A good movie

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I have it on DVD, I was quite eager to check it out again. Well, this movie is visually quite impressive and was, at the time, rather groundbreaking (It was in fact one of the first films to make proper use of CGI technology). To be honest, the first time I saw the damned thing, I wasn't so sure about the story though. I mean, it was entertaining enough, that's for sure, but it was still rather generic in my opinion. Many years later, I watched the director's cut but I'm not sure if the extra 15 minutes were actually welcome. It seemed that it explained too much what was the deal with those aliens whereas the shorter version kept it mysterious which worked better in my opinion. Furthermore, as usual with James Cameron, the characters were really stereotypical and I especially dreaded the bad guy portrayed by Michael Biehn. It was pretty obvious that they put him there just to create some tension but it didn't work very well. Still, in spite of the poor characterization, both Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio were actually really good, especially during the resurrection scene which was really amazing but, apparently, they both had a dreadful time filming this movie (apparently, Ed Harris even refuses to talk about this movie). It is not really surprising but, for the viewer, there was a lot of fascinating stuff thanks to all those wet scenes and the under water scenes. Back in those days, you could see that James Cameron was already caring a lot about all that underwater stuff and it felt really genuine. Eventually, even though it was really entertaining, I think that there was just too much to deal with (the underwater oil rig, the major world crisis, the romance between Harris and Mastrantonio, Biehn going crazy, the aliens,...). Still, it remains a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in James Cameron's work.