Director: William Eubank
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Duration: 95 minutes
Underwater (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Monster movies have always been interesting, especially if it takes a while before you see the visage of the thing that is hunting you. We’ve seen these movies in all shapes and sizes, ranging from giant monsters tearing down cities, to small creatures slithering in your bathtub. Sometimes these movies tend to mimic something realistic, while at other times we find ourselves underwater fending off a new terror from the deep.
Right off the bat, we get to meet Norah (Kristen Stewart), who finds herself on an underwater station. Disaster strikes, as it seems that an earthquake has hit the station, crumbling parts of it. She has to hurry down the corridor to close off a separate part of the station, as otherwise, everything will implode. She has to close the door before some other workers reach her location, but in the end, it saved several other people. She encounters other survivors in the part that is currently still standing, as well as the captain, Lucien (Vincent Cassel). They find out that there are no available escape pods left, and thus the small group of survivors only has the option to walk across the bottom of the ocean towards another station. Little did they know that the deep sea’s pressure was not their only enemy.
The flow is pretty much what you’d expect from a semi-horror experience such as Underwater. The movie aims to keep you tense the whole time, thus it starts with a bad situation immediately, with a lot of action. From there on out, it’s a constant battle for survival, as the deep waters have more threats than the unknown creatures lurking in the dark. With the station pretty much destroyed, the group of survivors has limited supplies, thus their suits aren’t properly tested and they might cave in under the pressure at any moment. They’re isolated and have no way to reach the outside world.
Acting performances in this movie pretty much rely on a small group of cast members. The movie only has acting done by a total of nine people, and some of them don’t even get any screen time. The most important role is given to Kristen Stewart, who plays the tech-savvy Norah, who functions as the center of the group. We also see T.J. Miller providing a lighthearted touch to the grim whole, and the other supporting roles have also been handled with proper care for a movie such as this. Then again, outside of being serious and scared, these roles don’t have that much volume, as there is little to no story value to be found in a movie such as this.
The Blu-ray version of Underwater comes with a fair amount of extras on the disc, but they pretty much all boil down to making of sequences, audio commentaries, and a theatrical trailer. You’ll also get a separate scene where ‘little Paul’, Paul’s stuffed bunny is replaced with an actual tiny bunny. This is quite amusing and cute, even if it has no actual point other than to be entertaining and lighthearted.
Conclusion
Underwater is a fairly typical monster movie, albeit with a slightly more expensive cast. The movie starts off with little to no information about the people and why they are in the facility under the sea, and this continues for the rest of the movie. You’ll go from one tense situation to another, which is certainly amusing for thrill-seekers, but as far as actual content goes, there is little to none. You can see the end coming from a mile away, and you can also pretty much guess who is going to die and when. If you like these kinds of films, you’ll enjoy yourself, but it’s a one-trick-pony that has performed many times before.
Underwater (Blu-ray) - Movie Review,
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