The Shallows (2016, United States of America, classified M (New Zealand, Australia), PG13 (Singapore), PG-13 (United States), 15 (United Kingdom))
Run time 86 minutes, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, starring Blake Lively
Overall rating: 17/25 (★★★ ⅖)
Sweet as or not? – Yeah, nah.
Verdict: Blake Lively meets Shark Week, bombarded with techno music that eventually gets on your nerves and flanked by a seemingly non-existent plot.
Watch or Skip? – Watch it later.
Review by J.M. Broad • June 19th, 2020 (June 20th, 2020 NZT)
Kia ora folks, and welcome to Sweet As?, the review site which reviews stuff with New Zealand panache from a uniquely NZ perspective, so you don’t have to. In this edition, which happens to be our inaugural review, we shall be reviewing the soon to be four year old shark film The Shallows, starring Blake Lively and definitely not for the faint-hearted (you’ll see why throughout the review).
Perfect timing for a film review, especially considering the fact that most of us worldwide are currently under a state of lockdown and staying at home, where we may be bored of the usual fare and have a void created by the closure of movie theatres, postponement and cancellation of the northern hemisphere summer blockbusters, for example.
Anyway, it is now time for the obligatory disclaimer. If you are of the faint-hearted kind or do not plan on watching this film, please do not continue to read this review. If you have seen this movie before, you can feel free to see what I thought of this film when reviewing it, however if you are not interested in doing so, I also suggest that you do not continue reading this review. If you are not a fan of Blake Lively and her films, I also suggest that you turn away now, due to the fact that this film features Blake Lively in the sole lead role.
If none of the above affect you, or if you want to watch this film at some point now or in the foreseeable future, or if you want to go through the same rite of passage as I did, watching a Blake Lively film for the first time, please feel free to continue reading from this point on as we dive into the depths of The Shallows (no pun intended) for a deep blue ocean odyssey.
First of all, let’s delve into this review by looking at the acting, as this is a fundamental part of any film and lays the foundations for how the director depicts the plot and tells the story to the audience, for example. The (sole) lead actress, excluding those portraying bit parts, is Blake Lively, who has been regularly gracing the silver screen with her presence in 2005, thus making this a one-woman show featuring Blake Lively and a seagull named presumably after fellow American actor Steven Seagal (no pun intended).
In the first seconds of the film, when a silver screen near us is graced by the presence of Blake Lively for the first time, we are immediately given a crash course of ‘stuff you never knew Blake Lively could do’, which may sound like it came from a clickbait article, but instead consists of some lines in the Spanish language which are reflected in the film’s dialogue, surfing montages and underwater shots that later transition to the odd medical procedure, swimming, more underwater shots, fighting a shark with number 8 wire ingenuity, being a sharpshooter and that.
Anyway, since this is a one-woman show, Blake Lively dominates most of the eighty-six or so minutes’ worth of screen time that is otherwise taken up by bit parts and beings not of the anthropomorphic kind, with the latter dominating a similar amount of screen time to that of Lively, for this is similar to nature docos aired by TVNZ or the multitude of television channels available over here, possibly closer to Discovery Channel’s Shark Week with some environmental crisis thrown into the mix in the form of an oil spill, due to the fact that a great white shark takes up the most screen time out of the non-anthropomorphic beings and is a fundamental part of the storyline, as one is in all shark movies out there.
She has what it takes to handle a one-woman show, injecting emotion and feelings of helplessness as well as hopelessness throughout, especially seeing as in the role, her character has witnessed countless shark attacks and subsequent deaths, a pickpocketing in which her character’s cell phone and some Mexican pesos (don’t ask how many New Zealand dollars that’s equivalent to) are pilfered, a whale carcass and hapless fellow surfers who have a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude that leads to their demise, to say a few.
However, the film does show Blake Lively clad in merely a diving suit and even in ‘you know what’ most of the time, so that may be a deterrent for certain persons who only want to gawk at Lively rather than see her acting prowess combined with marine life and the odd footage of fellow surfers helping her, to no avail. You’ve been warned, folks.
In terms of the soundtrack, the soundtrack bombards us with techno music, as if we were watching the film in a discotheque, which is tolerable to a certain extent but quickly gets on your nerves for me personally, being a Dunedin sound person; this experience may differ depending on your taste of music, although some parts do consist of orchestral music, namely during the more intense parts of the film and ambient sounds helping you sleep on sleepless nights, waves crashing and all, as if you were on the beach on a hot summer’s day, with the end credits featuring music akin to that from a sci-fi action thriller, which I doubt this film is, well, maybe not the thriller bit (it’s a survival horror film), with a droning bass line and that.
At least the folks in charge of sound for The Shallows did not reuse sound effects from other movies (at least to my knowledge) making the soundtrack an entirely original affair, something which I feel is rare nowadays in cinema.
Now, onto the visual effects, which is dealt with by a multitude of visual effects companies dotted around the world, mainly in Europe and just a stone’s throw away from New Zealand where our trans-Tasman neighbours are situated across the ditch, in Australia. These are quite believable, seeing as the great white shark resembles a realistic one similar to those seen in the great shark movies like Jaws and more recently The Meg, however having said that, it was surprising to eventually find out through further research that the great white shark featured throughout this film is computer-generated.
Of course, the landscape looks believable as it was filmed on location at a myriad of Australian shoreline locations within Queensland, New South Wales and the distant archipelago of Lord Howe Island, including on the Gold Coast, aided with additional funding for this high-budget blockbuster film from the Australian Government and somehow Canadian tax credits, making this film seem as if it was actually filmed on location on the Mexican shoreline, not in ‘pseudo-Mexico, two and a half thousand kilometres from New Zealand’, where the only difference is bit part actors who speak the Spanish language. Kudos to the producers for making it seem believable as.
However, at times, some visual effects, notably the digital watch face and antiquated font telling the viewer tide times, which might be essential towards the story, are borderline abysmal, especially since this is a three year old, nearly four year old film that aims to bring a contemporary take on the classic shark movies of yesteryear and I do not feel that this effect goes well with the rest of the film.
Next, we move onto the plot, which unfortunately is a let-down for the entire film as this seems to be non-existent, at least to myself, because I feel that this is merely shots of Blake Lively fighting a shark with number 8 wire ingenuity compiled with surfing montages and that, as I did not get the film’s plot at all, even though the director weaves in an intricately detailed backstory introducing Lively’s character as a recently bereaved surfer/wannabe District Health Board worker. Nevertheless, I still feel that Collet-Serra jumped into the action far too quickly for my liking.
Finally, we move onto the directing, another fundamental part of any film besides the acting, which is from director Jaume Collet-Serra, in only his seventh feature film as well as his sophomore foray into being a director and executive producer simultaneously. It’s satisfactory because he jumped into the action far too quickly for my liking, as I have previously mentioned within this review, however his style of directing showcases Blake Lively’s acting prowess flawlessly throughout the film, so I am certain that he is an experienced director who can definitely make characters seem believable and who wants the audience to feel sympathy for them, especially during the more intense parts of the film.
Last Word
Overall, The Shallows is a relatively satisfactory film, which can be described essentially as a ‘Blake Lively meets Shark Week’ flick bombarded with tolerable but borderline annoying techno music most of the time and flanked by a seemingly non-existent plot, with director Jaume Collet-Serra jumping into the action too quickly for my liking, but the acting prowess of Lively throughout makes the characters more believable.
I would recommend this film mainly for Blake Lively’s acting as this was the only part of the film which deserves full marks, a 5/5 rating from myself, as well as the fact that this film forms a rite of passage within my life, being the first Blake Lively film I have seen in my lifetime.
The Addendum
Ratings – Acting: 5/5, Soundtrack: 3/5, Visual Effects: 4/5, Plot: 1/5, Directing: 4/5
Overall rating: 17/25 (equates to 3.4 stars overall using Sweet As? star rating calculations criteria)
Sweet as or not? – Parts of this film are sweet as, for example Blake Lively’s acting. Other parts are tolerable but some, such as the seemingly non-existent plot, are not. Overall, this film would be a yeah, nah.
Watch or skip? – Watch it later, because this film can be considered a hidden gem by some and it would be a shame to miss out on viewing it altogether, seeing as it stars Almeria Walk of Fame inductee Blake Lively and that.
How can I watch this film?
The Shallows is available on various optical disc formats and some streaming services. A number of television networks also have the rights to this movie and air it periodically in an intermittent manner.
Sweet As? 