Title: Deep Water
Describe This Movie Using One Deep Blue Sea Quote:
RUSSELL FRANKLIN: So we’re not going to fight anymore! We’re going to pull together and find a way to get out of here! First, we’re going to seal off this pool!
Brief Plot Synopsis: This time, you’re the in-flight meal.
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 2 chopper pilots from Jaws 2 out of 5.
Tagline: “Surviving the crash is just the beginning.”
Better Tagline: “Sink your teeth into air travel.”
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Who doesn’t love flying from Los Angeles to Shanghai? Almost everybody, including First Officer Ben (Aaron Eckhart), still processing how to deal with his wife and sick kid. Along for the ride are e-gamers Sam (Li Wenhan) and Lilly (Zhao Simei), surly Cora (Molly Belle Wright), her stepbrother Finn (Elijah Tamati), and their newlywed parents. Rounding that out are some drunk student wrestlers, friendly nerd Matt (Richard Crouchley), grandmother Becky (Kate Fitzpatrick), and Dan (Angus Sampson), AKA the worst person on earth. Boy, I sure hope nothing bad happens to that plane.
“Critical” Analysis: Renny Harlin knows what’s up.
I’ve talked in this very place and elsewhere about my love for Deep Blue Sea. Harlin’s 1999 horror movie not only kickstarted the ongoing deluge of shark movies, it was also one of his only successful movies since Die Hard 2. In the 27 years since, his biggest movies have been The Strangers – Chapters 1-3. And those returns have diminished with each outing.
It therefore makes a certain amount of sense that Harlin would return to the that fathomless cerulean ocean with Deep Water. He knows his way around sharks, and comes full circle from his John McClane movie by setting much of the action on a plane again.
Is Deep Water good? Lord, no. But inside the shaky characterizations and occasionally regrettable CGI effects is the (cartilaginous) skeleton of a decent action movie.
After a Crawl-esque start, in which Ben demonstrates his swimming prowess, we get to the airport. Oh wait, we also see Captain Rich (Ben Kingsley) show his karaoke chops the night before (singing won’t end up being as crucial to the plot). The pre-takeoff period gives us plenty of time to meet the rest of our potential victims. Gamers Sam and Lilly are clearly in-love-but-can’t-act-on-it-because-of-Rules, for example. And Dan harasses the flight attendants and sneak his faulty lithium battery into the luggage.
Cora is also told by her dad to watch out for stepbrother Finn. Initially, this is probably because dad and stepmom are so horny they sneak off to join the Mile High Club while their kids are literally one row away. Naturally, it also comes to play later in the movie, when the kids become sharkbait.
[Speaking of, Deep Water was originally intended as a sequel to 2012’s Bait 3D, but was scrapped in 2014 due to unpleasant similarities to the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.]
That setup takes a while. The plane crash doesn’t take place until 40-45 minutes in, and the first shark doesn’t show up for almost an hour. It’s ample time for us to divide the cast into the usual categories:
- People we’re rooting for (Ben, Cora, Sam, Lilly, Matt)
- People we like, but are probably doomed (Captain Rich, Becky, the flight attendants)
- Those we aren’t very fond of, but don’t necessarily “deserve” death (Cora and Finn’s parents, Hutch the belligerent wrestler)
- Please kill them already (Dan, maybe Finn)
Oh, and that plane crash? Pretty harrowing. Harlin doesn’t just deliver people getting sucked out of the plane, but also the collateral damage of drink carts and bodies flying around the cabin. It’s effective enough that I’m glad I didn’t watch this before my overseas flight last month.
Eventually, the sharks show up, and they’re real assholes. Combine that with Harlin’s willingness to schlock things up, and kills are often as hilarious as they are unlikely. Of more concern is the lack of compelling characters. Finn is a pain in the ass. The “will they or won’t they?” romance between Sam and Lilly feels superfluous. Matt’s more interested in making an impression on flight attendant Katie (Chrissy Jin) than, you know, survival. As for Dan … I’ll just say I haven’t seen an audience so eager for a character’s death since Burke in Aliens.
Harlin and his four screenwriters also don’t give us much to go on with Ben, who’s … taking on an unassigned flight to avoid his family? Ok. Deep Water is the latest chapter in a saga I like to call “What’s the Deal with Aaron Eckhart?” After earning accolades and nominations in movies like Erin Brockovich and Thank You for Smoking, he hit his career peak in 2008’s The Dark Knight. Since then, he was in the first two …Has Fallen movies and co-starred with Tom Hanks in Sully (also as a plane’s first officer), sure. But mostly we’re talking boilerplate action movies, including Muzzle — about a cop who avenges his murdered K-9 partner — and its sequel.
And yet he’s pretty good in this. A reluctant protagonist, Ben takes command as best he can, and has the closest thing anyone in the movie comes to an actual character arc. He recalls those disaster leads of yesteryear, so much you could easily see him co-piloting the Concorde alongside George Kennedy. Deep Water doesn’t surpass the cheesiness of an Airport movie, not that it should try.
Finally, I should point out that I am a sicko when it comes to shark flicks. There are some exceptions; I only ever made it through two Sharknados, for example. But in general, I’ll sit through examples ranging from good (The Shallows, The Reef) to mediocre (Bait, 47 Meters Down) to rotten chum (The Requin, Santa Jaws*).
Deep Water sits squarely in the middle of that spectrum. I can’t exactly recommend it, thanks to lackluster effects and how long it takes to get to the fireworks factory. But there are some gnarly kills and one solid Shelley Winters reference. I wouldn’t say Renny Harlin is “back,” but I’ll take more of these over another Strangers any day.
*Don’t ask.
Deep Water is in theaters today.
