Jaws wasn’t the first shark horror film, but it was the first one to do it right and be great. Ever since then, we haven’t had a shark movie be nearly successful or the same quality. We have sharks being pulled into Land by tornadoes, ghost sharks, shark octopus hybrid, and that has only come out in the last 10 years. Imagine how many of these movies came out since the 1970. There are so many of these, the Cinemassacre did a list of the top 50 worst shark films list last year… And we have more Shark movies coming out this year or came out this year. That is why I am reviewing a 9 year old movie, Deep Blue Sea. A movie about scientist experimenting on Great White Sharks to find a cure for Alzheimer's Disease in an underwater laboratory and things go wrong. A bad idea? Duh...
With the sequel being released to DVD this year (seriously? 9 years later?) It gave me an idea to look back at the original and find out what went wrong and why it is a horror movie that is unintentionally hilarious being a film that got a major theatrical release and a 60 million dollar budget.
Warning: The movie is rated R for blood and language
Pros: The film has a surprisingly good cast of actors that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Stellan Skarsgard, LL Cool J, and Thomas Jane. Marvel fans will recognize at least two of these names. With what they were given they do a pretty good job creating the characters. You know who they are and are quickly able to recognize each stereotype. This is suppose to be my positive section, isn’t it? The practical effects are also pretty good for a 1999 release. When they use the puppet sharks, they look and feel like real sharks. Even when they use practical effects for blood, it looks like blood and is effective at creating tension. It makes use of camera angles and does it’s best to try to scare you.
Cons: The premise alone proves how much of a bad decision these scientist make in this movie. A lot of the atmosphere actually feels familiar. They tried to cross Alien and Jaws into one movie and the result is neither scary or thrilling. While the actors do their best, the script is not good. It is full of either forced exposition, one liners, and awkward dialogue. The actual death scenes are actually really funny. There is not enough tension to build up to the deaths and when they happen, it switches to CGI that has aged even worse that films that came even 5-10 years before this movie. Not only that but they are shot and done in such a rookie way, it feels like a B-Movie whenever a character dies. There are so many leaps in logic it is actually not surprising that the people others make fun of in this movie are the ones that survive and a character you think makes it, doesn’t. It is always either a surprise death (which isn’t scary) or deaths caused by bad decisions (which is comical). Since every character is a stereotype, it is hard to really care about them. We have the scientists, the engineer, the shark specialist on probation (no one explains his criminal record), the millionaire, and the cook. Those are the major characters. The soundtrack is as generic as you can get. Instead of being unique, it just borrows ideas from Alien, Jaws, and even a little bit of Terminator’s soundtracks.
Final Verdict: Despite how stupid this movie is and how often I found myself laughing at this movie, I kind of recommend it. Instead of Jaws meets Alien, we got Jaws 3 meets Jason X… and it is hysterical. No matter how much the actors tried and how much of a budget went into this, it could not save the concept or the aged CGI. It is the kind of bad movie that has even logic to be smart to its audience and not offend them, but not smart enough to be considered good or original. If you are a shark fan and favor something smarter than Sharknado, but not as smart as Jaws, check this out. Also, one spoiler: The Black Guy survives! How crazy is that?
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