bickle on someone. While Kerry and I hid our faces in discomfort (and Joel Siegel looked baffled) James Cameron showed what a true pro he was. He took the question from this maniac troll at face value, called him by his name when repeating the question for those who may not have heard, and then gave a cogent response. By now a dozen people had lined up behind a microphone. The next woman asked why the dates on the underwater IMAX footage said ’83. It actually said ’03. Still, she asked, why did it take so long to get finished? Kerry and I slapped our foreheads. I then noticed another woman next to us had her VHS boxes of “Titanic.” It may’ve looked rude, but we had to leave.
