If you're like me, you're a bit of a sucker for a good (or even bad) shark film.
Starting out early myself with a strong affinity for Jaws and continuing on with one of my all-time favourite guilty pleasure films Deep Blue Sea, there's both a joy and a relatable horror that can be found with a fin-filled shark thriller/horror, so I was quietly excited, if not all-together confident that 47 Meters Down could be the fresh shark fix that I needed.
Sadly 47 Meters Down isn't the fishy treat it could've been, it's certainly better than the truly dreadful shark hit from 2016 The Shallows but Johannes Roberts film is neither thrilling enough or engaging enough to hold our interest over a relatively brisk 80 or so minutes and when a film of this ilk holds some unfortunately incompetent sharks, who seem unable to catch their prey unawares, this supposed white knuckle affair ends up being rather blunt.
It's a high concept idea, sisters Lisa and Kate (played by Mandy Moore and Claire Holt) getting talked into a previously unplanned shark cage expedition aboard Matthew Modine's boat owner Captain Taylor's dodgy looking sea vessel, only to find themselves trapped on the ocean floor with an abundance of hungry sharks hiding in the blackness of the deep waters after their cage is severed and lost from its bearings.
The problem with such an idea as this is we really need to get on board and begin caring about what happens to our protagonists as they fight relatives of Jaws and battle to escape the depths before their oxygen supply runs out but we never get that with Lisa and Kate and actresses Moore and Holt just don't get enough to do to make them work.
The other problem with Roberts film is that the frights and scares begin to dry up relatively quickly after the initial thrill of the idea kicks off. At the start we feel the fear Lisa and Kate feel as they begin to understand just what has happened to them, it's also an idea that feels like it could happen but as things ramp up, 47 Meters Down gets sillier and sillier and therefore not as relatable, making it nothing more than a watchable diversion, but likely much better than the recently announced and greenlit sequel 48 Meters Down.
Final Say -
If you're desperate for a shark fix you could do worse than 47 Meters Down (hello Sharknado or The Shallows) but after an initial bout of thrills and chills, Roberts film begins to rapidly slowdown that leads to a relatively uninteresting and uninspired feature.
2 long-winded hallucinations out of 5
Starting out early myself with a strong affinity for Jaws and continuing on with one of my all-time favourite guilty pleasure films Deep Blue Sea, there's both a joy and a relatable horror that can be found with a fin-filled shark thriller/horror, so I was quietly excited, if not all-together confident that 47 Meters Down could be the fresh shark fix that I needed.
Sadly 47 Meters Down isn't the fishy treat it could've been, it's certainly better than the truly dreadful shark hit from 2016 The Shallows but Johannes Roberts film is neither thrilling enough or engaging enough to hold our interest over a relatively brisk 80 or so minutes and when a film of this ilk holds some unfortunately incompetent sharks, who seem unable to catch their prey unawares, this supposed white knuckle affair ends up being rather blunt.
It's a high concept idea, sisters Lisa and Kate (played by Mandy Moore and Claire Holt) getting talked into a previously unplanned shark cage expedition aboard Matthew Modine's boat owner Captain Taylor's dodgy looking sea vessel, only to find themselves trapped on the ocean floor with an abundance of hungry sharks hiding in the blackness of the deep waters after their cage is severed and lost from its bearings.
The problem with such an idea as this is we really need to get on board and begin caring about what happens to our protagonists as they fight relatives of Jaws and battle to escape the depths before their oxygen supply runs out but we never get that with Lisa and Kate and actresses Moore and Holt just don't get enough to do to make them work.
The other problem with Roberts film is that the frights and scares begin to dry up relatively quickly after the initial thrill of the idea kicks off. At the start we feel the fear Lisa and Kate feel as they begin to understand just what has happened to them, it's also an idea that feels like it could happen but as things ramp up, 47 Meters Down gets sillier and sillier and therefore not as relatable, making it nothing more than a watchable diversion, but likely much better than the recently announced and greenlit sequel 48 Meters Down.
Final Say -
If you're desperate for a shark fix you could do worse than 47 Meters Down (hello Sharknado or The Shallows) but after an initial bout of thrills and chills, Roberts film begins to rapidly slowdown that leads to a relatively uninteresting and uninspired feature.
2 long-winded hallucinations out of 5