Sous la Seine

(Yes, I did spend a while trying to come up with a pun that I hadn't seen before).

As this film was gathering some traction on Twitter across the weekend, I decided that I should give it a go. Having assumed it would be an equivalent to the sort of film "The Asylum" make, I was surprised and interested to see that it was initially not that - though in all honesty it gets there by the end.

Having lost her crew, and husband, to Shark attack, on an expedition to the Pacific garbage patch, Sophia (Berenice Bejo) returns to Paris and works in an aquarium. Three years later she's contacted by an Environmentalist Mika (Lea Leviant) who explains that she's hacked shark tracking technology and that one has made it up the Seine, as far as Paris city centre. With Sophia refusing to help them, Mika and her associate Ben (Nagisa Morimoto) undertake the dive instead, with Mika being arrested. Mika, and later Sophia, try to convince River Patrol of the unlikely interloper, but with the Paris Triathlon imminent, the mayor (Anne Marivin) refuses to consider cancelling.

At the start the film is actually reasonably sensible. The shark is played as a looming threat, foreboding in the background or whipping through frame too quick to get a good look at. There's a clear environmental message, where climate change and sea pollution has changed the shark's natural habitats. Berenice Bejo, who was in "The Artist" is a decent lead and does have some chemistry with impossibly heroic Soldier turned River Police action man Adil, played by Nassim Lyes.

I guess the trouble with the film is that, towards the end it does drift into that 'Asylum' "Sharknado" territory with much more explicit use of the, now painfully cheap-looking, CGI Shark. I write my reviews without spoilers usually, and I'll continue to do so here, but I just don't understand how the ending happens. I liked how spectacular it was but where does the water come from?

You never know with Neflix just how well a film has actually done, but there's a chance from that ending that sequels, or sister films might be forthcoming. I'd hope they'd find a more consistent tone, either way, serious, or campy, to be satisfying. This is neither.

Will this movie win any awards? No It was a full of your standard shark movie cliches and the middle drags a little, but I have to admit I was surprised in the last quarter of the film, and even though I was cheering for the shark (there was just too many stupid people waiting to be eaten) I did end up enjoying the film. I love shark movies though, so if you aren't generally into shark movies then this probably won't float your boat.

A lot of action at the beginning and end, lots of blood, heavy dose of environmental message which is very topical. Would I watch it again. Yeah I would. And I'd watch a sequel if that happens too.

The actors are ok, the script is pretty much as bad as any shark movie, but it lacks explanation about why the shark goes to Paris, why has it tripled in size, why it can self reproduce etc... a bit of logic never hurts.

The main focus is actually the Olympic Games in Paris put in the limelight by the lack of preparation from Paris City Hall. Anne Marivin does a good job playing a completely incompetent, dishonest, ruthless, politically driven mayor of Paris that everyone will recognize easily. The only differences are that she's pretty and she can speak French. Shame she doesn't get gulped by the shark.

Ok movie, worth a watch just to break the rhythm of the Netflix TV series.

As mentioned above, I actually found this film to be quite entertaining. This film is full of typical shark film clichés; stupid characters, ignorant person in power and strange looking CGI. It had some intriguing elements that stacked this film above the rest of shark films, like The Shallows or The Meg. This film feels a little bit more than a simple rehashing of a survival story. The two main characters have to battle a large, complex shark against the backdrop of Paris. No spoilers, but I would definitely recommend that you watch the entire film until the end for the ultimate conclusion. The characters here are forgettable and, once again, most of them fall easily into the stereotypical roles that people in shark films have to in order for the body count to be higher.

Overall, this film was much better than I anticipated it to be, with the middle dragging out until the tension finally starts to ramp up.

You know how there's a whole set of films that's based on stupid people making stupid decisions?

Person 1: DON'T DO IT!

Person 2: *proceeds to do it anyway and gets killed* Audience: SHE TOLD YOU NOT TO DO IT! How dumb are you!?

Those types movies. However, if they're done well, you don't mind the stupidity in it and play along.

I kept reading "If you liked Jaws, you'll enjoy Under Paris." "One of the best Shark films since Jaws" - High praise. So, I had to watch it, despite low scores.

The dumb people in this film don't listen, do dumb things, and get killed. But it's been filmed well; it's intense, the sound design and cinematography keep you engaged. Shark graphics - decent enough. It's got enough going on to keep you engaged, the plot is not boring at all. The ending may have you scratching your head though.

Here's a perspective that I don't think anybody is considering - I don't know the first thing about Shark Biology or marine evolution, but I looked at the 'Sharks' as a metaphor for 'Climate Change' and the plot AND the ending suddenly made so much more sense. That made me feel like the movie was actually better than people are making it out to be.

Either that, or I'm just trying to convince myself that I didn't waste 2 hours watching stupid people make stupid decisions.