As far as this writer is concerned, James Cameron's The Abyss from back in 1989 set the performance standards to a height, which have yet to be bettered by any other underwater survival films, before that year or since. I can categorically advise that Ron Scalpello's Pressure is unlikely to upset the existing status quo. There are similarities to be sure. The Abyss concerns a team of drillers operating from an experimental underwater drilling platform, whilst Pressure involves deepwater divers housed in a diving bell, owned by an oil company. In both movies the events that play out are precipitated by marine storms. But the resulting cinematic treatments are completely different.
The Abyss tells an epic story involving not just underwater survival, but one that has strong science - fiction undertones. It also features the terrific production values we've come to expect from all James Cameron films and deservedly won an Oscar for achievement in special visual effects.
Pressure, though a much shorter film, with the focus being on the whether the team of 4 divers can survive in their cramped diving bell, after it becomes untethered from their catastrophically damaged mother ship, pales in comparison. It's a badly lit, poorly produced film, that begins on an extremely negative note with Danny Huston's entirely unneeded and pretentious voice - over and barely ever demonstrates any cause for optimism after that. It's a downer, both figuratively and literally.
In real life, deep sea divers are highly skilled, well paid professionals, who participate in dangerous, but highly valued work. In director Scalpello's and writer Alan McKenna's (who also co - stars) world, they are all drawn as deeply - troubled individuals, beset by psychological baggage, that many would think would make effective diving impossible. Unable to resurface, the four men bicker, brawl and recount great chunks of awkwardly shoehorned, completely uninteresting, back story. Pressure really has nothing to recommend it: the dialogue is dire and the special effects are weak. The lighting has to be seen to be believed (pun intended). Yes we know it's dark at the bottom of the sea, but Scalpello, needs to understand that as an audience attempting to interact with a visual medium, we have to be able to see what is happening. The number of blacked out and fade to black scenes in such a short film as Pressure is unsustainable. A sequence where a character wearing a highly insulated pressure suit, is supposedly attacked by a few passing jelly - fish, is flat - out hilarious.
Punters won't have any trouble identifying the "action scenes". That's where someone continually shakes the hand - held cameras to their nausea - inducing limits.
You'd think, as James Cameron obviously did, that the underwater setting, at the edge of human endurance, is a great place for telling an interesting story. He certainly succeeded with The Abyss. Unfortunately all that can be said of Pressure is that it buckles. I ran out of patience long before the divers looked like running out of oxygen.
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