The best Shark film not directed by Steven Spielberg, came out 25 years ago and was directed by Renny Harlan. “Deep Blue Sea” is a disaster film with sharks or maybe it's a Shark film with a disaster, either way it is hugely entertaining and accomplishes exactly what it's supposed to, entertaining us while giving us jump scares, characters that we can enjoy, and an opportunity to see sharks rip people apart.
No one is going to mistake it for great art, but it is easily great entertainment. Those of you not familiar, the story involves a laboratory set in the ocean in order to analyze the brains of sharks that are being manipulated in order to produce enzymes that would be useful in reversing brain damage or dementia. Of course genetic manipulation is supposed to be prohibited in this world, but you know there wouldn't be much of a story if the scientists didn't act like most scientists do. They are Headstrong and full of themselves so they don't need to listen to what anybody else thinks.
This movie has so many moving parts that you could easily do a podcast on it just one chapter at a time and fill up a Year's worth of material. I wonder if anyone has thought of doing that? Sometimes the confluence of our film interests and others' maniacal love of a particular film will cross paths. I invite you to visit Deep Blue Sea: The Podcast, but before you do that ,you can pay attention to a few of the comments but I have to make here.
“Deep Blue Sea” came out in a Time when CGI technology was just beginning to give filmmakers the ability to visualize things on screen that had not been seen before. For the most part the technology was up to Snuff for this film. There will however be occasions when maybe the technology is a little obvious on the screen and that can be disconcerting for a moment. The filmmakers in this case however also had life-size models that they could use in the laboratory scenes and there's some animation of those models that helps pull off some of the technical mumbo jumbo that goes on in the setup. Once the story really starts we get mostly CGI sharks.
Thomas Jane is the action star at the center of the film, as a Shark wrangler. Yeah you might ask what a shark Wrangler does, but you probably won't get a better explanation from anyone else than the film gives us. He basically makes sure that the sharks in the film get put into the laboratory lift when it's time for their examinations. Apparently it's also his job to go out and hunt down the sharks should they happen to get out of their pens. Which is of course the start of the film, where Jane's character Carter shows up just in time to rescue young couples on a catamaran in the middle of the ocean. Later in the film we also discovered that he is supremely confident about being able to move through the water when the sharks are free, at least until he discovers that they have started hunting in packs. Then his confidence seems to be shaken, don't be surprised however when it is restored in the final scenes of the movie.
The film takes the “Earthquake” disaster film and “The Towering Inferno" and puts them together on the ocean and then throws in some sharks. The Aquatic station suffers from a massive hurricane that disables a number of its systems. Once there is an injury on the station which requires a Medevac helicopter to pick up the injured party, we also are going to get a crash that is going to light things on fire and do even more damage. So inevitably the survivors who are trapped on one level have to figure out a way to get to another level while avoiding sharks and being fried. Along the way you know that some of them are not going to make it, and of course that's what you were hoping for all along.
Sharks with Genetically Enhanced brains just sounds dangerous, without even having to see what they are capable of doing. When we do learn that they can swim backwards, that they hunt in packs now, and that they can read the plans and Technical layout of a water-based research Institution, and have figured out how to herd human beings through the debris so that they can take advantage of what the humans can do, suddenly it seems like developing opposing thumbs isn't really all that important to evolution.
The sharks in this film are not simply eating, they are malevolent and intentional in the attacks they make on the humans in the story. At least the writers didn't try to give the sharks dialogue in the story, that might be a bridge too far. What's not a bridge too far however are the quips, problems, and personal disputes that make up the rest of the film. If you've never seen “Deep Blue Sea", I don't want to spoil it for you, but there is a very famous jump scare that occurs just at the point that it should. It also looks plenty frightening.
The Jurassic Park movies laid the groundwork for large animals ripping people apart on screen and leaving the pieces to be dealt with by others. The sharks treat at least two victims as if they are wishbones at the Thanksgiving dinner. And even when it is a solo shark that's chomping down on one of our forlorn Heroes, that shark makes an effort to insure that the body ends up not just chewed up but divided. There is a lot of CGI viscera in this movie, and we can all be thankful for that.
As with most horror films, some of the human beings have to make stupid choices in order for the events to take place. It's not just the stupid people that suffer, smart guys, confident women, and street smart chefs are all subject to being eaten or at least gnawed on a little bit. Oh, and don't get too attached to the parrot.
I've seen this film at least a dozen, and I've been a guest on the “Deep Blue Sea” podcast, but going out to see the movie the other night may be the most memorable experience, because we had to brave sub freezing weather to get to the theater. Maybe the rest of the world is used to doing that, but this transplant from Southern California does not like when the temperature is in single digits. This was one of those times we're ordering the popcorn not just to satisfy a desire to eat something but also a desire to have something warm in my hands while watching the movie. Still, it was worth it.
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