Underwater

As a fan of William Eubank's 2014 film "The Signal" I was pretty excited for this. The Signal offered a lot of thrills and suspense and a twist ending that leaves you gobsmacked.

Underwater did not quite live up to the same shock value. Less build-up or development to make much of it float anywhere above mediocre. The setting, scenery, and cinematography and music however is stunning.

This is the love child of Alien, Cloverfield, A Quiet Place, The Abyss, Soma, DeepStar Six, HP Lovecraft Etc. But doesn't carry as much weight.

I'm really shocked the critics slammed this film, and at its low IMDb rating. My blood pressure and anxiety levels were red-zone from start 00:01 to 95:00 ending.

Sure this film was The Abyss meets Aliens with a bit of The Poseidon Adventure, a lot of Pacific Rim and a dash of The Meg, but that's what made it fun! Don't people realize that 99.99% of original film ideas have already been done?

Now add the fact that the two writers and directer are basically newb filmmakers, and were able to put this huge production together... mad respect and props! 🙌

Acting was great with the proper amount of comic relief from the one character, and Stewart nailed her role. Cinematography was excellent, S/VFX outstanding, score on point, pacing amazing, and the 95 min runtime was perfect. I actually wanted more!

Man, people need to chill and research the filmmakers of films, and to see this was a newb production, and give props were due. They have to start somewhere. There's been a ton of garbage out there coming from seasoned filmmakers, so this was refreshingly exciting and entertaining - start to finish.

It's a well deserved 8/10 from me, and if anyone is questioning this review as being fake, click my username to see my 1000+ ratings and 800+ reviews, and read my bio on how to properly rate a film. Then go see this one!

Film patina, look, story and feel was just like Alien in many regards. Including an escape the creatures in bathing suit sequence that must have been a Sigourney Weaver underwear homage. Deep space traded for deep water. But somehow deep water movies are more terrifying than space movies because the obligatory flood scenes add to the terror. Enjoyed it all the same.

Agreed, no character development but they did get straight into the action, from start to finish.

There was some minor, trivial things that irritated me, for sure, but undeserved of the poopy ratings.

I was entertained, which is the purpose for watching any movie. Armchair critics can go for a swim in the Mariana Trench. This movie was good.

Kristen Stewart is working in an underwater facility when it all goes horribly wrong.

Oh no all the escape pods are taken so the survivors will have to don diving suits, catch a lift to the bottom of the ocean and walk home.

It should be fine as long as the waters aren't filled with some nasty monsters released by the drilling.

Whoops!

The action is immediate and hard hitting and thrilling.

This has all the elements you can imagine, people getting stuck under things, oxygen running out, rooms filling with water, sea creatures mauling people etc.

The effects are great, the monsters interesting and it is all done quite well.

"Quite well" is the problem.

This film looks like it is going to be amazing and it is hard not to get excited about it.

So when it takes a paddle around lake-mediocrity it feels really, really bad.

The characters are stark and relatable but you get no build up so you are always playing catch up with them and the relationships between them were a little unclear.

Kristen Stewart's character has a sub plot that should be really meaningful but just feels tacked on as it is relayed through the mediums of chitchat and locker junk.

You get no feel of where the survivors are going so a lot of the plot relies on aptly placed road signs and a patronising version of Alexa, who is zero help to the crew, until it needs to explain how the film is going to end - which it does in patronising detail even drawing us a little picture.

This is a pretty good disaster/monster flick but it feels like a lot of potential has been wasted - which makes me think less of this film than I should.

The production and performances are all good.

Kristen Stewart is very good, but maybe she is stereotyped in my eyes as it took me twenty minutes to shake the feeling that she was on her way to a Halloween party dressed as "the real slim shady" when this all kicked off.

A good enough movie but with a tiny bit more work and a little more nerve this would have easily been an absolute classic people were talking about for the next fifty years.