It's a unique trip that flirts with hokeyness at the surface but that grows more compelling, awe-inspiring, and tragic the deeper you go.

A delectable must-see.

The experience couldn't be more realistic, though Cameron also superimposes imagery of passengers recalling the fateful night, to haunting effect.

Part of what makes this film a must-see for Titanic fans is that it truly puts you closer to the wreckage than anyone else can get.

Despite over-ripe narration and an understandable urge to cram too much in, Ghosts of the Abyss is a thrilling documentary.

An enthralling 3-D IMAX documentary.

Cameron wants to take the audience ''back to 'Titanic,''' but the journey's magic is hemmed in, paradoxically, by the transcendence of his previous effort; surely he must know that a lot of us never left.

Though quite routine on the logistics of deep-sea exploring, pic develops a visual style as it replays the events of the sinking that some viewers may find more visually exciting and satisfying than what Cameron staged in his original mega-blockbuster.

The film's underwater views are breathtaking, as are its drawings and photographs of the Titanic's original splendor.

Not just a 3-D novelty to amuse school groups, but also a memorial.

The more you know about the 1912 tragedy, the more you will appreciate the sights of Ghosts of the Abyss.

If Cameron wants to be a pioneer instead of a retro hobbyist, he should obviously use Maxivision 48, which provides a picture of such startling clarity that it appears to be 3-D in the sense that the screen seems to open a transparent window on reality. Ghosts of the Abyss would have been incomparably more powerful in the process.

Though younger fans of Cameron's 1997 blockbuster may be a little disappointed at the lack of, well, Leo, Cameron persuades us to share his obsession with the ship's history.

Whether he's working in nonfiction or science fiction, Mr. Cameron remains an artist of great instinctive power. In Ghosts of the Abyss, he uses every means of probing that modern science has put at his disposal -- electronic, mechanical, sonic -- only to find that the tragic reality of the Titanic, its myths and its meanings, remain tantalizingly beyond his reach.