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Rather than even attempt to face the high expectations of his fans and general moviegoing audiences, Cameron instead remained in the north Atlantic skulking around that famous shipwreck. The resulting product is the IMAX documentary Ghosts of the Abyss, an excuse to show us more footage of barnacle-covered boat hulls. As terribly exciting as this may sound, if you were fortunate enough to see it in an IMAX presentation at least it was projected on a very large theater screen, and in 3D no less! Alas, translated to DVD we'll have to settle for whatever screen size we normally watch at home, downgraded to boring old 2D.

Here's the fundamental problem with the movie: we already know this stuff. The Titanic story is so famous and so well documented, the events covered in exhausting detail in Cameron's own bloated blockbuster, there isn't much more to say. The excuse for this project was to show us new footage from new submersible vehicles that can penetrate deeper into the wreck than we've seen before, but once they get inside we discover that everything there is covered in 90 years of crud. It just isn't as visually interesting as it sounded on paper. We spend most of the movie listening to scientists trying to figure out what it is they're looking at. Is that a car in the ship's hold? How exciting. Oh wait, no, it kind of looks like a big pile of barnacles instead. Maybe it's a table.

I'm sure it must have been more fun in 3D. Cameron stages a lot of blatant "Comin' at Ya!" shots that look a little comical without the 3D effect. He also attempts to tell the history of the disaster though what he calls "ghost echoes", footage of actors in costume re-enacting the events overlaid onto the same location in the ship as seen today (covered in crud). It's a nifty conceit that I'm sure was more effective in 3D, but not quite enough to keep us interested for the whole picture.

James Cameron may be a fine action movie director, but he's not a documentarian. He pads the movie with obviously scripted dialogue and badly staged scenes of actor Bill Paxton (the layman observer brought along to act as audience surrogate, asking dumb questions the researchers wouldn't otherwise think to explain) looking out his submarine window in awe of the spectacle in front of him. Except that the camera angle on his face is taken from outside the tiny window looking in. So what was he looking at so raptly? He's looking at the camera, of course, undoubtedly shot in a studio water tank many months after the voyage was over.

Cameron has a reputation as an anal-retentive jerk, and makes the sore mistake of putting himself on camera. This gives us the opportunity to watch him micro-manage research scientists that he assumes don't know their own jobs nearly as well as he does. For their part, the scientists mostly just stand by wondering when these Hollywood bozos will get out of their way and allow them to do some real work.

The IMAX presentation ran just over an hour. The DVD provides that same theatrical cut, or an alternate 92-minute extended version available via seamless branching (Cameron just doesn't know when to stop adding stuff to his movies, does he?). Both are in 2D. IMAX junkies, Titanic buffs, and Cameron completists will have a ball, I'm sure. Those expecting something substantive may want to look elsewhere.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The DVD begins with a disclaimer that warns, "This film has been significantly altered from its original 3D presentation. Many images have been reformatted for 2D viewing."

Unlike traditional IMAX movies, Ghosts of the Abyss was not shot on large- format film. In order to facilitate the 3D effect, and also due to space constraints within the remote-operated submarine vehicles, the movie was instead shot primarily with high-definition video cameras. This explains why the picture has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 rather than the usual IMAX 4:3 ratio. All post-production work was done in HD video, which was then upscaled to IMAX resolution and printed in letterbox format onto the IMAX theatrical film prints. The 3D effect was achieved by shooting each viewing angle stereo-optically with two side-by-side camera lenses simultaneously. To reformat for 2D viewing, the DVD has been mastered from the video feed of just one camera for each shot. (My thanks to Mark Spatny of Modern VideoFilm for clarifying these technical details.)

For its part, the anamorphically-enhanced DVD image is very sharp and colorful, at least for those scenes that take place in daylight above water. Things get a little murkier at the bottom of the ocean. At its best, the picture is very vivid and, despite the absence of 3D, has a nice sense of depth. Contrast levels and shadow detail are excellent even during the darkest scenes, so long as we understand that there is a limit to what can be lit and photographed around the boat.

Sadly, because this is a Buena Vista disc (not to mention that it is also credited with THX mastering) that means it must have edge enhancement. Indeed, there are plenty of halos and ringing all over the place. The problem is most noticeable in the daylight scenes, but is an annoyance throughout and mars an otherwise decent video transfer.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is your typical IMAX production. It is loud and aggressive, with plenty of enveloping surround activity (mostly from artificially foleyed sound effects) and lots of bass. Submarine movies almost always have fun sound design, with unexpected creaking and banging noises from all parts of the listening space. The DVD's bass tends to be boomy rather than as clean as you would expect from a theatrical presentation, and dialogue is sometimes a little muddy. It's a very good track all in all, just not reference quality.

A French dub track has also been provided in Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitles are available in either English for the hard of hearing or French. The disc also has traditional English Closed Captioning.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Although this is a two-disc set, there are only two bonus features of any consequence. The most significant is the 32-minute Reflections from the Deep. This is a pretty good making-of piece with relatively interesting information about the shoot and how the "ghost images" were created. It also manages to fill in details about the voyage that the movie itself glosses over.

The Mir Experience is a little multi-angle demonstration that turned out to be more fun than I was expecting. A 7-minute scene from the movie is presented, and the interface allows you to toggle among six camera angles along the top of the screen. It's an entertaining way to explore the Titanic, jumping back and forth from the perspectives of the two manned submarines and their remote-operated vehicles, though to be honest once you get into the important parts of the scene there are only two angles you'll want to switch between.

The first disc also includes some unrelated Disney trailers and the THX Optimizer calibration tool.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

The only ROM feature is Disney’s DVD registration program.

Parting Thoughts