Jaws was one of the most popular shark movies ever made and no movies after that have quite captured the feel of that movie. A lot of directors try to add their spin to it but it never quite worked like Jaws, not even the sequels to Jaws. The Shallows was a movie that I feel “almost” captures it.
The movie has a simple premise in that a medical student, Nancy Adams (Blake Lively), who is suffering from the loss of her mother is attacked by a great white shark while surfing and left stranded on a small land of rock. Left injured and stranded 200 yards from shore, Nancy must fight for her life as the deadly predator circles her in its feeding ground.
The thing to note is that this movie is a one-woman show. Blake Lively shines as the main lead Nancy and she has to considering the movie is mostly 80 minutes of her fighting a CGI shark. She gives such a powerful and believable performance that shows the struggle her character is going through. Every scream, cries and gasp for the air of Nancy feels very real and this was only successful due to the amazing performance of Blake Lively. There is some supporting cast but they are either shark bait or really just there to give exposition or some backstory to Nancy. One standout supporting cast has got to be the seagull that Nancy befriends named Steven Seagull. A lot of disaster movies has a dog that the audience doesn’t want to die and in this case, it’s Steven Seagull.
I also really enjoy the movie when Nancy was stuck on that rock. It was incredibly tense and very suspenseful. Every time the character has to step off the rock it is honestly some of the most nail gripping and high tension-building moments ever. These moments are slow burners and not high octane intense moments where she is getting attack every couple of minutes but it feels way more entertaining that way. However, during the third act, the movie does become a high octane shark attack movie that becomes borderline ridiculous and kind of silly albeit slightly entertaining.
I also really appreciate the one location this movie is set in which is visually stunning and beautiful but made for the film as hell for our character and the audience.
While I do like the movie when she is finally on the rock, the build-up from before is such a drag especially considering this movie is only 87 minutes long. The beginning also tries to set up some sort of plot point with Nancy not being sure if she wants to be a doctor anymore due to her mother’s death. She asks a lot other supporting characters concerning this but then it is dropped when the shark attack happens and is never referred to again. It just feels like pointless padding and it didn’t make me more invested in her character in any way.
There are also some weird choices such as the music/score and editing. The beginning and last part of the movie has some really strange music choice with pop songs that honestly made me question if I was watching a 90’s music video or something. It ruins the serious nature and creates a conflict of tone within the movie. The score during the shark attacks becomes more of what I expected but not exactly memorable either. There is also a lot of slow-mo in the movie that just feels really out of place and unnecessary. It feels like parts of this movie is a modern take and some feel like it is in the 90s.
The CGI shark is generally all right and feels real for the most part. However, during the third act, it becomes notably worse and some non-CGI Sharks are also quite bad to look at and kind of took me out of the film sometimes. There is literally a slow-mo scene where a CGI object is flying towards the screen and it was laughably bad.
Overall, despite this movie never really reaching the level of Jaws, it does feel like a relatively competent and entertaining movie. It has a lot of good in it that on first viewing you will definitely come out having a thoroughly enjoyable time with it.
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