Director: Darin Scott
Year: 2018
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Brought onboard a top-secret project, a scientist joins the floating aquatic platform where the true nature of the procedure takes place where they soon realize that their test sharks have become far more intelligent and turn on everybody there, forcing them to find a way to get away alive.
Review:
For the most part, this was a somewhat disappointing and unremarkable effort. The main issue with this one is that there's the unmistakable feeling of familiarity present here as the film is essentially a remake of the original and really renders a lot of the antics here quite moot due to that. The storyline here is essentially the same thing, involving a scientist brought to a top-secret research project in the middle of the ocean where they learn of a plan to alter a shark's behavior through genetic research. When they get stuck in the facility and the entire group becomes trapped inside, they realize they've got super-intelligent killer sharks on their hands that behave much differently than traditional sharks which forces them to have to find a way to survive the dangerous beings. That is a complete rip-off of the original and even forces this one into ripping off many of the same sequences verbatim as that tends to raise so much awareness of the situation taking away the surprise from the situation.
As well, there's also the overly obvious feeling of being done on a cheap without a whole lot to really offer in terms of its budget. That starts with the CGI present, which is completely atrocious and full of the usual low-budget nature that's usually found in these films as they never once really interact with their environment or shake off that digitized look so common to the genre. On top of that, the shrunken size of the lab, the continuous shooting in the narrow corridors that never once look like a facility layout of this type or the general air of the film which manages to just give off this closed-off feeling of a low-budget set without really laying any kind of traditional high-quality setup throughout here. On top of that, the film also commits the cardinal sin of low-budget fare by stalling for time with out-of-place speeches to help eat up plenty of time without doing anything special, and together these here really lower this one.
When this one manages to work, a lot of that comes from the expected areas in a killer shark movie. That lies in the attacks presented here which feature some fine brutality, from the opening attack on the illegal fishermen where they first display the enhanced intelligence, the first sequences of the creatures getting loose as the chain-wave of action that starts the flooding process is quite fun and to the sharks launching their attacks in order to keep them trapped which gives this some solid action at times here. With the second half offering up a near non-stop series of attacks against the dwindling crew, this provides the odd suspenseful moment or so as well as getting some nice gore mixed in which helps to make this somewhat enjoyable giving it a solid pace in the best moment possible. With a finale that generates plenty of action and some thrilling attacks throughout here mixed with some nice surprises along the way, there are some nice elements at play here which manage to make it watchable even with all the flaws holding it down.
Overview: ***/5
Despite a few rather dubious issues throughout here, the fact that there's some solid and likable moments here manages to offer up enough positives to lift it up over those flaws. Give this a chance if you're willing to overlook the flaws and dive straight in on this entry, while those who can't put away those more glaring negatives should definitely heed caution and stick with the original.
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