Set on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic (that means this film’s set in the future by the way) Titanic II begins with the launching of the USS Titanic II as it embarks on its maiden voyage. The USS Titanic II is a luxury cruise liner which despite its vintage look supposedly has state of the art mechanics inside (although these seem pretty inept when the predictable iceberg hits). The ship was built by Hayden Walsh (Shane Van Dyke – grandson of Dick), an arrogant, wealthy and privileged playboy.
Now, two questions/exclamations probably come to mind from anyone who hears of the existence of the film Titanic II and the premise of the film, that someone has built a Titanic II. Why would anyone make a film called Titanic II and why would anyone build a Titanic II? The answers to these two questions are interestingly intertwined and perhaps one and the same. The character of Hayden Walsh, played by Shane Van Dyke, is arrogant, wealthy and privileged and his arrogance goes so far as that he builds a second Titanic. The film is also written and directed by Shane Van Dyke (who also directed The Asylum’s 6 Guns and Paranormal Entity), whose name is oddly absent from the front cover and whose face does not appear alongside those of Bruce Davison and Brooke Burns on the back of the DVD. The act of making Titanic II mirrors the act of building the ship Titanic II. This either adds an amusing subtext to a pulpy and daft film that Van Dyke has wittily introduced or shows the writer/director to be something of a megalomaniac with unbelievable self belief. Either seem entirely possible based on the film.
At times the film seems to be a self-aware piece in which everyone understands what they are making which leads me to believe that Van Dyke is perhaps aware of what he is doing here. There is a moment near the beginning where one of the characters is reading a book entitled “The Original Titanic” and one character even comments, “Stay away from icebergs” before the ship launches. There is also a ‘shit gets real’ scene where a character turns, faces the camera directly and says “Let’s get this cigar smoking”. Surely a self-reflexive joke, surely….right?
Perhaps this is the problem with Titanic II, are we supposed to take it as joke and laugh along with scenes such as Hayden walking in slow motion with a entourage of women, women whose cleavage becomes the focus point of the camera, or are we supposed to be taking the action and dramatic elements seriously. Neither works particularly well admittedly but also neither aspects are a complete failure.
Titanic II is full of bad CGI, dodgy acting and woeful dialogue but there is a lot of fun to be had despite this and the mere fact that the film had me questioning it and fascinated by the filmmakers intentions is a lot more than I was expecting from this high concept schlocky film.
The DVD comes with the following extras:
- A Making of Featurette
- Gag Reel
- Trailers for other films by The Asylum
The main highlight of the DVD extras is a montage in the ‘gag reel’ which features clips of the extras ‘acting’ in front of a green screen.
Titanic II is available on DVD now (it appears to be region free) and can be bought direct from The Asylum Store.
You can watch the trailer here.
