Deep Blue Sea by John Sylva Rating: B-
http://hometown.aol.com/DeWyNGaLe/MoviePED.html
Deep Blue Sea is this summer's second monster in the water film, (The first was the mediocre Lake Placid) and it is trying so hard to be a summer blockbuster, it makes me cringe. Making a high budget film with loads of special effects and well known actors is the formula used to make Deep Blue Sea, but if screenplay writers Wayne Powers and Duncan Kennedy actually focused on writing a good movie, I would have to say that is the biggest lie I've ever heard. Hollywood frustrates me at times, make that many times, as they have the potential to make wonderful, spellbinding movies, but instead decide to make 100s of films relying on hype, special effects, and action to make them good. Deep Blue Sea is supposed to give you thrills and chills, but instead is a disappointing film that people will be lashing out those dollar bills for. With today's technology, and the actors that have the capability of acting well, Deep Blue Sea should have been an extremely thrilling, intense, fun summer film. If that's what you want from Deep Blue Sea, you will marginally satisfied. Go see The Blair Witch Project, a classic film that doesn't use any special effects, or any gore, and features 100 times the chills.
Deep Blue Sea takes place in Baja, California, at the world's most advanced research center, where Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) and a team of scientists and assistants, which includes Carter (Thomas Jane), Dr. Jim Whitlock (Stellan Skarsgard), Tom Scoggins (Micharl Rapaport), marine biologist Janice Higgins (Jacqueline McKenzie), and chef Sherman Dudley (LL Cool J) are all working hard for a cure to the nasty disease of Alzheimer's. Three deadly sharks are the test subjects for Susan's cure for reactivating brain cells, as handled by shark expert Carter. Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson), who is about to live another survival situation (He was lost in an avalanche), is the financial backer of the experiment, and has come to the research center to see investigate the experiment, that has the potential to save thousands of lives.
In result of the cure being tested on the sharks, they "got smarter." The sharks can now recognize objects, and hunt like they've never hunted before. What results from a great setup is a 110 minute, exciting movie that is all but impressive, but instead just summer fun. It's not that hard Hollywood. To make a good movie, you need character development, good acting, a strong screenplay, and good scenery. It's not so difficult- Especially when the plot outline, which is barely paid attention to in Deep Blue Sea, is as clever as it is. Although the other 90 minutes which are spent by sharks chasing humans isn't the most original thing to be seen on screen this summer, the film is powered by a strong soundtrack, a few choice performances, and rather clever, intense horror sequences here and there. Other than that, Deep Blue Sea feels like the 1998 film I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, in which four teens are deserted on an island, to be stalked by a fisherman in a slicker, only this film features sharks.
LL Cool J shines in Deep Blue Sea, as his character is one we care about, with his funny one liners, and his lovable little parrot. Cool J puts feeling into his three dimensional character, as he did in his last film, 1998's Halloween: H20. LL Cool J, whose real name is James Smith, started out in the rap music business, has turned to acting, and this transition was smart, as a very talented actor he is. Aside from Cool J's Dudley, there are no other likable characters, all having one dimensional personalities, but performed well by those actors who portray them. Saffron Burrows, who gave the only performance worth watching in last spring's Wing Commander, does what she can with her character, but the screenplay has her talking smart rather than showing human emotion.
Deep Blue Sea's screenplay features no clever dialogue, lacks originality, as it steals ideas from 1975's Jaws, Alien (1979), and Anaconda (1997), and spends no time developing characters. The screenplay features the focus characters running from water and sharks for almost the entire running time, but doesn't spend one second of the time making you care for the characters, excluding LL Cool J's Dudley. On the positive side of the screenplay, who is going to get eaten by the vicious sharks is as unpredictable as the 1996 horror hit Scream. Once the main characters start getting torn to shreds, you know that anyone could be next. Instead of doing what movies should do, Deep Blue Sea relies on the special effects and intense chase sequences to pull the viewer in, which it occasionally does. The special effects have nothing to do with the intenseness of the film, as the computer generated sharks are unbelievably fake. They swim around as if they were anacondas, and when are shown close up, they look like a rubber model of a shark. With today's wonderful technology, you think they would be able to at least succeed with the main focus of the film- the sharks.
The Bottom Line- A fun, yet frustrating summer film. Such strong potential. Sigh.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews