Movie Review - "Titanic 3-D" (2012) ****1/2

     In 1997, a little movie came out about a boy, a girl and a boat. It was a dream project of a filmmaker who spared no expense to bring his vision to the big screen. After receiving mostly positive reviews from critics, it went on to make over $600 million at the box office, an astounding number that overtook longtime box office champion Star Wars. It would hang on to the top spot for the next 12 years until a movie called Avatar, by the same filmmaker, would finally sink it (pun fully intended). I'm of course talking about Titanic, director James Cameron's epic tale of the fateful ship that sank on the night of April 14th, killing over 1,500 people who were not able to make it on lifeboats. Cameron was long a fan of the Titanic story and used his skills as a deep-sea explorer to visit the actual ruins of the ship. These quests inspired him to make the film and provided some legitimacy to the early shots in the film. To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the film and the 100th anniversary of the actual disaster, Cameron has re-released the movie in 3-D format, a process he perfected in Avatar.

      A plot summary for Titanic seems like a moot point. Just about everybody has seen this film and has already formed their own opinions on it. If you haven't seen the film yet, well then....REALLY? It's time to come out from under the rock. Titanic while being critically acclaimed, and rightfully so, does have a healthy and very vocal group of haters. Mostly men who cannot fathom why there is such an awful romance story mixed in with a disaster tale. Personally, I think these people just want to be part of the "cool crowd"!! Everyone is obviously entitled to their opinion on every movie, but I simply don't get the hate this one receives. I think Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet bring a legitimacy to their scenes that would have been lost with lesser actors. After hearing that Matthew McConaughey was considered for this role, I cringed a bit. Yes, the initial scenes on the ship can be a bit silly or sappy but when this movie kicks in, it's one of the best. I think it's easy to forget that this disaster really happened and when you put it in that perspective while watching the massive loss of life, it's hard not be pulled in emotionally. There are people that actually went through this, just stop and think about that for a minute.

     The 3-D post-conversion of this film is easily the best I have seen. I was not blown away with the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in 3-D, and went in expecting more of the same. While the 3-D in Titanic didn't necessarily "add" anything to the film, there are at least lots of time when it's very noticeable and does add tremendous depth to the picture. I especially noticed it early on in the film. During the second half I didn't notice it as much, but by then I could have just been enjoying the movie and not paying attention to it specifically. Either way, I was definitely impressed with the conversion but don't know that I would necessarily recommend people go out and see it just for that. If you enjoyed the movie anyways, by all means go see it. Who knows when you will get another opportunity to see that film on the big screen again, the way it was meant to be seen.