Aliens der Meere (2005)

Aliens der Meere: Directed by James Cameron, Steven Quale. With Anatoly M. Sagalevitch, Genya Chernaiev, Victor Nischeta, Pamela Conrad. James Cameron teams up with NASA scientists to explore the Mid-Ocean Ridge, a submerged chain of mountains that band the Earth and are home to some of the planet’s most unique life forms.

“u0026quot;Yeah, hi, this is Jim… Yeah, Cameron… The genius who paired up Winslet and Di Caprio for that awful TITANIC movie… No, Mr.Markowitz, I donu0026#39;t have time to explain why I cast a skinny effeminate nerd, thatu0026#39;s not why I called you, Iu0026#39;m a busy man… Listen, I need some scientists for an underwater documentary… A-ha… Charles, John, Mike… Well, no, actually I was thinking more of women, you see. I want this to be a politically correct film, so get me some female marine biologists. That way I have a better shot at getting a prestigious award. Have you got any?… You do? Great. A black- I mean, an African-American girl with Bob Marley hair? Excellent! Whatu0026#39;s more hip than that!? Iu0026#39;ll get her to narrate a bulk of the movie… No, no, nevermind her credentials, I donu0026#39;t need them… Sheu0026#39;s just a student? Who cares… just send her and the other gals over.u0026quot; u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn making this solid documentary, James Cameron behaved more like an actor than a director, i.e. someone who is always behind the camera. The major flaw of AOTD is that we see far too many shots of Jim and his dull female science team, and too little of the fascinating deep-ocean creatures which Cameron promised. Who cares to listen to the crews go u0026quot;wow!u0026quot; and u0026quot;unbelievable!u0026quot; every five minutes? The viewer is supposed to say it or think it, not these dull scientific clowns. The narration sounds flat, usually coming in form of barely audible, weak female voices. One of these narrators is a scientist who actually left her 5-month old infant to be on this expedition. Are we supposed to be impressed by her career ambitions? How very feminist. But I suppose Cameron was so adamant about having nearly all the scientists be women that he didnu0026#39;t even care about separating a mother from her infant.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI thought that the focus occasionally shifting on space exploration was a good idea, but there was too little of real scientific info of that nature. Too much screen time goes to waste on showing us the logistical difficulties of sending these subs down – as if anyone apart from engineers cares. Show me a fish with teeth like Edward Fox! Thatu0026#39;s what itu0026#39;s all about…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you want a truly awe-inspiring documentary on deep-sea critters, check out u0026quot;The Blue Planetu0026quot;: one of the six episodes delivers what Cameron here only partly manages to do.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePerhaps Cameron wants to be the next Jacque Cousteau, who was a self-centered egomaniac who pretended to only care about the preservation of nature when in fact it was exhibitionistic self-promotion that was always in the forefront. Damn, Iu0026#39;m tired of all these hyped-up idealists/humanists getting rich at the expense of our collective naivety.”