Review of The Shallows (2016) by Donaldist — 04 Jul 2016
44/100, or C.
The Shallows is a horror-survival film that will not commit to the most important elements of that type of movie, as follows:
1) Stick to Procedural.
Our protagonist (Blake Lively) has herself a cancer-mom backstory, of course44/100, or C.
The Shallows is a horror-survival film that will not commit to the most important elements of that type of movie, as follows:
1) Stick to Procedural.
Our protagonist (Blake Lively) has herself a cancer-mom backstory, of course (shades of Sandra Bullock's dead kid in Gravity), which has caused her to put on hold pursuing a medical degree. She also gets stuck on a rock with a hurt seagull, and they become besties. I don't care. The reason a survival thriller like All is Lost is successful is because it has a protagonist who has no backstory and doesn't speak, much less narrate every event of the movie.
2) Stick to the Nitty-Gritty.
Our director for the film is Jaume Collet-Serra, who also worked on Liam Neeson thrillers Non-Stop and Run All Night. He is much better at Liam Neeson thrillers, where he has an excuse to do weird texting on the screen bubbles and to prettify everything. Here, he is out of his depth (yes, that is a pun!) when his prettified sea meets up with orca whale carcasses and gangrene. Even one of his most interesting choices, to stick to Lively's face as she watches the shark chew up a person, doesn't work because he didn't...
3) Cast a Capable Performer.
Darn it, don't hire Blake Lively just for T&A shots for the trailer; if you have to have the T&A, there's a bunch of good-looking actresses who can act as well. Stick to comedy, Blake, you are somewhat charming when you're not battling sharks in this film.
This review of The Shallows (2016) was written by Donaldist on 04 Jul 2016.
The Shallows has generally received positive reviews.
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