47 Meters Down is the latest thriller movie directed by Johannes Roberts who directed the extremely disappointing The Other Side of the Door. 47 Meters Down stars Claire Holt and Mandy Moore as sisters who decide to go shark watching when the wench holding their cage breaks and they are dropped 47 meters down and how to figure out how to survive at the bottom of the ocean, while they also have to stay safe from sharks. I was so utterly disappointed with how stupid this film was. It was a movie that has a great premise and if handled correctly could've been amazing. Unfortunately, it was uncomfortably bad and made a ton of pretty useless decisions.
Let's take a look at what was okay:
1. Some intense sequences- This movie was by no means was 100% unwatchable. In fact it had some pretty intense sequences that gave me goosebumps. The idea of being lost deep in the ocean with only a few hours to figure out how to survive is extremely intense, so this movie was bound to have some intense parts. For example, there is a scene in which Mandy Moore's character is forced to swim out over what appears to be a bottomless abyss in order to get a flashlight. After doing so, she finds herself lost and unsure of the direction she needs to swim to get back to the shark cage. This was a pretty fun scene, I liked the feeling of uncertainty and I enjoy it when sequences really put me on edge. This one did that for me! There were a few other moments in the film that I was really intrigued by and had a good time watching.
Unfortunately, a few good scenes doesn't make the movie any good.. Let's take a look at the things I hated.
1. No character depth- I didn't care about Claire Holt or Mandy Moore as a characters. Holt's character Kate was extremely one note and displeasing to watch.. while Mandy Moore's character Lisa was just annoying and hard to deal with. Without any emotional tie to the characters, I found my self being less engaged in the well being of the characters. This lead to a pretty bland movie.
2. Overused the "Monster"- So, the monster of this movie was the shark and Johannes Roberts did not want you to forget it. Any time you're making a thriller movie or horror movie, it's important not to over expose the threat. By overusing the shark in this movie, it had no tension when we saw it in the later scenes when tension was needed most. The best moments of this movie were when the girls had to figure out how to survive in the ocean. The greatest suspense came when they were swimming through the dark water and had low visibility. It's fun to have the feeling of suspense and tension, not knowing what is going to happen next. By not showing the shark it builds up the tension so when we do finally see it, it is a much more rewarding payoff. It was just a shame to see them show too much of the sharks and essentially deflate their own movie.
3. Dumb Characters- There were several times in this movie my entire theater would be agree that the decisions the girls were making, made no sense. There was a moment in the movie when the "smart" sister made the dumbest decision of them all and it lead to a legit face palm. There was nothing believable about this situation because both Lisa and Kate kept making dumb decisions. I eventually gave up on this movie, which is hard for me to do. However, 47 Meters Down just was a little bit too much for my taste.
4. Unfinished subplots- Johannes Roberts chose to introduce several subplots that he never finished with. He posed several threats to the characters and never went anywhere with it. After several were placed on screen, I didn't know what was a true threat and what was one they never would see again. This didn't create suspense or the sense of "thrill" it was just confusing. For example, when the girls sink all the way to the bottom and get attacked, the cage cracks. It does this really awful CGI close up of the cage cracking and the girls freak out due to the shark almost getting in the cage. This is never mentioned again in the movie. They just sit a the bottom and the cage is never attacked again. It felt lazy and confused with leaving some questions in the air and a waste of potentially awesome situations.
I was not a fan of 47 Meters Down. It was a movie that left an extremely bitter taste in my mouth. It just wasted an amazing premise. There was very little tension in the movie due to poor decisions made by Johannes Roberts. This movie felt watered down and deflated, with several promising plots abandoned. It is a classic example that strong and clever direction, coupled with great timing is extremely important. It just comes down to the wasted opportunity to create a thriller about the characters, and instead creates a movie about sharks.
I am going to give 47 Meters Down an F.
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