Deep Blue Sea (Wide Screen) > Reviews > Jaws of the 21st century....

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Outstanding
Soundtrack	Good

Advantages:	Some great special effects, good acting, not too similar to Jaws
Disadvantages:	Not quite as scary as Jaws

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Having seen this on the TV the other night I felt it was my moral obligation to share my views on the film with you all. I know. How generous am I?!

With a title like “Deep Blue Sea” what’s the first thing you think about (apart from deep blue sea by the way…) I bet some form of creature popped up in your thoughts didn’t it? And I bet it had teeth didn’t it? Well, if you were one of the many who thought up creatures with teeth you’re already much the way to knowing the general gist of this movie. If I mentioned Sharks I’m sure you’d all say “so its like Jaws then?” wouldn’t you? It’s a natural reaction really seen as Jaws has been around so long now and virtually everyone has seen at least the first Jaws movie. Actually, I’ve yet to meet anyone who hasn’t seen the first Jaws movie so if you fit into this category please let me know!

Yes, this film is similar to Jaws but it isn’t identical. There is one major difference between Jaws and Deep Blue Sea (which will now be referred to as DBS from now on to avoid RSI!). You see DBS doesn’t just rely on mere Great White’s to provide the scares. Oh no, it goes one better (or worse, depending on whether you’re watching the film or whether you’re actually in the water with one). You see DBS involves a group of scientists working on an underwater marine research facility, they have genetically modified these sharks’ brains in order for them to gain vital Alzheimer's research. There’s just one tiny little glitch in this plan. You see with a bigger brain you get a higher intelligence. This leads on to a rather simple formula, brainy sharks = death trap.

I’m sure you don’t need me to go on any further as anyone, even those of you who’ve not seen Jaws yet, would be able to put 2 and 2 together and come out with 5, would you not?

So, you all know the basic gist. What was the film actually like though?

Well, as you may expect, just as with other predominantly underwater films, you can expect to feel pretty claustrophobic watching this film (well, that is assuming you suffer from claustrophobia of course!) In comparison to other underwater films I could mention (e.g. The Abyss), DBS isn’t too dark and dingy looking. The majority of the scenes are relatively colourful and light (well, as light as you’d expect once a power failure is experienced under the sea…)

On other notes, the acting is pretty good in this movie, which stars Samuel L Jackson, Thomas Jane and Saffron Burrows, amongst others. You can expect plenty of screams and plenty of crying in this movie but then what would you do with a gigantic, super intelligent shark chasing you?
Shockability (yes, I did just make that word up!), I wouldn’t say this movie is quite as scary as Jaws. Although the graphics are far superior to Jaws, DBS just didn’t, to me, seem to have as many shocks and gory moments. You see one arm bitten off and a few general bites leading to plenty of blood. Other than that you tend to see a few bodies being shaken around and then eaten. You also see a floater (another one of my made up terms, which in this sense is used to describe a body yet to be consumed!) Although this sounds more gory than Jaws, it just didn’t look quite so realistic as it did in Jaws. I’m not sure why, it just didn’t do it so much for me as Jaws. Having said that though, don’t expect this film to be suitable for lil’ ‘uns or people with a sensitive disposition!

*Spoiler proceeds to stop reading until you see the ~”~ if you don’t want to know*

One interesting thing I noticed about this film is that in this film the main star (Dr. Susan McAlester) is actually killed. Now correct me if I’m wrong but that’s a bit unusual isn’t it? Normally the two main stars survive (who incidentally usually are a male and a female who fall hopelessly in love as the credits are scrolling up the screen at the end).

~”~

Ok, you can resume your read now!

Some minor qualms which have been picked up by the nitpickers website:

http://www.nitpickers.com/movies/titles/137761.html

· In this film the sharks not only are super intelligent they can also reverse. How talented are they?! You see no shark can swim backwards. Its just impossible.

· The perimeter fence seems to change in more than one way throughout the film. Firstly, at the beginning of the film, one shark escapes. The only way this is viewed possible is that it jumped over the 8 foot fence (that figure is stated in the movie by the way). It is said that there is no way the fence could break because the material it was made out of was designed to give and stretch on impact so it would never ‘give’ and hence never actually break. By the end of the film though the fence had shrunk to what seemed to be about 4 feet high. Where the other 4 or so feet had gone I really don’t know! And lastly, when it shows the perimeter fence again at the end its showing the shark trying to escape. This shark mustn’t be as brainy as its predecessor at the beginning of the movie though because it doesn’t think of jumping over the fence. It tries breaking through by bashing into it. Just at the climax you’ll notice the fence starts to give and a hole appears. If, at the beginning of the film this was impossible, how come it isn’t at the end of the film?

*Another spoiler follows so only continue reading after you see the >”< ok?*

One interesting thing I noticed on the nitpickers website is that the sharks in this movie die in the same way as those in Jaws do.

The first is killed by fire, the second by electricution and the third by an explosion.

>”<

Ok, you back with me now?

So, to conclude, this film certainly gets a recommendation as it really is worth watching. It isn’t too similar to Jaws (only in subtle ways as mentioned above in the second spoiler). If you enjoyed Jaws then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this film too.