Harry here with an expert on sharks... he's had a close call or two himself... to give us the skinny inside on DEEP BLUE SEA. Thus far we haven't heard so much as a peep of hope about this film, and it seems that the overall feeling I'm hearing on this film is not good. It's strange, but I'm actually looking forward more to LAKE PLACID than this film. Well... we'll see, here's Matt Hooper... Beware of SPOILERS below!!!
Matt Hooper here and got some shore leave from the Aurora, y'know, that floating asylum for shark lovers. Anyways, while walking around town, I got a chance to check out Renny Harlin's DEEP BLUE SEA in Glendale. Now tho the MovieView guy said it was a work-in-progress print, other than some color timing and sound sweetening, it looked pretty much done to me, even the effects looked finaled, maybe not (especially since this has been farmed to a number of companies).
Ok ok, I'm rambling. In a nutshell, if it weren't a sucker for sharks, I wouldn't see this movie. Saffron Burrows gives an awful performance as the hard driven scientist looking for a cure for alzheimer's disease by tapping mako shark brain for fluid. Her character switches roles 5 times thru the film. Samuel Jackson is a wasted character, playing the business tycoon funding the research. He has a dark secret that is never fully explained and goes to waste in a monologue. Thomas Jane does a decent job as Carter the shark wrangler, Quint would have been proud, except they made him a wuss as he falls for Burrows. The only bright spots were Rapaport and LL Cool J and even their characters were borrowed from other films.
First off, the sharks. Now being someone into sharks, I really wanted to see if technology would give way to a sequel of my own. Ah, JAWS 5 - Hooper's revenge! And maybe there could be (take note Universal!). The animatronic sharks were excellent! Great specimens! Movement, texture, & look were all great. Now the CG sharks... well, back to the drawing board. They still move a bit stiff for something so naturally fluid, close but no cigar, especially when they're ripping a digital person apart. Next time, get ILM to work on this. Stick with animatronics - you hear me Universal (JAWS 5) & Disney (MEG).
The biggest disappointment was that it was such an unoriginal script. I was really looking forward to something new and fresh, but there was too much of the Abyss, Lost World, JAWS 4 (of all things) but I guess that was only to be expected. Another complaint is McAlister (Burrows) came off as a total bitch, she holds everyone by the balls basically, especially Carter and the tension shows. And then as she lets everyone know it's her fault, her character changes as well as the feelings of Carter towards her. Bullshit, this bitch just told you 'I own you' and now you're about to give her a liplock and forgive her in 40 mins as your see everyone die around you and it's BECAUSE OF HER? Give me a break. And then she feels compelled to sacrifice herself at the end to be a hero? Keep her in character please, bad enough her acting was awful to begin with.
Does this compare at all to the suspense in Jaws? NO! Granted the most shark attacks were pretty damn gruesome, they looked fake. Nothing will compare to JAWS. Did Renny Harlin deliver? Well, with a shoddy story, I feel he did the best he could. He got some great work out of LL Cool J and Michael Rapaport did a good job as the neurotic engineer. What does this mean for Warner Bros? It means going back to the drawing board. Take a lesson, you guys are going back to square one with Superman, you should think about that when you look at scripts like this. Welcome to Warner Bros. Duncan Henderson, hope it was worth coming over from FOX. As for Universal & Disney, take a close look at this when it comes out before thinking about greenlighting your shark projects.
Hooper out...
