Again, in a a series of DVD reviews by myself I will forgo most of the information on the movie itself, and focus on he DVD and what makes this Special Edition DVD one that should be in your collection.

The Abyss came out in 1993 from writer/director James Cameron, of Terminator and Titanic fame. The movie, on the surface, is about a crew of an undersea oil rig who are called upon by the government to recover a disabled nuclear submarine. But the sea is inhabited by something that the likes of us have not yet seen....

Looking deeper into the movie shows a struggle between the captain of the rig played by Ed Harris, and his ex-wife played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who owns the rig. The DVD is a two disc set, with the first disc containing two versions of the movie, the regular cut seen back in 1993 and a special edition. I have watched both, and the movie should be seen for the special edition. It adds a lot of depth to the story between Ed Harris' and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's character, and also shows some extra footage near the end of the film which explains what the movie is really trying to say. I won't spoil it here though.


The Movie/Picture

8.5/10

The movie presented on the DVD is in widescreen, however for those of us lucky enough to have a 16:9 aspect ratio TV, it is not anamorphically enhanced. For those who do not know the lingo, that is basically a way of compressing more detail into your picture. Where on a regular TV we would have 3 lines of detail, an anamorphically enhanced picture would have 4.

The color's on this DVD are very well presented. This movie takes place 25000 feet under sea, so it is dark. And the DVD has no problems showing us the dark. I did not notice any problems showing the dark blues and blacks; even the contrast of the diver's lights did not show any issues.

The Audio

9/10

The movie is presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Surround. The surround is used effectively to give a sense of total immersion during the underwater scenes. One great use is when we are viewing the movie from inside a diver's helmet. The sound is very nicely used to make the viewer feel like they are inside the helmet.


The Extras

10/10

Ahhhh...the extras...this DVD is loaded with them. Where to start.
Well, obviously the two versions of the movie. The regular cut and the special edition which adds 28 extra minutes. They scenes are incorperated so well into the movie that without following along in the booklet provided in the DVD case, I could not have noticed a difference.

The booklet is a 12 page document detailing the differences in the extra scenes. Which is a nice way to notice the changes like I mentioned earlier.
There is a text commentary, which works like sub-titles do. This reminded me of VH1's Pop-Up Video, it wa a nice change to be able to watch the movie and read some interesting facts about it.

Now the second disc is loaded with goodies.

There is a very nice 60 minute long "Making Of" documentary. This is a very interesting piece and really show what goes into making an underwater film. Also included is the entire screenplay, for thos who want to read the movie instead of watching it. A multi-angle
sequence of the movie is here for you to put the multi-angle button on your remote control to work. This was a neat feature.

Also included are 3 DVD-ROM games, but not having a DVD player in my computer I can't really comment on them.

The DVD also has extensive story boards of the movie, letting you see some of the planning stage of movie making.

Hidden throughout the DVD's are trailers for other James Cameron films. The most prominant is for Alien, I found at least 5 different trailers for this movie on this DVD. There are also trailers for Strange Days, and True Lies.

The movie is rated PG-13 for some swearing and intense scenes.

Overall I give this DVD a 9/10, and highly recommend you add it to your collection.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older