Review of The Shallows (2016) by Andrew M — 16 Jul 2017

"The Shallows demands its central character to be physically able to handle whatever comes her way and Blake Lively does a damn good job in her portrayal which is enough to save this woman-vs-shark film from drowning in the deep.

For a film that is about fighting off a 20+ foot shark attack, I imagined the film to be absurd and over the top. To humor this review, let's just say that the film doesn't have much bite to it unless if you count the last 15 minutes which makes up the entire films' 87 minutes.

Within the hr, you get multiple shots of Blake Lively surfing it up in a secluded beach that residents refuse to name, gorgeous cinematographer, quiet almost-unnoticeable score by Marco Beltrami and of course the full teeth Great White Shark that is probably the most believable out of all the CGI sharks that we have seen in cinema so far.

We do get a lovely moment with a seagull on a rock that our main protagonist gets stuck on (for the majority of the film). The action picks up again when she decides to swim for the buoy and ends up swimming with a bunch of box jelly fishes that happened to appear out of nowhere.

It's that kind of absurdity and camp that I wish the entire film had more of.".