Image courtesy of moviemania.io
It’s that time again, everyone: Another month, another Anniversary post… and coincidentally, right in the middle of Shark Week. That’s right, folks: This one is for a shark movie (no, not that one; that’s next year, although it is referenced here at least once, and the influence it had on this one is there to some extent). It’s a very intense thriller, and my personal favorite shark movie that isn’t Jaws. It’s very scary at points, but it does what would be done to equally great effect in the recently-released Crawl: Build up the scares, and have creatures that are scary enough already to encounter in real life just pop out when you least expect it in ways that actually work. That movie, ladies and gentlemen, is Deep Blue Sea.
The story follows a group of researchers conducting an experiment using sharks in the hopes of reactivating human brain cells, and ultimately, finding a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease. However, things go haywire when several genetically engineered sharks break free and flood the facility.
What Worked: The acting is overall very good. There were three standouts for me. The first one is Thomas Jane (The Punisher, and I even liked him in The Predator*), who plays Carter Blake, the team’s shark wrangler. Not only is he an awesome character, but it’s also pretty smart for them to have someone that can restrain the sharks when necessary. The decisions they make are more smart than stupid, but I’ll delve deeper into that in a moment.
The one cast member who’s probably the biggest name out of all of them was actually the second standout for me, and that is Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Russell Franklin, the executive sent to the facility after an incident in the beginning of the movie. When you have someone like him, you’re bound to get some great quotes and moments. You definitely get at least one of the two here.
The biggest standout for me is of course the best character in the movie: Sherman “Preacher” Dudley, the team’s cook, portrayed by LL Cool J. One could say he’s the comic relief, and to an extent, he is. He gets some of the best lines because his delivery is so hilarious.
Since I’m giving my thoughts on the performances, this leads to my point on the characters. I briefly mentioned how having a shark wrangler is a smart decision. A lot of the decisions made here are actually smart. Two examples come from Preacher; one is when he’s backed into a corner (so to speak), and the other is a “last resort” type thing, which is another great moment in this movie.
Even though the majority of her decisions are stupid rather than smart, Saffron Burrows’s character Dr. Susan McAlester does make at least one smart one. It’s in a scene where she has her own “backed into a corner” scenario, and it involves the best shot of a shark’s fin in the movie, and one of the better shark shots.
Whenever you see the sharks in more contained areas, like in that scene, or in close-up, they look really good. They used both animatronic sharks (as was famously done with Jaws) and computer-generated sharks for this movie, so the more close-up shots of the sharks look like they were animatronic. The effects there hold up very well 20 years later.
Trevor Rabin’s score is really good, particularly the theme; you get cues of it throughout the movie following the opening, and it’s so unsettling.
The score accompanies a great use of tension, which results in some very effective scares, including the one death scene that this movie is known for; even though I won’t spoil it, you probably already know what it is. Through his direction, Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger) manages to pull that off quite well. Aside from Cliffhanger, this might be his best movie. As a result, the movie is not only intense, but also very fast-paced.
There are some fantastic shots, a couple of which are aerial shots, so it has some excellent cinematography on display as well. What surprised me is that this was shot by Stephen F. Windon, who would go on to shoot most of the Fast and the Furious films, starting with Tokyo Drift**.
Then there’s the thing that stands out other than “that scene”: The soundtrack, which includes not one, but two songs from LL Cool J, one of which I find to be among the greatest songs for a movie to come out of the 90s… “Deepest Bluest (My Hat Is Like A Shark’s Fin)”.
What Didn’t Work: Even though there aren’t as many stupid decisions as one might expect, they need to be addressed regardless. There are two examples that really stand out. The first one involves Dr. Jim Whitlock, played by Stellan Skarsgård (Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean), who does still give a good performance despite being only in the movie for a few minutes. You’ll know when you see it. The other, more prominent example involves Susan, which is basically the reason why everything went wrong; in fact, it involved both her and Jim. It’s made very evident that everything is more or less her fault when Carter and Russell display some of the most rational thinking out of everyone by trying to talk some sense into her. At that point, it really shows that Susan has very noble intentions, but has been very misguided in going through with them. Aside from those two particular examples, these types of decisions are present, but don’t stand out nearly as much because they only happen occasionally.
While the moments with the animatronic sharks look really good, the effects are very noticeable for the most part whenever the sharks are out in the open. Even by 1999 standards, the CGI here hasn’t really aged well; plus, we had some phenomenal visual effects at the time, including one particular movie I reviewed earlier this year.
The somewhat dated appearance of the CGI doesn’t just apply to the sharks, because some of the deaths also have it. There’s even some fire and explosion effects that don’t really hold up, either. Now, granted, the CGI here is not laughably bad like the effects in the last 20 minutes of Species (which I need to review), but they’re still noticeable when you see them.
Overall: Deep Blue Sea is a shark movie that may not be as impactful as Jaws, but it doesn’t try to be, although I do appreciate the ways they honor it. It’s only trying to stand out as its own thing, and it really succeeds at that. It keeps you constantly on edge, and when the sharks come out, they really catch you off guard. Some of the deaths are pretty brutal to watch as a result, and while the scares are jump scares, they’re actually done right. The performances are really good, and despite most of their decisions being questionable at best, you still at one point or another feel invested in seeing as many of the characters survive as possible.
Even with the few flaws I have, I still love this movie. Plus, there’s something about them that makes them part of the fun. For example, you know they’re not all going to make the best choices, but sometimes, it helps move the story along, and you get to see how they play out either way.
Deep Blue Sea may not try to surpass Jaws as the better shark movie, but it does have one edge over it: You get to see more than one shark tear people apart in this movie. That, and you get an iconic 90s song in the credits.
*That reminds me… I have a lot of catching up to do, which will likely include quite a few movies that I’m in the minority on, and that is one of them (and once I’ve reviewed that, I might just be introducing a new editorial that I’ve had in mind for some time now, and let’s just say I’ve known the perfect way to start).
**I’ll be reviewing those very soon.