Review of The Shallows (2016) by John R — 07 Jul 2016

(Warning: The following review contains spoilers).

Usually, when you know it's a shark movie, you expect complete trash. I'm slightly happy to say that this shark movie is the more likeable trash. While there are other arguably good shark movies like The Reef, Open Water, and 12 Days of Terror, this one at least focused on more than just a killer shark. It actually focuses on the main character, and Lively's performance is brilliant. The movie is more about this young potential doctor struggling to move on after losing her mother to what's hinted to be a form of cancer. After seeing how she died despite all that medication, Nancy considers giving up her own future after feeling like there's no point. This is the movie's strongest trait, even if it is a bit cliche and predictable, but at least shows character development, which I haven't really seen in any shark movie save JAWS. As for the shark, it does have its good points. Unlike most shark films that show a random shark attack, this film tries to give more scientific explanation as to WHY the shark is behaving so ravenous. In the film, a dead whale is found in the area and with all that blood and flesh in the water, running into great white in Mexican waters shouldn't be hard. However, this where it ends for explanation. I may be nitpicking as a result of my knowledge of sharks, but I still feel it should be noted that the shark appeared to be specifically targeting Nancy after biting her once. Also, the shark was around 20ft long and effortlessly kills three other people in the film, yet only leaves a deep, but pretty small bite on Nancy's leg despite the attack scene lasting several long seconds. Pretty sure a bite from a shark that size would've removed the leg or torn off the entire quad muscle in one bite. Also, I would expect to see more than one shark at a dead whale carcass over the course of 48 hours. The fact the shark tries to push Nancy off the dead whale, circles her, tries to jump at her, and isn't shown eating the dead whale even once after the initial encounter is all unrealistic. I'm pretty sure the mere fact that there's a nearby shark is enough to keep the girl on the rock, so no need to have it being shown circling her, and no need for the silly F bomb Nancy says as though the shark was evil. The film's use of plot convenience is also a weakness, such as the two surfers not running into the body of the dead drunk man who was bitten in half and crawled onto the shore and died the night before. His body just randomly vanished. Carlos finds one of the dead surfers at the film's end so what happened to the drunk guy? The high tide didn't come in until the final night. And what bout Nancy's drunk friend who is mentioned to have been left behind due to a hangover? Days passed so she didn't panic when Nancy never answered her phone? I get the beach is a hidden one, not a privately owned or public beach, but iPhones can be tracked and it stayed on that beach turned on. And what was the name of the beach? Nancy asks it a lot but nobody ever answers and it stays that way. Plot convenience or did the writers forget to reveal a shocking scary name...or both? Also how did all that water catch fire and burn the shark when all she did was shoot a flare? I didn't see gasoline or oil spill into the water. Also, a great white can swim at speeds of 25-35mph in bursts, so I'm not sure if the way Nancy kills the shark could've been done but I don't know exactly how fast she was moving so it MIGHT be feasible. The film's CGI is also strange, with Sci-fi movie level CGI on the dolphins, but then moments of excellent CGI on the shark itself for a few scenes. But overall, the film is actually an enjoyable shark movie that makes the audience root for the human rather than the shark and captures the feeling of survival very well with a character who has a backstory that makes her knowledge of treating injuries more believable. The Shallows is an acceptable shark movie that I admit I did enjoy, 3/5.