Director: James Thomas
Year: 2018
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
After hearing about a potential accident, a Navy commander takes a crew down to investigate the area only to find the accident has unleashed a massive, prehistoric shark back into the world's oceans and must find a way of stopping the creature before it becomes known to the world.
Review:
Frankly, this was a rather enjoyable and entertaining entry. One of the main areas working for it is the rather fun and somewhat unique storyline here that provides this one with some great action. The idea of the shark capturing the sub at the very beginning and swallowing them forcing the majority of the film to become a series of rescue attempts which provide this with plenty of exciting scenes from both sides of the situation. Down below, the attempts from inside the creature where they employ some inventive strategies to defend themselves while the ship's crew engages in a few rather unconventional tactics to drive the creature towards the surface in order to free them leads to some fun times here.
The second half here is where this one really picks up some fun action as there's plenty of battles with the shark against the ship. Not only does this feature the blazing gun-battle where they draw the shark up to the surface and battle the creature with plenty of firepower from the ship itself, yet the entire finale here offers up quite a different kind of action here with the series of gunfights in the bowels of the big battleship as the shark continually circles around to make it's presence known. The final concept for defeating the shark is quite inventive and offers up some nice counterparts to the action just before which ends this in a nice blazing inferno which is enough to hold this one up over it's flaws.
One of the main problems here is the fact that there's just no reasoning for the subplot about the Russians onboard the ship interrupting their plans which don't make any sense and really manages to take a lot of the impact away from the shark itself. The fact that they're choosing that time and place to make a political stand is quite ludicrous and doesn't make any sense due to the battle with the shark which is taking place that interrupts their plans. By diverting focus away from the shark at this critical point in the film, the film maintains a disjointed pacing with the creature being replaced by the exploits of these crazed commandos who are in the process of trying to get them to safety so it just feels tacked on for no real reason.
The other big issue is the usually expected low-budget CGI that crops up throughout here. The shark is actually the best part where it looks better than expected despite it being obviously repeating the same motions in it's scenes, yet here it's more the environments that really bring out the bad graphics. From the shots of CGI water that the shark swims around in that are obviously simulated in a computer to the really lame look of the battleship floating in the water that looks absolutely awful in how it's rendered, it's not nearly about the CGI creature but more the environments in this one. While some might also complain about the lack of screentime, overall those are the main issues here.
Overview: ** 1/2/5
Despite having a lot of rather enjoyable elements at times, the fact that it manages to undo a lot of those with it's negative aspects is a little underwhelming. Give this one a shot if you're a hardcore giant shark movie fanatic, while those looking for more continuous killer shark antics should heed caution.
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