James Cameron's Aliens of the Deep: Voyages to the Strange World of the Deep Ocean [Hardcover]

Joe Macinnis (Author), James Cameron (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005

A companion volume to the new 3-D giant-screen film follows a team of scientists as they explore the deep ocean vents of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, offering readers a view of life in Earth's most hostile and inaccessible environments and their remarkable inhabitants.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Physician and scientist MacInnis, the first person to dive under the North Pole, brings extensive experience surveying the undersea world to this tribute to Titanic director Cameron's latest 3D, giant screen deep-sea extravaganza of the same name. The book combines MacInnis's fascinating descriptions of the deep-sea hydrothermal vents that are the film's focal point with fawning reporting on the many obstacles Cameron faced as he directed what has become one of the most expensive documentary films ever made. The work's most compelling parts are MacInnis's brief "Dispatches": two- to three-page sidebars giving more detailed investigations of related scientific issues, such as how hydrothermal vents may provide a way of looking at the subterranean life that might exist on planets and moons in our solar system. Unfortunately, MacInnis's text makes up only half of the book. The other half, nearly 100 photographs taken from the film, is a major disappointment, with most images lacking crisp resolution and definition. Almost all of the most interesting views of underwater life appear to have been photographed through a thin gauze; what could have been an amazing shot of superheated water shooting from a vent ends up looking like a blur of black and brown, for example, while another shot of shoals of shrimp covering a vent system ends up looking like a mass of pasta. (Feb.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792293436
• ISBN-13: 978-0792293439
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,509,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A small mistake, March 25, 2008

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: James Cameron's Aliens of the Deep: Voyages to the Strange World of the Deep Ocean (Hardcover)

This production's title is a bit misleading. It turns out that the "Aliens" are invaders in the Deep, not denizens "of" it. The "aliens" are the descendants of African primates, and we see their actions, their wishes and their responses to what they find at the depths. Although the film does give us glimpses of the sea bottom, the mysterious "black smokers" and the inhabitants associated with them, most of the footage is of the researchers, the support team and, of course, "Jim" Cameron. While scientists and their work need more recognition, the many shots of them peering through portholes, communicating on almost indecipherable squawk boxes and squirming about in confined diving vehicles doesn't give us much of "the Deep".

After some initial preparation activities, including stripping the side from one of the ships, the probes are launched. Two hours descent is compressed into twenty seconds, but the sea floor, over 800 metres down is reached. There's a great deal of interprobe conversation and both internal and outside shots of the vehicles. Cameron's budget extended to five probes altogether, giving him every possibility for film-making. Wisely, he chose both international and interdiscipline characters, with a mix of Russian, US, geophysicists and astrobiologists. The film buff will recognise none but Cameron, but it's hoped the research community will pick out familiar names. Personal accounts abound, but one has to wonder at somebody blocking a viewport with a baby's photograph.

As a producer, Cameron has a sense of lighting and filming scenes, and some of these are little short of stunning. Sea life at depth is sparse, but "something nobody's ever seen" is likely to appear. One, a form of jellyfish, brings the predictable gasps of awe, and with good reason. It's indeed a bizarre creature with possibly a lengthy history. The scarcity of life suddenly turns abundant as the divers approach a "black smoker". Cameron's lighting talents come to the fore as one vehicle lights the chimney from behind while another films the discharge in glorious close-up. It may be "Hollywood lighting", but the resulting image seems worth it.

Through it all, one has to wonder if the researchers entertained thoughts of how it was that James Cameron had one robot and four manned dive vessels when their chance at but one means scheduling and a queue. Preparation and its problems are not minor aspects of deep ocean research, but how much of it's necessary for a commercial film? More to the point, although the scientists struggled to impart that the sea is 70% of the Earth's living space, the science behind Cameron's effort remains subdued. It's true that studying how to do tasks at the bottom of the sea will aid in exploring other planets in the search for ET life. But there is much to be learned about life itself at depth - a topic remains little explored.

Finally, the question remains whether an IMAX film truly can be brought to the home screen. Only those who have seen this in both formats can judge. If you want to see a realm new to surface eyes, this film may be an interesting starting point. Don't stop here. If this film doesn't prompt you to go on to find a real film on the ecosystem of three-quarters of the world, it has failed in its task. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine acquisition for any collection strong in science, August 8, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: James Cameron's Aliens of the Deep: Voyages to the Strange World of the Deep Ocean (Hardcover)

James Cameron provides the introduction to his companion volume to the 3-D giant-screen film Aliens Of The Deep, which probes miles below the sea to volcanic hot spring vents serving as the homes for unexpected life. These vents were unknown until 1977 and today remain largely unexplored: the high-resolution photography brings what's known of this world to vivid visual life, and the companion book packs in pages of text to supplement the full-page color photos. Both public and school libraries will consider it a fine acquisition for any collection strong in science.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Pictures From a World So Near and Yet So Far, May 19, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: James Cameron's Aliens of the Deep: Voyages to the Strange World of the Deep Ocean (Hardcover)

This is the companion volume to the 3-D, Giant-Screen Film. The nice thing about having these pictures in book form is that they don't flash by the screen and disappear. And of course, the quality of the pictures had better be good.

Some reviewers have complained about the quality of these images. I do not agree. These pictures are supurb. The fact that they exist at all is amazing. Then you have to realize that they are taken a mile or two or three below the surface of the ocean. It's a long ways down there, you can't spend long there, and you are shooting the picture through water. And the pictures you are taking are of things that man has never seen before, at one point they counted 500 newly identified species.

I also liked the occassional reference to the way this is not unlike space exploration, one comment, "piloting a mini-sub at 12,000 feet is very similar to flying a spacecraft to another planet. You must be prepared for isolation and the risk of losing your life."

Thank you guys for going down there, I don't believe I want to go with you. I'll just look at the pictures.