Time: 195 Minutes
Age Rating: M– Low level offensive language
Cast:
Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater
Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson
Billy Zane as Caledon Hockley
Frances Fisher as Ruth DeWitt Bukater
Bernard Hill as Captain Edward John Smith
Jonathan Hyde as J. Bruce Ismay
Danny Nucci as Fabrizio
David Warner as Spicer Lovejoy
Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett
Director: James Cameron

Seventeen-year-old Rose hails from an aristocratic family and is set to be married. When she boards the Titanic, she meets Jack Dawson, an artist, and falls in love with him.

Titanic is one of those movies I thought I had watched, just to realise I was only in the same room where it was playing, but hadn’t actually watched it. As such, I had been meaning to get around to finally watching it. However, I got the opportunity to see it in 3D in cinemas for its 25th anniversary, and I’m glad I got to see it that way.

Titanic is over 3 hours long and I was engaged throughout. For the first half, it is a steadily paced and whimsical spectacle, you get interested in these characters and the story as it builds up well to the inevitable catastrophe. It takes itself seriously, but it has plenty of humour and is enjoyable to watch. Even when it is very melodramatic and cheesy a lot of the time, I found it endearing, especially with its central love story. Then there’s the second half of the movie in which the Titanic hits the iceberg and sinks, and that’s where it all hits. You really feel the scale as the disaster slowly but surely gets worse and worse, and it is heart wrenching to watch. You’d think that a movie about the sinking of the Titanic and one that has it as a spectacle could feel a little exploitative. However, it is carefully done and pays respect to the story.

Everyone is great in their parts. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are fantastic in the lead roles. Their romance is at the centre of the movie; they share such believable chemistry and you buy into every moment we spend with them. Billy Zane makes for an incredible human villain in this movie about the iceberg causing the Titanic to ship. He’s campy, over the top and chews the scenery, yet feels very real. Other actors including Bill Paxton, Kathy Bates, Victor Garber, Bernard Hill, and more do a lot in their screentime.

James Cameron’s work on the movie is nothing short of incredible. The magnitude of the production is immense, and it truly is a spectacle. The production and the effects for the Titanic hold up; Cameron has perfectly recreated the ship and the sets of costumes are stellar. When it comes to the second half, you really feel the scale. It does very well at showing and conveying the horror of what’s happening. It’s accompanied by a beautiful score from James Horner. The post conversion 3D is fantastic, and it was quite something seeing it in the cinema.

Titanic is engaging, ambitious, fantastically performed and excellently directed; an epic and spectacle which holds up incredibly well 25 years later. While I really should’ve seen it sooner, I am glad I saw it on the big screen and in 3D, it definitely deserves all its acclaim.