What makes "Titanic" such a bad film?

[BlackVelvetElvis]

I haven't seen it but am curious. Why did it win so many awards?
Chime in everyone!

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. I kept cheering....

for the damn ship to sink. It was boring as hell.

[Darth_Kitten]

4. Darn, you gave away the ENDING!!!

Thanks. Thanks alot. :)

[greatauntoftriplets]

9. That ENDLESS racing down the ship's corridors to get away from the water!!

The video store warned me that I would hate it. They were right. And I was so damn happy I didn't pay more than $2 to see the damn piece of shite.

;)

[barb162]

61. you know what? Every time I think of that section of the movie

I think there was no way they would have been running around in water that was 30 degrees. They would have had hypothermia in a few short minutes; it was so phony

[likesmountains 52]

37. I agree, I was rooting for the iceberg from the beginning...

[xmas74]

67. That was the best part of the whole movie!

That, and seeing that Kate Winslet has stretch marks.

[Darth_Kitten]

2. Darn overacting

:)

[autorank]

3. Everything between the title and credits.

It is just awful, not the actors fault. It will make you hurl. Avoid at all costs.

[sundog]

5. James Cameron n/t

[Technowitch]

20. Cameron's ego, IMHO

I love the rest of his stuff...but Titanic was just TOO MUCH.

Plus, the whole "rich bitch falls for poor na'er-do-well" is SO trite and cliched, it's sad. Add "rich asshole boyfriend does The Right Thing" and "spoiled rich girl loses poor boyfriend" -- and you have a story with ZERO original elements or plotlines.

[sundog]

25. well, he is king of the world

:eyes:

[lazarus]

54. I used to believe that

I used to believe it could never happen.

Then my brother in law told me about his grandmother. Who came from old money in Europe. Was betrothed, on a cruise ship to the US. And jumped ship in New York with a young man she'd met and fell in love with. A young man from third class.

The film made a lot more sense after that.

[Worst Username Ever]

81. That is actually more amazing than it sounds.

Classes did NOT mix. My family was old money in NY at that time (not anymore, thanks grandma) and gave me some insight into this type of thing. The mere thought that an upper class person would even CONSIDER looking at someone from the lower classes ("servant class") would have been ridiculous and insulting.

She said that it would be today's equivalent of a multi millionaire heart surgeon falling for the mexican lady who steams the burrito tortillas at Taco Bell, except far more unlikely because there were INTENTIONAL social walls set up to prevent that sort of thing (there was, for example a written social registry dictating which families it was OK to associate with) wheras now, it technically could happen (although it would still be unlikely, IMO).

Good for your bro-in-laws grandma, knocking down a social wall.

[Lisabtrucking]

6. I loved that movie, and I own it. Leo and Kate made the movie what

it is "A Great Film"

[PartyPooper]

7. Because they kept re-arranging the deck chairs in the final scene.

And, it was very distracting, if you know what I mean.

;-)

[madrchsod]

8. way to melodramatic,

to over the top, and it had no redeeming social value.

[Shadowen]

10. As I understand it...

The problem is twofold.

First, the latter half of the movie was little more than Jack and Rose rushing around the sinking Titanic screaming each other's names as they try to escape.

Second, the first half of the movie showed tremendous potential...and then it was torpedoed by the dreck that was the second half.

[Cooley Hurd]

11. God-awful storyline - as predictable as Shrub at an elementary school...

However, the special effects were in-fucking-credible!:thumbsup:

[Guaranteed]

12. Most overhyped and awarded movie ever.

I thought it was garbage.

[regnaD kciN]

65. But the sequel was great!

http://www.northern-lights-films.com/TitanicII/index.html

;-)

[Hans Delbrook]

13. Where to start?

The hackneyed plot? The cardboard cut-out characters? ( I always said that Kate Winslet's fiance was one sniggering dog away from being Snidely Whiplash.)

That fact that it was 2 hours too long? That there were so many great true stories that happened on the Titanic that could have been portrayed rather than that treacly fairy-tale?

Why it won awards? Hollywood is the societal equivalent of a two year old and is easily amused by loud shiny objects?

[ghostsofgiants]

18. You mean 3 hours.

[Hans Delbrook]

23. You're right

I stand corrected.

[MichiganVote]

14. Because the heroine threw away the jeweled necklace - stupid

[Momgonepostal]

53. That made me mad too!

Can you imagine THROWING AWAY millions of dollars? I wanted to smack her and didn't care how old she was.

[barb162]

62. I felt the same and also that she could have sold it and given the

money to poor people or charity

[BlackVelvetElvis]

15. Such passions aroused by this film.

I have to rent it sometime!

[ghostsofgiants]

16. Boring and long

And a few other reasons which have already been listed.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

17. It was the stereotypical melodramatic crap...

that Hollywood makes. Half the movie was about the ship sinking. There was no "real love" between Jack and Rose, it was lust.

:eyes:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

19. Two words:

"Chick Flick"

Say no more.

(Getting ready for the chick attack... :evilgrin: )

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

77. Hear hear

Chick flicks are women's revenge for all the millenia of shit men have thrust upon them. But it's cruel and unusual punishment.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

21. Because the True Story was so much more interesting

it would have been much more interesting if it had focused on the real thing.

[regnaD kciN]

66. True!

Anyone interested in a good movie about the Titanic should rent A Night To Remember. No need to add a teen romance to make the story fascinating!

[charlyvi]

22. I liked it, for what it was.

Just a big, entertaining, piece of fluff. Sometimes I need that in a movie, sometimes I don't. Not everything can be Citizen Kane.

[ghostsofgiants]

41. That's exactly what bugs me about it.

While I didn't find it entertaining personally, your description describes exactly what it was and the fact that some peope think it was a masterpiece and the fact that it won best picture when it definitely didn't deserve it really bugs me.

[Merope215]

80. I thought it was waaaay better than "Shakespeare In Love"

which also won a best picture Oscar and was one of the worst movies I've EVER seen. "Titanic" was over-the-top, but I thought it was pretty well-done, all things considered. It's no "Mall Rats," but not every movie can be a masterpiece. :evilgrin:

[Skittles]

58. I like it too

I like it just fine

[fudge stripe cookays]

24. I can't stand DiCaprio...

but for Titanic buffs (those who have read "A Night to Remember" multiple times, like me), the detail was fantastic. Cameron really stuck to the facts most of the time.

I enjoyed it. But I'm a chick :eyes:

FSC

[TrustingDog]

30. have you seen Gilbert Grape?

[xmas74]

69. Leo was good in Gilbert Grape.

[fudge stripe cookays]

75. Yep.

Still can't stand him.

Can't put my finger on why.

FSC

[Robeson]

26. Don't know. Never saw it.

[BiggJawn]

27. Celine Dion singing....

Hell, I don't know why everyone hates it so much. I liked it.

[elshiva]

28. Too Damn long, too much DiCaprio, annoying

song by Celine Dion.

[TrustingDog]

29. It wasn't bad....

it's like a Harlequin romance on steroid history mixed in with a new King of The World Cameron, heh.

For all the naysayers about this movie, it did have an important message... after the Titanic, the real one, there was a change on how 'steerage' people were treated. It was basically a class war heads up.

Jack, jack, jaaaack!

[regnaD kciN]

70. Not really true...

For all the naysayers about this movie, it did have an important message... after the Titanic, the real one, there was a change on how 'steerage' people were treated. It was basically a class war heads up.


First of all, the "class war" was pretty much a Cameron invention. If there was any disparity as to how the third-class passengers were treated (and it was much, much less than the melodrama created for the movie), it had less to do with class than nationality -- the simple fact was that most of the steerage passengers were Eastern European, didn't speak English, and few if any of the crew members were able to communicate with them.

Second, the "change on how 'steerage' people were treated" had a lot more to do with world circumstances than the sinking. Most ships were pulled out of service to add lifeboats and other safety features. They had barely returned to service when WWI broke out, and tourism was replaced by troop-carrying. After the war, an outbreak of xenophobic nationalism (based on a fear of "anarchists" and "communists") in the U.S. caused a crackdown on the sort of immigration that drove the steerage trade. With no more immigrants to transport, third class mutated into an "economy fare" class aimed at young Americans, particularly college students, who, prompted by the stories of the wonders of European civilization (and the even greater wonders of European women :evilgrin: ) passed along by returning servicemen, suddenly found it desirable to "tour the other side of the pond" during summer break.

[ScreamingMeemie]

31. I liked it. It's just not PC to admit it.

:hi:

[TrustingDog]

32. see it. It's a mix of everything good and bad hollywood style.

[high density]

33. The effects and sets were cool...

The music was horrid, though. Overall I liked it, but the running time is at least an hour too long.

[DrZeeLit]

34. The song! The song! I can't even stand to hear it in an elevator. n/t

[Orsino]

35. Bad script, bad acting...

...and I knew it wasn't going to end well.

I watched quite a bit of it. It wasn't awful, really, just sorta kinda bad.

[wyldwolf]

36. because it was popular and made a lot of money, silly!

If the great unwashed liked it, it can't be any damn good.

[regnaD kciN]

71. In other words, the same rationale...

...as NASCAR and Toby Keith?

:shrug:

[wyldwolf]

74. pretty much so

In the area of entertainment...

:shrug:

I will not get into pop culture debates
I will not get into pop culture debates
I will not get into pop culture debates
I will not get into pop culture debates
I will not get into pop culture debates
I will not get into pop culture debates

[porphyrian]

38. The high cheese factor? - n/t

[LeftyMom]

39. Celine Deion

Celine Deion seems to think that louder= more passionate. As a result, her love songs tend to start off at a normal volume but after a few minutes she turns into the nasal french-canadian air raid siren of love.

Apparently her heart will go on and on and on and ON AND *ON AND* ON **AND ON** ***AND ONNNNNNNNN!!!!!!***

Yuck.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

40. I went on a road trip once.

With a former friend. We had to listen to Celine the whole way. Note I said "former friend".

[LeftyMom]

42. I'm sorry.

My best friend thinks it's really cute to put annoying music on the stereo when I'm in her truck. Last week we were going down the highway to her house and she's listening to Toby Keith.

We made a rule, she's welcome to try to annoy me with 80's boybands and other crap, but Toby Keith is off limits.

Instead we sang along to Disney songs with the windows down (we were stuck in traffic and had kids in the back) and got all the other people on the road to look at us like we were nuts. :) It was fun.

[Endangered Specie]

48. Nothing sets a mood quite like ringing, painful eardrums eh?

nasal French Canadian air raid siren of love... LOL! Im gonna have to use that one :)

[liberalpragmatist]

43. It's not bad - anything that popular will inspire love-hate passions

Anything that popular is going to inspire love-hate passions.

For what it was worth, I thought and still think it's an excellent film. If you can sit through 3 1/2 hours, it's very engaging. Yes, it's simplistic, but it's a grand spectacle and the characters are sympathetic. I thought the last 1/2 was thrilling. It was extremely entertaining and, having seen it before knowing the ending (although it wasn't hard to anticipate) I thought it was genuinely affecting.

That being said, no it was not the greatest movie of all time. It was merely a very good movie. It probably deserved best picture that year, but the other nominees were good too and deserving of attention. They were unfairly robbed of serious consideration for best picture.

Also, the whole teenage-girl craze that surrounded the movie lost it credibility and turned it into an ubiquitous cultural phenomenon, such that all those people who weren't all that impressed by the movie went from merely not being impressed to hating it. Massive hype usually inspires a backlash. Had it merely won best picture I don't think people would have really been so upset. Instead, it became such a hyped thing that people were that much more adament in their dissent. When anything becomes that popular its going to divide opinion and force people into extremes.

I'd recommend watching it. Don't have any preconceptions. Ignore what anybody else says about it being great or being bad (if that's possible). Just try to watch it objectively and then you'll know whether or not it's a good movie to you.

[Speck Tater]

44. I loved it. Go figure.

I truly feel sorry for people who are handicapped by the inablility to enjoy the simple things in life. I enjoy cheap beer that snobs turn their nose up at. I enjoy the expensive stuff too, but taht means that I have more things to enjoy than the snobs do. Poor souls. Their sources of enjoyment are so limited.

So who's better off? The person who went to see Titanic and loved every minute of it or the person who went to see it and went home disappointed? Who got their money's worth? Say what you will, I enjoyed it, and I got my money's worth, and I had one more good time than the snobs did that afternoon. How do those poor devils live in a world so devoid of entertainment that meets their "lofty" standards? I truly pity them.

[baron j]

73. I agree. To quote Mark Twain:

My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.

Notebook, 1885

[WorseBeforeBetter]

82. I just watched "Pi" this weekend...

a film (notice the snob-like use of "film" rather than "movie") that might give many a headache. A few minutes ago I just finished watching Triumph the Insult Comic Dog as he "schtupped" his way through the Westminster Dog Show. Bottom line? I liked both and Titanic still sucks!

To the person who posted this thread: If you like big, bloated Hollywood pics and feeling like you've been manipulated for 3+ hours, then Titanic is for you. I'd be curious to know if you felt the need to blurt out "gratuitous!" at one scene in particular. I did, along with a few others, and it brought an equal number of hisses and laughter. I guess it is either love or hate with this one...

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

45. I kind of liked it.

Yeah, it was fluffy. But... damn, sometimes fluff just works.

[Patiod]

46. Because it took the boat so damned long to sink

We kept saying "get off the damned boat!!!"

Sadly, at the end, we kept hissing "let go, already!"

Probably made it worse that SO is a Titantic buff

It's not the popularity that made us hate it - we loved lots of popular movies - 6th Sense, Harry Potter, etc. And we loved the Terminator series, so it's not a James Cameron problem. It's just THIS movie.

[Endangered Specie]

47. Actually, Id have to it had one of the best scenes in movie history...

the END CREDITS!

Seriously, if theres one thing this movie is good at is making you appreciate THE END of it! God good I never thought a credit roll would look so good, it was like the light at the end of a Looooooooong Dark tunnel.

and WTH is it with throwing the damn diamond in the atlantic... and even worse is not telling the poor bastards who are searching for it. :argh:

[Shredr]

49. People love to build things up then tear them down.

And they really love to claim to not be part of the majority and only love unpopular little unseen art movies.

TITANIC started out as an overbudget underdog that nobody thought was going to go anywhere. It hardly broke 20 million for it's opening weekend. But, through great word of mouth (yes, mainly from women), it just kept going and going and going. Ultimately, it became the biggest grossing film of all times. Then it won all the awards. Now people just love to rail against it, as if it was this monolith that was never going to be anything but successful.

Also, James Cameron is a megalomaniac, and people really don't like to see those guys win. So he won an Oscar, big deal.

It is what it is, a giant (some might say "bloated") Hollywood epic. And a tragic love story. If those things appeal to you, rent it, you'll probably like it.

I enjoyed it. And I'm not ashamed to say so.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

50. Well now, I have to see it.

That's a good post.
I'll have to judge for myself, I guess.

[Seabiscuit]

51. What made it a good film? Two words: Kate Winslet.

[CanuckAmok]

52. Strictly objectively...

It was a simple story, told in an unusual setting.

It tied fictitious events seemlessly to a true story.

It humanised a historical event.

It brought the past into the present, and vice-versa.

It broke new ground for VFX postproduction; it raised the bar for what audiences expect from visual effects. Today it doesn't seem so impressive, but we've had six or seven years of accellerated VFX technology since it was made. At the time, it was unprecedented in its use of multi-layered computer animation (background and foreground together), and other technological advances we now take for granted.

The story isn't really about Jack and the Kate Winslet character... they are only vehicles by which to take the viewer "on board" the ship, and to experience the sinking. The real story was told in the vignettes: the Irish mother in steerage, the engineers in the boiler room, the captain alone on the bridge as it implodes, Guggenheim and his valet, Molly Brown, the frozen bodies surrounding the Carpathia.

I usually don't go in for movies like "Titanic", but I actually saw it in the theatre twice! I was awe-struck by the logistics, and accomplishment of it. James Cameron, love him or hate him, is the unquestioned master of the blockbuster.

It's not a great love story, but I believe that in 50 years, it will be viewed as the "Gone With the Wind" of our time.

[lazarus]

55. Amen

I agree with everything you said.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

56. Thanks.

You've thought about it.
I made an honest post and most gave me a soundbite.

[CanuckAmok]

57. Usually I'm "Sir Quips-A-Lot"

But for sdome reason, I always seem to rise to defend "Titanic". I have no real idea why.

I remember the first time I saw it, and I was speaking to a friend of mine who is a postproduction supervisor afterwards. She said that after seeing it, she felt she had to re-learn her craft; that we had just witnessed an evolutionary step in story-telling. That might be a little hyperbolic, but I got her point.

Plus, c'mon...it made a Billion dollars!

I could have done without Celine Dion, though. I only ever enjoyed her in "Not Without My Anus".

[E_Smith]

63. I thought it was overrated

and not because I was trying to be cool. i couldn't wait for it to end and was clowning it by the end. The acting and lines were pretty poor and I felt no real empathy for the characters. maybe I was expecting too much.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

59. The characters seemed to be stale

The detail and the sets were marvellous, but then you have this really bad love-story and the unconvincing acting in general.

[phrenzy]

60. Cried 3 Times - And I Am One Cynical SOB

I always defend this movie too. I was one of those people DETERMINED to hate it - but I let myself get swept away in the simple iconic epic nature of the story and it just got me.

I too feel bad for people that can only appreciate movies that fit a snobby ideal.

There are certainly good movies and bad movies, but movies should be judged in their respective genres.

In terms of a class, sweeping epic romance set in a real historical tragedy - Titanic deserved every award it got.

[orleans]

64. my daughter was in fourth grade

and her and all the girls (and most of the boys) loved it! they had posters on their walls, sang that horrible theme song, bought these blue "look-alike" necklaces, dressed as rose for halloween, watched documentaries about the real deal, and couldn't get enough of it! it went on for a year or two!

i liked it (but once was enough!) but the flimsy stunt of tossing the necklace overboard was a cheap symbolic gesture.

*on edit: the boys did not buy the necklaces or sing the theme song or dress as rose for halloween. they just liked the movie as much as the girls did--but not for the love story reason. they liked it because a really big ship sank and a lot of people died.

[JI7]

68. i heard part of the reason it made a lot of money was girls who kept

paying to see the movie over and over again because of leonardo dicaprio.

i remember he was really popular at the time and while i thought he was nice looking i was not really into him as much as many others were. i didn't even watch the movie until it came out on video.

[Dover]

72. Leo has no depth as an actor. A lightweight.

His recent movie about Howard Hughs brought him up a half a notch, but the guy just doesn't have any range. He bores me.

[edbermac]

76. A bad script...

The production design of the film was great, but what about scenes like Leo teaching Kate how to spit? I mean, come ON!!

[ProfessorGAC]

78. I Cannot Understand The Awards

My wife and i were laughing out loud 20 minutes into the movie. The acting is wooden, the script is ponderous, the love story is derivative, (Romeo & Juliet on a boat), and the plot holes are immense.

My ultimate plot mistake: At the end, she's floating on that door, and he is in the water as the rescue boat arrives. Earlier, he told her to get on the lifeboat and she refused. If she got on that boat, HE would have been on that door and would have been rescued instead of dying of exposure in that water. So, she was responsible for him dying. That a plot hole the size of Montana, and none of the Titanic lovers want to examine this.
The Professor

[truebrit71]

79. The crappy acting for a start...just what is the deal with DiCaprio anyway

..he couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag....Other than seeing Ms Winslett sans her kit the movie was an amazing waste of time....

[Rhiannon12866]

83. I hated the ending!

Seriously, these people didn't even exist, did they? And people got so upset about what happened to them. I have no doubt that there were many unspeakably tragic and heroic stories, and can even think of a few, that really happened. Why not film those instead of fiction?:shrug: