Deepsea Challenge. Rated PG. Release date: 21 August 2014. Director: John Bruno, Ray Quint, Andrew Wight. Running time 90 mins.
In Deepsea Challenge James Cameron admits that, having desired it since he was a kid, his film Titanic was basically the excuse he needed to explore the depths of the ocean.
The same seems to be happening in this, his latest film; a documentary about his expedition to the deepest point of the world's oceans. If you read that sentence and think there should be more to it – well, I thought the same, but there’s not.
The challenge, like in the explorer times of the 18th and 19th centuries, is simply to find or arrive at some destination as yet ‘unconquered’. After watching Deepsea Challenge one might reasonably ask what the point of it was. My best guess is simply ego.
Cameron talks about the ocean’s deepsea creatures as a testament to nature’s imaginative and unique creations. While this is true, that alone cannot carry the proposition of the film.
Cameron claims his challenge is not just about finding more “cool” underwater creatures or creating bigger, better high-tech toys to play with. He attempts to position the expedition as contributing to science.
Yet the moment at which he reaches the bottom in his deep-water vessel is so anticlimactic it’s nearly absurd. There is nothing to see. The mechanisms useful in gathering materials for science fail quickly. The goal becomes more about Cameron surviving the trip - not about the usefulness of the expedition in itself.
And so Cameron resurfacing alive is celebrated and cheered: his wife is relieved; the crew are proud. And although we are told that the expeditions (plural – there were several trips besides the main one) discovered new species, the film carefully avoids saying they were discovered during the trip that reached the deepest point of the ocean.
Considering there was nothing down there and the gathering mechanisms failed, I assume this means science gained nothing from the project’s ultimate goal. Which is possibly why no one has really bothered to achieve the goal before.
Deepsea exploration is expensive. And perhaps the achievement wouldn't have held the same appeal to Cameron if he couldn’t tell his courageous story to a worldwide audience. For both reasons, it made sense for Cameron to make a movie. Does it make sense for moviegoers to help pay for a wealthy Hollywood director’s indulgent deepsea expedition? You'll have to