‘The Shallows’ Review

Blake Lively stars in the next shark thriller in The Shallows. The movie is full of suspense and keeps you on your toes until the end. Can this move rival ‘Jaws?’

(This review does contain an end movie spoiler)

The short answer is no.

‘The Shallows’ is a great start to dethrone the 70’s hit movie. The shark in the movie is almost too large to be real, looks about be about 20-30 feet from the camera angles I saw in the film. Although the size isn’t perfect, the depiction of a monster is. The enlarged shark adds drama to the movie and really shows how out of place humans really are in the deep blue.

Blake Lively plays a medical student on vacation and seeking to get closer to her mother though the Island she was on when her mother was pregnant with her. The movie has some interesting camera angles and lighting that leads to different effects on the shark and actress. Lively proves that you don’t have to have many lines to have a good performance in a movie. Her character had maybe 25-30 lines in the entire movie, but pulls off the lack of words with her dramatic acting.

If you don’t know any better, this movie would be a documentary on how a young girl killed a shark while stranded 300 yards off shore. The struggles she faces during her 24 hour stint in the ocean is not quite oscar worthy, but close to being very good. She pulls off the tough young woman  perfectly in this film.

The issue I have with this film is that since it’s a short movie, only 75 minutes long, I could have watched the whole move in 20 minutes if I had skipped ahead a few times. The film was very well paced, very well directed, and the shark was perfectly depicted as a sea monster. The very essence of the movie was built upon the the tension she has between her and the animal trying to kill her.

‘The Shallows’ is a brilliantly designed movie with very high points, and filler that didn’t need to exist. The main antagonist, the Shark, was brilliant and perfectly designed. Lively had a very compelling performance which lead the movie being much better than it would’ve been without her. I applaud the writing, and the direction, but the movie still had it’s flaws.

+Tense moments, and well designed Antagonist

-Felt like I could watch the entire movie in 20 minutes, and too much filler at some points

7.5/10