Aliens of
the Deep
(2005)
The capper (so-far)
to a Jimbo Cameron and the Underwater
Adventures of the Ego trilogy, Aliens
of the Deep reconfirms that, whatever his deficiencies as a dramatist, Cameron’s
far better suited to expressing himself in that direction, with the medium’s
accompanying bombast and overstatement, than inflicting himself on poor,
unfortunate real people – some of them poor, unfortunate professionals just
trying to do their jobs, rather than seeking adulation – and repackaging
interesting and thought-provoking subject matter into ill-serviced chicken
feed.
This one,
co-directed with Steven Quale, is easily the best produced of the three (the
previous entries being Expedition: Bismarck
and Ghosts of the Abyss; there’s also
Earthship. TV, a documentary
featuring footage from his return visit to Titanic, but since this ought to be
covered by Ghosts, I’m not really
counting it as a separate directorial effort), but it’s also the most
shamelessly tailored to his tastes, blending his twin obsessions of deep sea
and off-world exploration to extrapolate how discovery in the depths of the
oceans would benefit a similar expedition to (say) the moon Europa.
As per
usual, then, there are some splendid visuals, but a resoundingly patronising
tone and delivery accompanies them. If you want any serious dive into the
subjects broached, you’d be best going elsewhere. It might also be better to
watch with the sound off during some passages, particularly whenever Jimbo is
centre stage, holding forth and martialling “his troops” as if this is another
of his military campaign-style movie productions.
Generally,
the “Wow!” factor makes for a particularly witless constant. Cameron tells us,
“I love this stuff!”, finding it much
more exciting than any Hollywood special effects. To prove it, he wrote a
40-page manual on launching the submersibles, which also marks him out as
incredibly anal amid all that self-regard.
He may love
this stuff, but he fails to dazzle us with his broad spectrum knowledge. Rather
than offering anything informative about its general purpose or mission in life,
he comes across “like, the ugliest fish
in the world”. But I’m sure that’s detail enough for you. He occasionally
drops in a fantastically annoying “technical” phrase (“That’s the most amount of biomass I’ve ever seen in my life”, of an
inundation of tiny shrimp, topping it with a typically knuckleheaded pronouncement
that their “party’s been going on down
there in the dark for the last billion years”).
The more
you see of Jimbo in these excursions, the less you want to. There are frequently
interesting visuals captured, particularly when it comes to deep sea lava and
hydrothermal vents, but Cameron’s idea of enlightening is to follow a
photogenic marine biologist around and frame her in the most adoring fashion
possible, rather than have her expound on the understanding she has accumulated.
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.