Review of Underwater (2020) by Umaumai — 14 Apr 2020

This movie was quite compelling and somewhat unique considering how many films it borrows from. Very disaster film-esque, it has some accurate and shocking moments for the dangers of going so deep underwater and contending with the tremendous pressure of the ocean.

My biggest complaint is that many times I couldn’t tell what was going on visually with most of the “action” type sequence and scenes. This was because of the accuracy they strived for in the visuals making it so dark.

It works well for the atmosphere, but it felt somewhat abusive in respect to how some movies just start shaking the camera to act like something is happening. This would be shaken camera in the dark I guess.

The design of the sets/location are fantastic as well as the costumes. The big suits they wear are great and whoever’s responsible for the creation of them should be proud. A minor complaint is in the sound design.

Not the overall sound design, but one specific moment. Movies are starting to borrow ideas from gaming and one that doesn’t translate well, mostly because the film makers don’t ask why they should or shouldn’t use it, is the in scene voice over “Welcome too.

..”advertising trope. It where you just set foot in some business or company and you hear a voice narrating a welcome message describing what the company does to fill in back story. It wasn’t necessary and kind of distracted from the scene.

The acting is good and I think it was well cast. It does have horror film elements and could be scary for even young adults. I will say that they are few and far between and just as frightening as the real world dangers they have to face, but they were awesome.

I will definitely be watching this again despite the fact that I wasn’t thrilled with the ending because it was very entertaining.