47 Meters Down

Had a flick through the comments here and I saw a bunch of 1's from people complaining about coast guard tactics, ocean safety and even "shark behaviour". IT'S A MONSTER SURVIVAL MOVIE! Just calm down and watch it for what it is. Lame and uninteresting characters, a boat, ocean, sharks. Followed by cheap jump scares.

Sure, it's nothing new, but it holds its own.

But hey, what do I know, when I was young, my brother and I stood on a beach in Wales screaming at a dead crab for a good 5 minutes.

I had a great time with this one! It really succeeded where few monster movies manage to. It provided tension, scary moments and it did made me hold my breath!

Beside this year's The Shallows, we got In The Deep, which is a beautifully shot movie, good acting, nice reactions, pretty much the whole nine yards here. It was a great little movie, I'm just sad it didn't get the attention it should have. People need to know that this is not another low budget shark movie, but a damn good one!

Watch it and you will not regret. It provides a great, great atmosphere and surely enough, most of you will enjoy it.

Cheers!

OK, so this movie was quite nice! I saw it at a sneak preview, had no expectations and was surprised in a positive way. Its no Oscar-winner, the constant moaning of the girls kinda irritated me a few times but overall...scary, but not in an 'average shark movie' way, some nice twist and just fun!

So why this kinda dull review? Well, I read a lot of reviews on IMDb, never feel the urge to write one. But there is something with IMDb reviews which bothers the hell out of me. Allow me:

There is this guy here (he must be so much fun at parties), who wrote a review presenting 14 reasons or so, why the diving in this movie was impossible/not logical/not realistic or whatever. Therefore, the movie received one star. This bothers me. Why? Allow me again:

So, I do not dive, but I teach at University. Not really movie material, but let's say a movie is made about the life of a University teacher (why would you do that you ask? good question). Let's say in this movie, ALL details about the very complex and technical nature of ' University teacher' are impossible/not logical/not realistic. But, the movie is fun and entertaining. Why, oh why in Gods name, would I feel the urge to write a review to correct all these 'mistakes' related to something I happen to be an expert in?

In other words, why do so many reviewers here feel this urge to correct the impossible/not logical/not realistic with regard to something they happen to know a lot of? Just enjoy the movie (or not, if its s*cky), but over-analyzing it from your 'expert view'? To be honest, most of us don't really care about that and just want to enjoy the movie...

47 Meters Down is a highly claustrophobic shark movie starring Mandy Moore and Matthew Modine but it's flaws are quite unique.

Telling the story of two girls who go into a shark cage in Mexico to see the great whites but fall into peril when the chain snaps and they're plunged into darkness.

Let me say that visually the movie is incredible and is one of the most claustrophobic heart pounding films I've seen in years. You feel for these ladies, the movie gets across the panic, severity and time restrictions very well and it taps into something which makes me personally feel very uncomfortable.

But, and it's a big but the movie's logistics are dumbfoundingly stupid and defy logic. What I mean by that is that nobody involved bothered doing any research into oxygen at these depths, what is done here not only isn't possible but is to moronic science fiction levels. It quite frankly insults the intelligence of the viewer.

If you can get past that (And I couldn't) it's quite a memorable little film that looks great, has passable performances (I've always liked Moore) and is fairly unique.

If they'd done some research and applied it to the film then this would have been a lot better. However if they had then this would have had to be a different film altogether to be even remotely realistic.

The Good:

Looks incredible

Sets the tone perfectly

Mandy Moore

Unique stuff

The Bad:

Offensively unrealistic

Although it can have a handful of somewhat intense moments, 47 Meters Down sadly proves to be nothing but another generic shark movie, and to be frank, a rather pathetic attempt at that. I'll start with the films strengths, that being why most of the people will watch the film, for the suspense. I feel all the suspenseful moments in the film come from the situations under water, and not at all the danger of the sharks themselves. The sharks throughout the film are almost comically thrown in there, so much to the point, that I laughed whenever they came on screen. I enjoyed the claustrophobic nature it had been trapped in the cage under water, not knowing what to do or where to go, but our lead characters are too stupid to truly be concerned for, and the lead actresses hardly capable of carrying the film to the lengths it needs them too. The acting is quite bad, incredibly overdramatic, silly at times, and the dialogue is atrocious. Besides the sharks literally being a joke upon the screen, the worst part of the film is hands down the twist ending, which is not only frustrating, but absolutely ridiculous, and completely unnecessary. The film is unbelievable, dull at times, and simply too stupid to handle the fear of its somewhat interesting premise. In the end, 47 Meters Down is probably left better at the bottom of the ocean, than it was in major theaters across the globe. My Rating: 3.5/10