'The Shallows' Review

Last year we saw Matt Damon's Mark Watney forced to survive alone on Mars in The Martian and earlier this year we saw Leonardo DiCaprio win an Oscar for his role in The Revenant after Dicaprio's Hugh Glass was forced to survive being left for dead once brutally injured in a bear attack, now watch in awe as Blake Lively's Nancy must survive on a rock in the midst of an ocean following a shark attack.

All of the aforementioned characters coincidently had the skills necessary to survive, Mark Watney was a botanist, Hugh Glass was a tracker, and Nancy is a Baylor medical school student, a nice parallel that came to mind while watching the film I thought would be worth drawing attention to in my review. The main differences between their situations obviously being the locale, Watney was alone on Mars, Glass was forced to brave the bitter cold unforgiving wilderness, while Nancy has the pleasure of a seagull's company on a Mexican beach.

The Shallows is the latest shark thriller attempting to follow in Jaws shadow, and up to this point, no film has come near the grandeur of Jaws, not even its sequels. With that being said, The Shallows is probably the closest any shark thriller has gotten to those heights post-Jaws because let's face it, Sharknado is ridiculous.

The Shallows however, does feel like an actual situation that could conceivably take place finding Nancy on vacation in Mexico hoping to find peace in the wake of her mother's death. Nancy journeys to the seemingly serene paradise on the good faith in her mother's description of the beaches and of course troubles arise when she decides to surf. The rest is pretty self-explanatory.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra manages to impressively play with audience expectations and build suspense by teasing the initial appearance of the shark. I also liked the clever ways Collet-Serra and the creative team incorporated the watch interface and phone display into the film with some pop-up displays to show the audience what Nancy is looking at as she Skypes or when she's using her stopwatch that was very refreshing visually and something I haven't seen too often.

His vision was portrayed exceptionally well with some awe-inspiring shots of the gorgeous clear ocean water, utilizing ultra wide shots, birds eye view, fish eye view, and even the traditional Jaws shark-eye view to make the film a masterpiece in regards to it's cinematography by Flavio Martinez Fabiano. On the subject of sharks, the shark in the film is created through CGI and looked and felt VERY real to me, so kudos to the visual effects artists as they crafted a marvelous shark.

In traditional Jaws fashion, the score composed by Marco Beltrami contains some bass vamps with dissonant chords to tease the arrival of the shark and convey a proper sense of danger and it did it's job well as I felt the uneasiness and tensity of Nancy's situation. Anthony Jaswinski crafts the screenplay and expertly throws monkey wrenches into all of Nancy's plans as complications arose and I really admire the unique ways he wrote Nancy out of said danger having her use intellect, skill, and adrenaline to fight on. On that subject, Blake Lively is incredible in this film selling the authenticity of her peril while crafting a compelling heroine in her own right delivering some truly awesome cheesy dialogue.

Thankfully, Blake Lively proves to be much more than sweet eye candy here with a truly terrific display of her talent. She spends a vast majority of the film's runtime either alone or in the company of a seagull so I can't quite speak for the supporting actors since their roles are minimal. The best aspect of The Shallows is that it keeps the story small in scope and never ventures outside of the beaches domain but tells a thrilling self contained story about a shark attack that had me hooked.

In this summer of disappointing blockbusters, The Shallows is a very refreshing original shark thriller that may rely on clichés but goes through the motions so well that it feels different from all the rest and gets along swimmingly thanks to Blake Lively's performance and the exceptional work behind the camera. Whatever ocean themed theatrical release you choose to see, you'll have a finn-tastic time watching either Finding Dory or The Shallows this Shark Week.

Film Assessment: B+