I was not able to watch the first "47 Meters Down" film when it was shown two years ago, but I knew the story was about two sisters who went on a cage dive in Mexico to see sharks up close, but disaster struck and the two were shark bait. This second film in the series had basically the same ingredients -- two sisters, bikinis, Mexico and sharks. However disaster struck and they became shark bait when they were doing another type of undersea adventure (hence the subtitle "Uncaged" since a cage was not in this new picture).
The unpopular Mia (Sophie Nelisse) and her popular half-sister Sasha (Corinne Foxx) were invited by Sasha's girlfriends Alexa (Brianne Tju) and Nicole (Sistine Stallone) to go diving inside the underground caves under their town in the Yucatan peninsula. It had been discovered by Mia's dad Grant (John Corbett) that there was an ancient Mayan city buried in those caves, the girls wanted to go explore the ruins. Unfortunately, some blind hungry man-eating sharks were waiting for them in there.
The strained relationship of the two half-sisters were established in the first few scenes without so much of an explanation about their family's history and dynamics. We know Mia was shy and mousy, while Sasha was cool and cold. Alexa was adventurous but a careful stickler for rules of procedure. On the other hand, Nicole was careless and reckless, an annoying troublemaker from the get-go.
Their risky expedition was going fine until Nicole's stupid antics would trigger a chain reaction which led to them being trapped with no where else to go but further down into the unknown. The girls would also encounter Mia's father and his two employees Ben and Carl, who were all working deeper inside the cave, along the way. The first deadly shark attack happened suddenly, jump-scare style. After that, the human characters would perish one by one to the sharks, leaving only those who were most worthy to survive.
The four girls in the lead cast were not too familiar. Nelisse had grown up since I last saw her play the child lead in "The Book Thief" (2013). Foxx and Stallone were notable only because of their last names derived from their famous fathers Jamie and Sylvester respectively. Tju was once a child actress on the Disney Channel. A couple of 1990s TV stars were cast to play the half sisters' parents. John Corbett had grown much grizzlier since his "Sex and the City" heyday. Nia Long, as their mother Jennifer, was also much heftier since her "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" days.
Ok, so the girls were all very flighty and shrieky throughout their ordeal in the green murky depths, but I thought this film was paced quite well by writer-director Johannes Roberts (who also wrote and directed the first movie). The blind sharks looked bigger, scarier, and were much hungrier since they had not had a good protein-rich meal for a very long time being trapped in that underground cave. The whole situation in the dark confined spaces underwater made things all eerie and claustrophobic, with the limited oxygen in their tanks adding more urgency. The twist ending sequence was very original and a lot of fun. Not serious like "Jaws" or "The Shallows," but good entertainment as shark films go. 6/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment