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Summary: Get this DVD
Review: I was very impressed. Even has some hidden things. I would recommend this DVD to anyone.
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Summary: ABYSS - a great movie expierence
Review: I love it. We spent hours watching the movie and the background material. My main reason to buy DVDs are the special extra things like Making Offs. Abyss gets a 5 star in this category. The picture quality was okay. The only down thing I can see is, that some of the background information requires reading, lol. But the special effects info is great. Watch it. Make a "wet" DVD day and watch TITANIC later.
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Summary: Great DVD--Cameron at his best
Review: This DVD is an excellent example of the superiority of the DVD format. There is so much information on this DVD, any Abyss fan can become an expert on every aspect, from the making of the movie to the script rewrites. This James Cameron masterpeice is shown in it's entirety, yet the theater cut is also included. There is such an incredible amount of information on this DVD, one is overwhelmed! This is a great gift for anyone just starting a DVD collection, or looking for a great classic.
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Summary: Good movie, good DVD. Perhaps even TOO good.
Review: First off, I love this movie as I love all of Cameron's work (ever notice how he puts that same color blue in every movie?) and this was a very complete DVD package. In fact, it might even be too complete. One of the things I like best about the DVD format, apart from the widescreen standard, is all the extras and goodies you can get in addition to the film. This is the first DVD that actually had me thinking, "How many extras do we really need?" Still, I reccomend it. My only suggestion would have been, perhaps we could do away with the pointless release version of the movie. That way you could fit everything on one disc.
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Summary: Absolutely my favorite Cameron Film
Review: What can I say. The Abyss is my favorite film by Jim cameron, and my second favorite Sci-fi film, right behind Blade Runner. I first saw this film in the theater when it was released, and while I was blown away, I exited the theater thinking...what the heck happened? Several minutes of extremely important footage were cut for the theatrical release, and has been restored in the special edition director's cut on the DVD. These scenes are absolutely crucial to understanding this film, and I have never been able to understand why they were cut in the first place. Anyway, I love this film so much because I believe it to be Cameron's most well sculpted and powerful film to date. Watching this movie gives you the impression that everything that you are seeing is absolutely real. It's a definite case of " a place for everything and everything in it's place". The sets, equipment, underwater footage, and special effects are the absolute best. I have yet to see a film (besides Titanic), which makes better use of computer generated images, and all of the effects still look fresh, amazing, and realistic. The very strong cast of not quite superstars led by Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn give amazingly strong, convincing performances as real, competent people who are forced to deal with situations of unimaginable stress. Very few movies do I watch and find myself holding my breath during tense scenes. This is one of those films. As far as the DVD goes, it seems to be the same print as the one tranferred for the excellent laserdisc box set special edition that was released some years ago. The image is very clean, presented in a wonderful 2.30:1 letterbox aspect ratio, and a pleasure to watch. It makes me wish I had a bigger TV. The only annoyance that I found from watching the film was the very noticeable layer change, but this fortunately happens during a scene transition. The sound is awesome even in Dolby 2.0, and I can't wait to hear the 5.1 surround track. The extras are plentiful, and I have not had time to explore them all yet. The only really serious disappointment for me in this DVD package is that for some unknown reason, they did not use the audio commentary that was recorded for the laserdisc version, choosing instead to give the commentary through subtitles. While this is better than nothing, I find it extremely annoying because when I listen to a commentary, more than half of the fun is hearing the commentator's voice and listening the voice interaction if there is more than one commentator. Still, even this is not enough to spoil the film's five star rating. This is, quite simply put, an amazing DVD presentation of one of the most superb films in recent history.
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Summary: Disappointing letterbox transfer
Review: First things first: this review is entirely about that quality of the DVD edition and NOT about the movie itself. I was extremly disappointed with the image quality of this DVD. Comparing it with the special edition laserdisc, I am absolutely sure that the same transfer was used to save cost. Althought it says on the box "enhanced for widescreen TVs", which means anamorphic, the transfer is actually non-anamorphic letterbox, and a poor one at that. The letterbox transfer only uses about one third of the lines of your TV (and as we all know, these aren't a hell of a lot of lines to start with) and to make matters worse, this one seriously lacks sharpness and detail. There is some color noise to be seen as well. As far as I am concerned, they can keep all their bonus features if they don't get the most important thing right: a crisp image transfer that fully utilizes the capabilities of the DVD medium. Apart from that it has to be said that the DD 5.1 sound is top-class, couldn't be better. Some serious workouts for all six speakers, good dialogue sound and lots of directional effects. Perfect. But so was the AC-3 track on the laserdisc...
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Summary: Cameron's "I'm a Great Director" turn...
Review: "The Abyss" seems like Cameron's "I'm a Great Director" turn. The trademark Cameron stuff - great stunts, stunning set design and visual effects, appealing characters - is all there, and much of it works as it should. In particular, the "drowning" sequence, the fight between the underwater submarines, the trip to the downed Navy sub, and the visually stunning "trip to the bottom of the sea" sequence, all work exceptionally well, and are quite memorable. But other things don't work so well. Witness the preachy, silly sequence in which the undersea creatures are going to destroy the world because us silly humans can't get along. Cameron doesn't answer a simple question: why would they care? Humans are no threat to them, and quite frankly, any race that threatens genocide against another isn't much of a race to be admired in my book. And while Cameron is to be admired for putting so much character development into what is essentially a summer blockbuster, the characters are actually OVER-developed. The relationship between Ed Harris' and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's characters, for example, is shown in such painful detail up front that you just KNOW they'll get back together. Personally, I thought it would have been more satisfying for them to learn to get along before they fell back in love. And instead of having Harris and Mastrantonio hook up at the end, why not have the aliens give us a clue as to why they saved us from destruction? Overall, "The Abyss" is worth watching for the brilliant, groundbreaking visuals, but ultimately, the preachy, kissy-kissy ending and overdeveloped Harris/Mastrantonio relationship really detract from what could have been a VERY wondrous film experience. Note on the DVD: because of the excellent sound/picture quality, and all the extras that come with it, this is a good choice if you're starting your collection.
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Summary: Superior DVD...so-so movie
Review: First of all, this Special Edition DVD set is BEYOND excellent, and worthy of at least twice the maximum 5-star Amazon rating. It will take you DAYS to go through all the special features! As far as the film itself goes, I would give it no more than 3 stars. I found it to be long, tedious, and exhausting. I felt like I was underwater, too, and was sort of relieved when the movie ended. The characters are likable (even the so-called "Queen B---- of the Universe"). The acting is good. The cinematography is spectacular. But the action is hard to follow, and the dialogue consists mostly of expletives. Don't make the mistake (as I did) of watching the "theatrical version" first. The first two hours or so of this version are spent building up to an encounter with the mysterious ocean-dwelling aliens, then a good chunk of the long-awaited payoff scene is lost to the cutting room floor! Thankfully, this critical ending sequence has been restored for the Special Edition version, making the plot significantly less mindboggling, but (regrettably) a half hour or so longer. Still, even if you are a little bored buy The Abyss, this disc is worth buying -- if only to see what a REAL "Special Edition" DVD is supposed to look like.
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Summary: How deep can you go?
Review: I know this movie is OLD. But still when you're watching the DVD version you don't believe it from what you see and what you hear. The picture quality is almost perfect. I know it must have been hard task to convert the picture in mpeg2 format, especially when almost entire movie is underwater. Still you won't notice any distortion or age wearing on the film. The soundtrack is truly amazing. Especially the Dolby Digital 5.1 track. It creates one of the best spatial effects that i've heard in any DVD movie mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1. You really can feel the action and suspense. What about the movie itself, well if you've already seen abyss then buy the DVD and see it again, if you haven't, you should be going to nearest video store faster you can say "Cheesy poof".
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Summary: This Special Edition is what DVD was made for
Review: Disc 1 alone would be worth the price of this Special Edition of The Abyss. I first saw some of the extra footage when this movie ran on TV, and was amazed at how it enhanced the storyline. Both versions--the theatrical release and the special edition--are available on the same dual-layer disc. Very elegant. For a movie buff like me, the available subtitles that explain the effects--as the movie happens--were just wonderful. A *lot* of time went into the extra features on this DVD. It's much, much more than just a couple of trailers added on. The mastering was done very well: I was fully expecting to see some color banding since so much of the film was shot underwater, with subdued colors. I saw none of that; the colors and contrasts seemed as rich as the original film, to my great relief. Disc 2 kept me entertained for hours, and includes both an hour-long documentary and a 10-minute featurette about how the movie was made. Many of the actors and crew were interviewed, and you got to see the giant nuclear power plant where the set was built. The second disc also includes some written narratives by director James Cameron explaining his relationship with Fox, why some of this footage was originally cut from the film, and why he decided to put footage back into a Special Edition laserdisc in the early 90's. A terrific package; it's full of surprises, and really shows off the flexibility of the DVD format.
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