Deep Blue Sea Review Starring: Samuel L. Jackson,LL Cool J
So far this year, we haven't seen many fast paced or exciting films. Mummy fell flat, due to cardboard acting, Entrapment was a laughfest, and The Haunting failed to work at all. Deep Blue Sea itself has many faults, but it entertains, despite a deep hole in it's script.
In this film we are brought to a deep sea station where scientists (Saffron Burrows,Thomas Jane, Michael Rappaport) franticly work on a project that may cure Alzheimer's. The process is a bit complicated though, and that's where things go balistic. The scientists use the shark's brain tissue to see if there is a way to cure this disease, but there isn't enough time to get into this storyline. The sharks are suddenly smarter as they close in on the group of scientists. The film quickly becomes a race to get out of the facility, to avoid these smart sharks. This may sound like a nice thrill-ride, but it suffers mainly from being a rip-off.
Many of the key action scenes are exciting, but are worn out. Why you may ask? because it all seems too familiar. The deep sea station looks like something out of Waterworld, the hallways and some of the water sets look like a scene from Alien Resurrection, the sharks of course are much like Jaws, the race to get out is like a scene out of the Poseidon Adventure, and even with Samuel L. Jackson aboard, it reminds you of Jurassic Park in ways. Everything just feels like a recurring dream here, and that's not even half of the problems.
It's not surprising to me the acting was stale. In every blockbuster this year, this seems to be a forgotten element. They roam around and act like complete airheads until they encounter a creature (usually a digital effect). It's then they start running, and by then you could care less about them. Once again that's what happens here. Thankfully only Samuel L. Jackson's talent was wasted, since the rest of the cast haven't been noticed in any other film, except for LL Cool J. He too tries to step up, but is only here to provide comic relief. Cheap relief at that.
On the brighter side, this film actually was kind of fun, believe it or not. Even if the characters were bland, the sharks were there to entertain the audience while they wreak havoc aboard the station. Oddly enough the sharks aren't 50 feet tall like they are on the poster, in fact they're rather small. The only problem I had with the sharks were, that they were a bit too animated during a feast. Other than that, they were basically the only thing of interest in this film.
When it's all over, it's a bit shocking and disappointing. So far this year, most of the blockbusters have let audiences down, due to lack of characters and script. It's the closest thing teens will get to seeing Jaws on the big screen, minus the scares.
2 stars out of 4
Nick Lyons http://jump.to/moviepage
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