Aliens of the Deep

Director James Cameron, having already taken IMAX 3-D cameras to the wreck of the Titanic in Ghosts of the Abyss, goes down again to visit several geothermal vents on the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean floors, where an amazing range of strange animals exists on the heat generated by the vents, in utter darkness without benefit of the sunlight that sustains the rest of life on Earth. That much is fascinating, especially in 3-D. Then Cameron comments that these strange creatures offer glimpses of the kind of life we might find on other planets—which allows him to pad the action with computer-animated scenes exploring the moons of Jupiter and to fade out on a shot that looks like an outtake from his 1989 underwater epic The Abyss. The far more interesting stuff is back here at the bottom of the sea.