Review of The Shallows (2016) by Axet — 04 Jul 2016

The trailer for this lean minimalist thriller is perfect. Expertly crafted in two and a half minutes it's everything your imagination needs, while the actual feature at ninety minutes though well made overall is sufficiently enough to blow the spell the preview conjures so well. The fact this is a spare minimal thriller isn't the problem (generally they're the best kind).  Nor are some of the character/plot machinations which are text book.  No, the problem besides some clunky dialogue is the shark really has no personality.  The shark for the amazing level of CGI verisimilitude that technology reaps these days, is still lifeless. You don't really buy it.

Take the one inevitably to be compared to, "Jaws", that shark we believe… still, wholeheartedly and without the benefit of today's incredible visual effects. That was a psychological thriller in addition to grand adventure.  Granted "Jaws" was a much greater story on a far bigger canvas, but basically was man against nature.

This is of course is the same idea on a much smaller scale, however it's a highly predictable exercise in slick movie making scares without the psychological character depths that made "Jaws" a classic besides its state of the art cinematic thrills at the time. Take another very well made if albeit cheaply little shark thriller, "Open Water", from 2004. Not as slick or costly but it was smarter and much more realistic.

Yeah the hot girl for this one is great marketing and she's fine, but it barely sustains in the streamlined action. Actually they didn't make enough of it. The iconic poster alone for the seminal "Jaws" had far greater impact (sorry to keep mentioning that other shark thriller, but hey).

There is one plot line flaw in this which is unacceptable unless I missed something, but with so little to follow I doubt I did. In the end it turns over-the-top ridiculous and makes the venerable "Jaws" seem almost a documentary in comparison.

A note on the contemporary device of the protagonist giving journal entries on video:

It was done well and apparently true for "127 Hours", became almost annoying by "The Martian", and now with this it's clearly a gimmick to pad the running time when the story chiefly has only one character.