Review of 47 Meters Down (2017) by Mike B — 23 Jun 2017

Mandy Moore and bargain bin Emma Roberts star in this forgettable shark attack flick. Movies like this, "Nerve", and "The Shallows" are in a genre of thriller/horror I like to refer as "Sorority-core".

They seem to be made almost exclusively for that demographic and tend to concern young women in that demographic. There's obnoxious pop music that talks about some vague sentiment of living life to the fullest interspersed with on-screen phone message pop-ups and footage of affluent young women enjoying a vacation.

Specific to this and "The Shallows" is a shark. Set in Mexico, the story concerns two sisters on vacation. The older one admits that she invited the other one along because her boyfriend dumped her for being "boring".

The younger sister goads her into diving in a shark cage by making the incentive for doing so a chance to take pictures doing something that is not boring, in hopes of making her ex jealous or regretful or something.

Of course, the shark tank sinks for the titular 47 meters and they have to make their way out of the steel trap and past the sharks without getting nitrogen bubbles in their brains (or "the bends", which is explained about 6 times).

Aside from the sometimes beautiful underwater shots and the inherent dread of being lost at the bottom of the ocean, the girls are so generic and barely characterized that one is almost more concerned about the sharks.

All goes as you would expect, but there's a twist ending that, coincidentally, you would also expect. There's absolutely nothing new to see here, so move along.