Ghosts Of The Abyss 3D (2003/Disney Blu-ray 3D w/Blu-ray 2D and DVD)/Titanic: 100 Years In 3D (2012/A&E/History Blu-ray 3D w/Blu-ray 2D)/Titanic At 100: Mystery Solved (2012/A&E/History DVD)

 

3D Picture: B/B-/X     2D Picture: B- & C+/B-/C+     Sound: B & C+/B-/C+     Extras: C+/D/D     Main Programs: B-/C+/C+

 

 

James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) remains the most successful filmed feature in unadjusted dollars of profit ever made, so you were going to get plenty of releases toed to it, even by Cameron himself as it turns out.  Especially now that a somewhat controversial 3D conversion of the film hit theaters in 2012, with some thinking it looked bad and blurry while others enjoyed it, here comes more related titles.

 

 

Back in 2003, Cameron himself recruited Bill Paxton and a crew of very skilled people to actually go back down and see the wrecked ship and explore it and more questions about it in Ghosts Of The Abyss 3D and was an early all digital HD 3D production, though also one made for IMAX/Omnimax presentations.  Disney has issued it in a new set with Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray 2D and DVD formats, plus a 90 minutes version superior to the 60 minutes long version.

 

It is a fine look at what Cameron could not fit into his big hit epic film and has some fine moments throughout, though one seems a bit forced (don’t pick up that treasure form the grave of these people) in a point made in the film, yet one that sadly cannot be made enough.  It is obvious Cameron rakes all this very seriously and the results show up in this thoughtful, well made documentary.  If you liked the hit film, you’ll definitely want to see this.

 

A featurette called Reflections From The Deep is the only extra.

 

 

Eight to nine years later, another crew of scientists go deep into the water and back to see the ship in Titanic: 100 Years In 3D (2012) with the newest sonar equipment and computer technology they can bring with them to record and measure every bit of the ship they can in a new kind of digital 3D mapping.  It makes for an interesting flipside and even unintentional follow-up to what Cameron was doing, but this new group can only break so much ground and the resulting work is a mere 45 minutes long, so this is almost featurette length.  Still, it has its moments, especially in 3D.  There are no extras.

 

 

Finally we have Titanic At 100: Mystery Solved (2012) which is just more text and examination of what happened the night the great ship sank with a new, thorough look at the people and events that had the feel of overlap and that we have been there before, but it runs 96 minutes and maybe could have been a bit shorter.  There are no extras here either, but it is a worth entry on the subject.

 

 

The 1.78 X 1, 1080p full HD MVC-encoded 3-D – Full Resolution digital High Definition image on Ghosts and Titanic: 100 Years have some fine 3D moments, but Ghosts is consistent throughout with demo moments while Titanic: 100 Years has a mix of shots that do and do not work.  The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition 2D versions of both are also fine for their playback quality, but the 2D Ghosts is simply not as interesting as the 3D one, while Titanic: 100 Years has more than a few shots that should not have been 3D.  Ghosts and Titanic At 100 are here as anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image DVDs that are about even with each other for picture quality, soft on the edges and in the cases of Ghosts, no match for its Blu-ray 2D or 3D counterparts.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Ghosts is easily the best mix through either Blu-ray version, designed for the 64-speaker, 6-track IMAX sound system and this is a mix from that soundmaster material, originally presented in advanced Sonix-DDP sound.  We have some great soundmixing, sound recording and sound moments, but there is also much talk and music, so don’t expect sound like the 1997 film.  The Titanic: 100 Years only has lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound like the Ghosts DVD, but Titanic: 100 Years has slightly better sound than that DVD and the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on the Titanic At 100 DVD is simple stereo at best but good enough to compete with the Ghosts DVD which could not hope to compete with the DTS-MA on the Blu-rays.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo