The Shallows (2016)

[baumer]

Discuss

[filmlover]

As one could guess from its "Scantily-Clad Hot Chick vs. Really Angry Shark" premise, The Shallows is extremely preposterous, but it ultimately works as an ocean-based thriller that's beautifully-photographed and maintains a strong amount of tension throughout its short 80 minute running time. What keeps the movie from drowning in its own silliness is a strong performance from Blake Lively, giving easily her best work since The Town. B

[somebody85]

Definitely one of the better movies of the year.

Instead of doing a full review of it - I'll just list what I really liked and the flaws I had with it instead:

• So much slow motion - like especially before the shark shows up. It was almost like Snyder was directing it at times. This could have been a commercial for a perfume.
• The way the Shark dies. Damn it man, they really could have come up with something better here because this was kind of dumb in what was a pretty smart movie up until that point. I had the same issues with The Conjuring 2 when it came time to take out the villain. I get they were going for a creature movie vibe here at times but it worked better as a survival thriller and I would have liked to see the shark die in a way that was more realistic. I think this was designed to be a big crowd pleasing moment but I couldn't help but think Sharknado or Deep Blue Sea while watching the shark impale itself. I love Deep Blue Sea as 90s camp but this wasn't that.
• The final close out scene in Galveston. Again I got what they were going for (never stop fighting, don't let fear win) but the movie should have went to credits on the beach. They should have zoomed back to Nancy's smiling face after she saw her mother and then cut it right there. It would have been the same as Ryan coming onshore in Gravity. The song choice to close out also felt really out of tone with the rest of the movie.
• The face time conversation Nancy had with her father before the shark attacks. A few of those on the nose lines could have been cut out and we still would have understood her reasons for being at that beach. It was too much expositional dialogue and felt forced.
• A few scenes treated the audience like they needed everything spelled out for them. Example: Drunk Mexican guy shows up at the beach. We don't get one shot of his tequila bottle but three. I think it would have been more effective to just show him getting up and see it laying off in the background. This is just a nitpick though.
• How did Nancy survive that long without water? I live in FL. In that hot sun, she would have been a goner not from the shark but due to dehydration. I tried turning my brain off concerning this but I couldn't. I understand that this killer shark obviously doesn't act like great whites do (so of course this movie isn't trying to be 100% realistic) but I still would have liked the writers to show her getting weaker as her struggle went on. Her voice didn't even become hoarse from that intense dehydration. Because of this, the movie kind of differentiates in tone from creature feature and survival thriller (it's better as the latter) throughout.
• How did Nancy light the water on fire around the shark before it capsized her on the buoy? Was it oil from the retarded flare? I saw the oil in the water but don't understand how it got there (I've never shot a flare gun before though).
• When Nancy learns the sharks circling patterns it happens way too fast. She see's it do this once and then jumps in the water to get to the other rock. I think the movie should have slown down here and had a longer scene of her observing this pattern before immediately just going for it. Again this is just another nitpick.
• The song choice during the surfing scene felt like it belonged in another movie. I love dance music but wish they would have avoided mainstream music in this movie altogether.

Now for what I liked:

• Blake Lively killed it as Nancy. She was more likeable in just the ride to the beach then any character was the entirety of Independence Day: Resurgence
• The cinematography was breathtaking, especially the underwater shots which reminded me a lot of Blue Crush.
• Steven Seagull was like Nancys Wilson and was awesome....though a small part of me was kind of hoping to see the shark jump up and eat him on the board as he was floating away lol.
• Jesus when she gets hurt, I winced because it truly looked painful. They got away with a lot with a PG-13 rating. Everyone of those scenes was very gripping and you felt the full danger of her environment. And I loved how she cut her face on the broken stairwell. There can't be any Mary Sue complaints here lol!
• This was really tense at times (I still jumped when the shark kills the first surfer and I had already seen it in the trailer)
• Speaking of the trailers, I was thankful they didn't give the whole thing away.
• I really liked how Nancy had a background as a medical student and the beach was a secret surf spot (like Rocket Power: The Survival Movie). Yeah both choices were very convenient plotwise as was the necklace she was wearing but what movie isn't? At least it didn't take me out of the story and made the situation more believable. 
• The shark mostly looked great up close. Only a few times was the CGI shoddy.
• The glowing jellyfish set piece was awesome and so was most of the final buoy scene (I just didn't like how it ended).
• It was really cool how they incorporated modern technology like Face time into this like Unfriended.
• That shark was an asshole.
• That drunk Mexican was really an asshole.

Overall I thought it was really damn good. Unlike a lot of movies recently, this one should stay with me for more then a few days. Much like Gravity, I was completely gripped the entire time. 

The positives far outweigh the negatives and this is easily one of the better films of the year so far. No it's not Jaws and it's not as realistic as Open Water but I hope it does really well BO wise.

I do kind of wish they had shot it less glossy to add to the realism but the camcorder 1080 footage wouldn't have worked otherwise. The timer also looked tacky in a few scenes but I got what they were going for.

So yeah, highly recommended if you like survival or shark movies. I'm glad I saw this with an audience who were not laughing inappropriately which I was worried about. It was literally a midnight showing for me which was really cool.

B+
8.4/10

Edited June 25, 2016 by somebody85

[baumer]

How is it preposterous?  I thought they did a terrific job and keeping it plausible.  It's intense and it benefits from a terrific performance from Lively and very tight direction.  One of the best of the year for me.

 

9/10

[The Panda]

I think it was overall a solid film.

 

My main complaint is that it's set up as a survival thriller, and they're wanting to make it believable.  However the way the shark behaved, the logistics of how the action actually went down, etc. was all just silly.  If it weren't for the fact that the visual tone of the movie was done so wonderfully and gut-wrenchingly, I would have been laughing out loud.

 

Blake Lively gave a solid central performance, and I thought the concept behind her survival was clever, I just thought how everything played out on screen was incredibly far-fetched for the mood the movie was going for.

 

Anyways, I did enjoy the movie.  It's a great tension builder, and it builds a solid character arc for Blake Lively.  It's beautiful to watch, and the non-storyboard elements are executed brilliantly.  You're kept on the edge of your seat the whole way through.  It kind of felt like a third rate Gravity in the Ocean (and a third rate Gravity is still a good movie).  It's still one of the better Popcorn flicks of the summer, and a very fun time if you're looking for something to see.

 

B-

[RobinHood26]

C+ (79)

[La Binoche]

This was my most anticipated movie of the Summer. Sadly it didn't quite deliver for me. Spoilers below. 

 

It has a lot going for it: a believable performance by Blake Lively, gorgeous cinematography, a lean running time, good tension courtesy of the underrated Jaume Colett-Serra. 

 

But it is undone by a script full of corn and cliches, the type you see in American movies that try to deliver character arcs and relatable beats. This is the kind movie where the protagonists's backstory is quickly established in the opening scenes via lame FaceTime convos with her family (Blake's mom died of cancer despite being a fighter, so Blake has given up on fighting and even dropped out of med school). We know all this is set up early on so that the movie pays it off at the end. And sure enough, when all hope seems lost and Blake is drained of her energy and will to survive, she hears her mom's voice, snaps to, goes "oh hell nah," fights off the sharks and outsmarts it ("fuck you!!!" she exclaims as she tricks it to its death in a laughable final struggle). To add even more cheese, an epilogue shows Blake a year later with her family, and they refer to her as Dr. Adams! Ah, she learned and grew from this harrowing experience. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stand a little taller.... 

 

Maybe it's because I've been exploring Claude Chabrol and Isabelle Huppert's filmographies lately but I wish American movies would be more trusting of the audience and more respectful of their intelligence.

 

This is a diverting movie if you have 90 minutes to kill, but I suggest Open Water instead. C+

[baumer]

The Shallows is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and is the story of a young girl (college, to be exact) named Nancy, played by Blake Lively, who visits Mexico in order to go to a hidden beach that her mother used to go to. She's a surfer, so she goes for a surf, along with two Spanish men that were in the area. However, when the men leave earlier than expected, a gigantic great white shark attacks her, wounding her leg, and leaving her stranded on a small rock just 200 yards away from shore with no help in sight.

After the disappointment that was Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), I wasn't too excited to go back to the theater, but I'm sure glad that I did. I was expected a decent, B rate shark flick with The Shallows, but I got so much more. Almost everything about The Shallows works on tremendous levels, and I was very impressed by the film as a whole. All of the acting was good (even though one of the two characters with the most screen time being a seagull), the direction was amazing, and the special effects were fantastic.

Blake Lively does excellent in her role, playing a strong female character (which isn't a common phrase in most films nowadays) with a will to survive. Her conflict with both the shark, and to get the mindset of survival down, was near perfectly displayed through both the script and Lively's acting talent. The viewer really wants this character to win, and roots for her continuously, breathing a sigh of relief each and every time she gets to a temporary safe zone. Her acting was terrific, and I look forward to seeing her in future films.

The special effects done on the shark are astounding, Each and every shot that the shark is in looks amazing, showcasing the film's great effects. Since the shot was in one of the trailers, this isn't a spoiler, but the shot in which the shark jumps into the air, grabbing a man in his jaws (no pun intended), and curving back down into the ocean looked absolutely incredible. Many other moments like the one mentioned are in The Shallows, which, alone, make this movie worth seeing.

The direction, by Jaume Collet-Serra, is amazing, especially in the underwater shots. This man brought such a high level of suspense to this film with his directing capabilities. Almost every shot is present simply to prepare you for the next, and the next, and so on, until the suspense drops the floor from under you, and lets off the steam that it needed to. The jump scares can get a bit predictable at times, but aren't overused to the point of exhaustion like most "scary" movies tend to do with them.

My only issue with the film was how she kills the shark, but that's a small complaint.

Before my overall conclusion, I must give props to Steven "Sully" Seagull, the seagull who played the seagull. All joking aside, he did very good for a bird.

Overall, The Shallows was a very pleasant surprise, and I'm glad that I watched it. I'd recommend it to anyone who doesn't have small children with them, because it can get pretty intense at some points in the film.

 

9/10

[Dementeleus]

C+ for me. I thought the back story was laughably bad -- not necessarily the concept, but how it was spoon fed to the audience. The thrills and chills didn't really have great build-up, for me, and they felt increasingly arbitrary -- putting aside how ludicrous the whole thing got -- I'm willing to give a free pass on that sort of stuff for awhile, at least. But damn, it sure got silly, didn't it?

 

It was shot nicely, Lively was solid, and I liked the random 5-minute surfing music video. 

[baumer]

We have our new Siskel (likes nothing ) and Ebert (softened up but still liked little) on this site..... @La Binoche adn @Free State of Tele

[La Binoche]

4 hours ago, Free State of Tele said:

C+ for me. I thought the back story was laughably bad -- not necessarily the concept, but how it was spoon fed to the audience. The thrills and chills didn't really have great build-up, for me, and they felt increasingly arbitrary -- putting aside how ludicrous the whole thing got -- I'm willing to give a free pass on that sort of stuff for awhile, at least. But damn, it sure got silly, didn't it?

 

It was shot nicely, Lively was solid, and I liked the random 5-minute surfing music video. 

 

Thank you. That's exactly how I felt. I checked out of the movie as soon as she scrolled through her phone and right away, there was cancer-mom! 

 

Edited July 2, 2016 by La Binoche

[Kvikk Lunsj]

Overall I liked it. I thought the movie was intense and Blake Lively did a good job my problems came in the last 10-15 minutes the just came to over the top for me.

3/5

[Blankments]

The Shallows is alright but incredibly uneven. Blake Lively's performance as Nancy is the only consistent part, constantly elevating the material with a really well-rounded performance. Collet-Serra's aesthetic choices are ugly for the most part, with nauseating shakey cam even when on land and unappealing representations of modern aspects of life such as FaceTime and texting. The only thing clever he does with the latter is the representation of Nancy's watch to give the viewer a literal ticking time bomb.

 

All this negativity aside, he does know how to construct a good scare, even if most are telegraphed plainly. The few times he subverts the scare are some of the film's best moments, but that's all they are - moments. When Nancy tries her best to escape and/or fight back are really well done too, but unfortunately, the film is cluttered with unnecessary over-sexualizing shots within these sequences. The film also features possibly the worse final scene I've seen in the theaters in the past few years.

 

The Shallows has quite a few moments that really work, but just as many that completely fail, which is a true shame. It's clear the film could've been something truly special, rather than just an low-budget anomaly among the more blockbuster-style popcorn fodder this summer. C-

[Goffe]

It's tense, gorgeous, and well acted. I jumped out of my seat a couple times and looked away during the stitches parts because I just couldn't handle. Awesome experience.

 

I fully agree with people who had problems with Nancy's arc, though. 75/100

Edited September 6, 2016 by Goffe