The Dive

This should've been a short film without the unnecessary and mostly pointless back-story. That way there would've been constant tension and suspense without the deflating sappy back-story, that ultimately was repetitive and bland and really had nothing to do with the dramatics. I felt the gals were well cast and performed great, and the underwater cinematography was done well. The Fix-a-flat canister product placement was entertaining, but they missed some opportune moments for humor with the can and after destroying the Toyota. Nevertheless, an ok one-time watch if there's nothing better to see.

"The Dive" is a film with a simple story that feels like you've already seen it, but the script manages to interest you to a certain degree and the suspense is much better in the surface scenes than in the underwater ones. It is worth mentioning that the mix between drama and suspense provides a good touch, generating concern for both main characters. The performances of the protagonists are good, the sound design manages to be of quality and the cinematography is very good, achieving great aquatic shots. A decent film that, without being excellent, manages to tell a story that sometimes becomes suffocating.

I love these sort of trapped / survival movies, like Frozen and Open Water. But I found this movie to be flat. The setting didn't convey enough terror. The hallucination scenes were more annoying and confusing than interesting. I didn't quite get the backstory between the sisters.

Most of all, the main draw of these sort of movies involves creative thinking about what the characters could do. For instance, the viewer can have a lot of fun speculating about, "what if the protagonist does this or tries that to escape etc." Movies like Frozen and Open Water have that effect on viewer. This movie doesn't. More scenes should have focused on the characters' trying to get creative and find ways to stay alive.

The Dive is built on a simple premise which is for the most part executed effectively.

It follows two sisters who embark on a scuba diving adventure in a remote location only to have disaster strike, leading to a race against the clock to survive.

It's not an overly complicated film, with the tension coming purely from the scenario rather than any in depth character work or intricate plotting. The tension is well built, but the whole thing does feel a bit predictable.

The atmosphere of the film is good, with the setting creating a vast, eerie yet also claustrophobic feel to the whole thing.

I just think there isn't enough to this film to give it much more credit. Not enough character work and fairly basic plotting and direction make for an enjoyable but perhaps uninspiring film.

The trailer to this film looked fantastic, so I was excited to see it. Two sisters go diving in a remote location, only for one to become victim from a rock slide that has her leg pinned at 100 ft. Battling low oxygen and the isolation, the sisters must find a way to free the one pinned and escape.

It was an okay film. All the under water stuff was pretty impressive and perhaps I would have enjoyed the film better if I had seen it in the cinema. I just found it dragged a bit for me and had my attention wavering at times. I stuck it through to the end and I am glad that I watched it. Would I bother again? No. But I'd say give it a go.