Review of Underwater (2020) by Vds — 15 May 2020

In theory, this had disaster written all over it (literally and metaphorically) - Kristen Stewart in an Alien rip off made for the remake generation. I had low expectations, but was proven wrong.

The first plus point, it was a brisk 95 minutes long, which meant it started and didn’t really stop until it stopped. There was no time for inane dialogue from hapless idiot characters, that could only be written by and appeal to twelve-year old’s.

As a regular last-man standing monster movie, I felt it tried hard not to give us too many clichés. There was no forced confrontation between two macho types, or too many headless chicken panic scenes. Ok, so Kristen Stewart was her usual mono-emotion self, but I could live with that because the script didn’t call for anything else. I loved the look of the film. The suits they wore and the claustrophobic feel of the sets, the murky water, it all gelled well.

The biggest minus for me was the monsters. Not scary. Floppy, squidy, gangly things aren’t creepy, they just look daft. Also, the end was a bit lame. Two odd little things I noticed – there was no toothpaste on Kristen’s toothbrush at the very beginning, and I’m sure I heard a sound bite from Alien in one of the early control room scenes.

All in all this deserved more than the critical thrashing that it got. Did it sink or swim? It swam, albeit with a desperate doggie paddle at times.