Review of The Shallows (2016) by Brogan R — 20 Jul 2016

The main reason to see this is for Blake Lively's surprisingly great performance. Admittedly, I haven't seen her in much, but from what I had, she didn't really seem like someone who'd pull off this one.

That being said, The Shallows has a lot of film-making flaws. First off, it seems there's been some editing choices done by the studio. While that seems odd considering the brief runtime, there are instances that don't quite match up with what's been shown on screen. That or it's just shoddy filmmaking.

As for the meager runtime, it seems odd that the movie is actually padded by extended establishing shits, needless panning, unwarranted slow motion, a surfing montage, and gratuitous leering shots of Lively's body. It feels like it'd be better served as a short. Then again, who would pony up the money needed for special effects needed for a short.

Speaking of special effects: there are quite a few effects that fall flat. Birds, waves, the shark, and a "face swap" that's laughable. Although it is better than the one with Dwayne Johnson in Central Intelligence. There were a few scenes that were obviously blue screened.

The writing is rather contrived as everything is predictable. There's one instance that does surprise, but there's not enough explanation for the scene that it doesn't make sense. That goes back to the editing. Of course, there's a perfect ending ruined by an extra scene. I think it's likely there was some studio interference there too. There's also a fair amount of pointless racist dialogue in the first five minutes or so.

So, overall I'd say The Shallows is not very good, but Blake Lively's performance elevates it to watchable territory. Considering everything wrong with the film, that's a great feat!