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The Abyss
The Abyss Image
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Metascore
62 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 27 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
  • Summary: When a nuclear submarine mysteriously sinks, one diver (Harris) soon finds himself on an odyssey 25,000 feet below the ocean's surface where he confronts a mysterious force that has the power to change the world or destroy it. (20th Century Fox)

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 14
  3. Negative: 1 out of 14
  1. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    100
    Stupendously exciting and emotionally engulfing... With probing intelligence and passionate feeling, Cameron has raised the adventure film very close to the level of art.
  2. Empire
    Reviewed by: Kim Newman
    60
    Weirdly, the film’s problem is that it revs up the tension so much that, like one character’s submersible sinking into the high pressure of the titular Abyss, it finally bursts. The climax – as Bud descends to defuse the nuke and meet the aliens – just doesn’t work.
  3. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    38
    The Abyss' isn't abysmal, but it's a replay of hits we've already seen - a recycled "close encounters of the wet kind'' with far too few ideas of its own. [18 Aug 1989, Arts, p.10]
    All this critic's reviews

See all 14 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. [Anonymous]
    7
    Very good, but it's a bit too long. That female character was too irritating to like, even though she revealed her issues close to the end. The pacing of her development was developed too late, making her annoying and too hard to forgive in the end. Giving us a hook or two suggesting something more to her in the beginning would've solved this problem, and brought more life to the enchanting moments. Underwater scenes are excellent.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. Film_Fanatic_15
    6
    The true wonder of the movie seems to take a direct nosedive toward the abyss after temporarily becoming a long war crime drama. Special effects will grab anyone's attention, especially in 1989's case. The characters: developed. Romance: average. Action is "average" as well. The plotline is the center of attention, and it wouldn't be much of a movie without it. James Cameron's vision of aliens under the sea are not what you would expect. They appear like giant electric sea creatures that are distorted in a way, making the line hazy between a giant sea creature never before discovered and something that actually came from space. By the end, everyone could be thinking "entertainment under the surface, who knew?"… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 11 User Reviews

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