Review of The Shallows (2016) by Cashtill — 05 Jul 2016

Jaws had such a profound impact on me as a kid, both positive and negative. So, naturally I was really drawn to another great Shark Tale. (no, not the Will Smith kind... God no!) Spielberg's Jaws terrified me in a way that kept me away from most large bodies of water for years.

I was always drawn to another "big animal" film that could give me the same "feels". The Shallows trailer painted a picture that leaned in that general direction. Unfortunately, after seeing the actual film.

.. it scratched the itch, but didn't leave me with that "Ahhh... that's-what-I-was-looking-for-"- feeling. The film was definitely frightening at times, leaving me squirming in my seat for the duration of the slow-burn.

It was a film made in 2016 so I expected a lot of CGI... The shark looked good, not great. Blake Lively's face overtop of an actual surfer's face, not great and I expected a lot of unrealistic motives of the shark species.

This shark was tenacious! The great white could be seen biting through metal, fire, and surf boards as if that was it's morning ritual. I feel the movie could have been much more terrifying if the kept the "realistic" tone to it.

Several unnecessary elements plagued this movie to keep me from truly being engaged. I was able to look past the quick-character-development tropes and see the film for what it was, happily, until the last 15 minutes.

The last 15 minutes promptly took me out of their world and back into mine. That is not where I wanted to be.