20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Great production values and special effects that are blown on a sub par script with poor editing making an ultimately tedious popcorn flick. Just about the only thing well done is the hunting sequence under water. And after the fiery grand finale there's an apocryphal account of how Capt Nemo came to be who he is that goes on for what feels like 20 mins. Anti-climatic in the worst way. Proof that Hollywood made bloated action movies from the beginning. Not recommended for anyone new to silents.

The film opens with nearly 10 minutes of text, not a good way to keep me interested. Too reliant on text to tell the story which makes the film seem slower and longer than it is. Without the text I wouldn't know what was going on even though the filmed scene were pretty well handled and "acted". Not sure why but Captain Nemo kept making me think of Santa Claus for some reason. Some good under water sequences could've save this movie from being below average.

It's a large-scale production, but poor acting and narrative (meaning intertitles have to carry most of the weight) make for a long hour and a half. The main draw is really the underwater photography that dominates the middle third of the picture, which is interesting and impressive, but has little to do with anything else.