Deepsea Challenge brings the audience through the history of deep sea submersible diving, beginning with the Trieste and how it influenced Cameron.
From there, the documentary works towards James Cameron's ultimate goal of reaching the bottom of the Challenger Deep (in the Mariana Trench), the deepest point in the ocean anywhere in the world.
The cinematography in this film is criminally underrated. The shots that Cameron was able to get from his dives almost seem too good to be real - but they are real! He actually went down there and filmed it like it was the next Avatar movie. When you sit there and think to yourself that someone/something had to actually take these shots, it's an insane realization how difficult it must have been.
This documentary is actually really solid, fundamentally. It intrigues, it wows, it teaches, it inspires, it's got it all. This hour and a half flew by quickly with the tension of the subject matter. Contrary to some other reviews here, I would say this documentary has a narrative, that narrative being Cameron's quest to reach the bottom of the Challenger's Deep. The pacing is actually quite reasonable and helps keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
My ONLY critique, which dings this down to a 9.5, rather than a perfect 10, is that Cameron can come off a bit self-absorbed a bit here and there throughout. The documentary focuses on the history of submersible deep sea diving, of which Cameron is now a part of that history, but sometimes it just comes off a tad cringe for a documentary to have so much focus on one person (Cameron) when the mission involved the work of hundreds. Small nitpicky detail, easily overlooked for most, in my opinion.
The documentary is excellent overall, near perfect. If you are craving submersible content post-OceanGate and want to see what the competent side of deep sea exploration looks like, look no further! This is THE deepsea documentary to watch.
From there, the documentary works towards James Cameron's ultimate goal of reaching the bottom of the Challenger Deep (in the Mariana Trench), the deepest point in the ocean anywhere in the world.
The cinematography in this film is criminally underrated. The shots that Cameron was able to get from his dives almost seem too good to be real - but they are real! He actually went down there and filmed it like it was the next Avatar movie. When you sit there and think to yourself that someone/something had to actually take these shots, it's an insane realization how difficult it must have been.
This documentary is actually really solid, fundamentally. It intrigues, it wows, it teaches, it inspires, it's got it all. This hour and a half flew by quickly with the tension of the subject matter. Contrary to some other reviews here, I would say this documentary has a narrative, that narrative being Cameron's quest to reach the bottom of the Challenger's Deep. The pacing is actually quite reasonable and helps keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
My ONLY critique, which dings this down to a 9.5, rather than a perfect 10, is that Cameron can come off a bit self-absorbed a bit here and there throughout. The documentary focuses on the history of submersible deep sea diving, of which Cameron is now a part of that history, but sometimes it just comes off a tad cringe for a documentary to have so much focus on one person (Cameron) when the mission involved the work of hundreds. Small nitpicky detail, easily overlooked for most, in my opinion.
The documentary is excellent overall, near perfect. If you are craving submersible content post-OceanGate and want to see what the competent side of deep sea exploration looks like, look no further! This is THE deepsea documentary to watch.