MovieChat Forums > The Abyss (1989) Discussion > This movie is so..... boring?

This movie is so..... boring?

posted 13 years ago by TheSelfProclaimedNerd
100 replies | jump to latest

I got a DVD with both the Special edition and the original version of this film. I had never seen it before, so I decided to watch the theatrical version first.
I am currently 82 minutes into this 137 minute film.
I AM SO BORED!!!!!!!!

I know that some people love this film, but at the moment, I truly can't see why. Typically, I don't walk out in the middle of a movie, but this is really pushing it.

I can't imagine sitting through a 170 minute cut of this film!!

Edit 02/03/2016-
It has been five years since I posted this, and for some reason, of all the asinine BS I posted to this account when I was 16, this post continues to garner attention. I am far more well versed when it comes to movies than I was five years ago, and I suspect that I will have a lot more to say about this movie now than I did then.

I will be re-watching The Abyss this weekend. I intend to finish it this time, and will update this post with my thoughts.

[–] dstilley-1 13 years ago

I've had this on DVD for a long time and I don't watch it very often, but I've never felt that it was boring. If anything my memories of the film are that it has a nerve racking kind of suspense to it. The disasters keep coming one after another and just when you think they've got things under control mayhem follows and things get crazy again. I like the longer version best. It's almost like 2 movies in one. Bill Murry's "Stripes" is kind of like that too. Where about 2/3 of the way through the film it feels like it's going to wrap up and all the sudden it's like it branches into another plot line. Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" does that as well. Boring...? I don't think so. In fact I think I'll watch it again right now when T2 is over.

[–] Lord_Caldlow 13 years ago

I've had this on DVD for a long time and I don't watch it very often, but I've never felt that it was boring.

Nor have I. In fact the Special Edition is probably my favorite Cameron film.

I don't watch it very often either, though, and the main reason is that the lousy DVD release looks even lousier on my big HDTV.

[–] twisterwolf 12 years ago

boring movie !!!!!!

[–] ubcool 12 years ago

I can understand people finding films like, Blade Runner Borring because of slow pace and lack of thrills/action or even Films like Captain America,Avatar because they are unoriginal and predictable. But The abyss was neither. it was original well paced and full of tension and thriller elements. not to mention great characters.acting and special effects that still hold up today.

[–] LocoHero 12 years ago

You don't have the intelligence to appreciate it, that's all. Stick to new films with lots of flashes and bangs every 5 minutes.

[–] skay_baltimore 12 years ago

You don't have the intelligence to appreciate it, that's all. Stick to new films with lots of flashes and bangs every 5 minutes.

Oh...you mean like "La Stada"? Or "Wild Strawberries"? Or "Contempt"? Or "Tierra"? Or "Wings Of Desire"? Or...

Yeah. You're absolutely brilliant.

This movie was trash.

"Love isn't what you say or how you feel, it's what you DO". (The Last Kiss)

[–] mandrakeroot 12 years ago

The Abyss is just an extraordinary film. Truthfully I put off watching it for so long because I was never a huge fan of the underwater dramas (like Sphere), but when I finally did watch it, it was an instant favorite. I haven't seen the Theatrical Cut, but it sounds like it's missing a lot of crucial scenes.

Anyhow, I don't see how someone could be bored with this, it's just so awesome. It's almost a 3 hour movie, yet it completely flew by and left me wanting even more. There's just so many great scenes, and Coffeys death was just blew me away. It's just funny to me how someone can find this boring yet it was one of the most riveting movies I've ever seen.

[–] glock78 12 years ago

Special edition is more tense and it makes more sense.
And it has an actual emotional peak AT THE END, with an actual payoff for all the buildup during the movie.

Theatrical cut lacks some of the action, plus its much lower emotional peak (Lindsey's death) is at about HALF AN HOUR BEFORE THE END.
It does not help how that emotional peak basically bleeds any emotion out of the Travis's sacrifice, which is made lesser by the TC on top of all that.

In TC, Travis goes out to save a couple of his friends and some E.T.s you never had a chance to get attached to.
They don't even get to "call home". Yawn city.
Nuke 'em from the orbit, for all I care.

In SE, it turns out his sacrifice was Jesus-like.
He literally stops a biblical flood.
AND an inter-species war we were destined to lose.
He saves the humanity, he saves the alien race, he brings peace to the world(s) AND he does that not just by sacrificing himself for humanity's sins - he saves two worlds with his love.
Emotional overflow.

But... Watching TC first...
Most people get "tainted" by it, and can't sit through yet another two and a half hours of the movie they already don't like just to get to the good part at the end.
Only now the part that you remember as the emotional peak is even farther from the end.
Your attention span is out the window and the whole thing is just... "meh... boring".

[–] getmeagator 12 years ago

Who is Travis?

[–] coffeemann 12 years ago

it's a genre movie ok, science fiction, but under water, so you can eliminate all the other movies and now just focus on under water movies,
now why don't you review the movie for what is it and what genre is it.
if you don't like science fiction under water water movies about aliens then this movie is not for you.. that simple..

if you love this genre.. then you will admit this movie is brilliant !

[–] apjooz 12 years ago

What science were there in this movie? It should have some science to be called science fiction. I detected zero.

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RIP Terminator franchise 1984-1991

[–] atomic_maton 11 years ago

Interestingly when this film was released, it was not advertised as a Science Fiction, but rather an espionage thriller - submarine warfare with the Russians with a possible mysterious Alien Force that will kill us all.

That's why I love this movie because it surprised me so much how easily as a human species that we can automatically crasp the fear rather than the beauty that Alien lifeforms can be kind and helpful, and that it's humans that destroy humans.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] assmatronix 12 years ago

when people find The Abyss "boring" I have no hope left in mankind. It seems to me that young people need to have at least 3 explosions within 1 min of the movie otherwise it's "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING!". I have no hope left, absolutely none.

As another said here you probably won't be able to watch 2001 if you find this boring. sad, because it's one of the biggest masterpieces of all time.

- - -
Biggest idiot on the IMDb:
Moulin_Rouge_Fan

[–] scabab 12 years ago

It always makes me laugh when fanboys start to assume someones simple minded then suggest they go watch Transformers instead just because someone finds it boring.

The movie was a little boring, I liked it but I can see why people would say its boring. It'd have been better off with a 2 hour runtime and shaved 40 minutes off. Too many scenes dragged on.

[–] ajl41994 12 years ago

I disagree. This movie was slow at the beginning, I'll admit, and I thought about shutting it off but once things started happening it got really good and I loved the ending. You should finish it if you ever get the chance. Your attitude of it may change. :)

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