'The Abyss' — Good warmup for 'Avatar'

James Cameron's 1989 film preceded by five years the beginning of a 15-year journey to next month's "Avatar."

I vaguely recall seeing "The Abyss" a long time ago but the only thing I remembered when I watched the special edition on DVD the other night was the spectacular "water faces" special effect.

So it was for all practical purposes a brand-new film to me which I hugely enjoyed, even though some might find its length in the 1993 special edition (171 minutes) off-putting.

But isn't that why they invented DVDs, so you could stop the movie whenever you wanted to take a break or finish it the next night?

I read a whole bunch of reviews online before deciding whether to watch the original 1989 theatrical release (143 minutes) or the later edit.

Most of those who offered opinions and had watched both iterations said the longer one was better because the story made more sense in that version, so that's what I chose.

You can't always simply figure the director's version is better: for example, I thought "Blade Runner" in the theater was better than Ridley Scott's director's cut at home on DVD, even though the added footage in the latter made the story much more comprehensible.

But then, that film on the big screen with serious sound is a completely different experience from watching at it home, even with great gear.

But I digress.

Here's why "The Abyss" is worth $10.49:

1) Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are just excellent as a once-married, now-estranged couple forced to work together in an extremely high-risk deep-water environment.

2) The underwater sequences and special effects are superb, especially a spectacular undersea chase to the death by manned submersibles, one manned by a Navy SEAL gone berserk with high-pressure-induced psychosis.

3) Cameron's efforts to recreate life inside deep-water habitats and vehicles are so effective you feel like the room you're in is part of their structure. The attention to detail makes your awareness of just how dangerous and subject to instant, unexpected catastrophe are these places harboring human life and an artificial atmosphere separated by only a metal shell from crushing pressures and temperatures.

4) The acting and the action are compelling enough that even without the discovery of an advanced non-human intelligent species living deep in the sea driving the story, it would still be a rattling good show.