I must admit that sitting in the cinema with my malteasers on one side and Joey on the other I remained unconvinced about Shark Night 3D. I suspected that it would be crude and unnecessarily gory without much in the way of a plot. In fact during the opening scene I must admit I laughed at the predictability of the gorgeous girl whose bikini top comes undone during a vicious heart attack. However there was no flash of nudity like I had assumed and ended up appearing to be laughing at a poor defenceless girl being mauled to death by a shark. Oops.
So as the film continues my hopes are beginning to rise and we are introduced to the main characters (or victims) in short scenes framing them each as stereotypes. There is Malik (Sinqua Walls), as the jock who needs to get his grades up enlisting the help of Gordon (Joel David Moore) and Nick (Dustin Mullingan) the slightly geekier members of the group. Then there is good girl Sara (Sara Paxton) running away from a difficult past but who is [SPOILER] rather obviously the surviving “virgin” integral to this kind of movie. Her opposite is tattoo obsessed bad girl Beth (Katharine McPhee) and finally Malik’s loving and protective girlfriend Maya (Alyssa Diaz). Unfortunately though this is about as much character development to happen during the movie; Joey and I agreed that the quite short film (91mins) would have benefitted from giving us more time to bond with the characters therefore making the audience care more when they got ripped to shreds. However would I really have been able to sit through 30 minutes of typical college party scenes? No not really. But still some time to see the characters as more than stereotypes would have made the film better.
Soon the characters are speeding along to their beautiful Lake House in the Louisiana Gulf and the audience is taken with them in a wonderful series of fast-forwarded shots. The effect made gave a sense of escapism; it drew the audience into the movie and quite simply, looked pretty snazzy too! Definitely voted best scene by Joey and I! In fact in general the scenes were all rather artistic and it was obvious that a lot of thought had gone into the scenes and how best to incorporate the landscape. The idyllic shots of the Louisiana Gulf at dusk, a lilac sky framed by twisted trees that stand in the lake made the action all the more haunting as the perfect, calm water was disrupted by an ominous fin.
The worst scene however, had to be that of Malik walking into the water with a spear in his only hand and revenge burning in his eyes. I couldn’t help but laugh at his ridiculous attempt at avenging his loves death, especially when a few seconds later the spear is easily knocked out of his hand by the much more powerful shark (although to give him credit he survives- the shark doesn’t). What made this scene worse however was his friend Nick’s extremely lame attempts to prevent Malik from having his other arm ripped off if not killed! This guy is supposed to want to be a doctor yet I found his morals questionable. Later in the movie he will also set fire to the bad guy before locking him in the shark pool and watching him die! Ok so the bad guy deserved to die, but really, did he have to watch?!
Yet as expected he is the hero who saves Sara and I have to say I was disappointed that conventions were kept in this case. I would much rather have seen Malik walk away with his fiancé Maya, rewarded for surviving their terrible ideal by being able to spend their lives together, instead of being the first ones to die. So yeah the loyal, loving, boyfriend who is trying to aim for more in life gets his arm chewed off then bravely sacrifices himself for his friend whereas the slightly perverted, morally questionable albeit brave Nick gets the girl of his dreams… or at least a very brief, very soggy thank you kiss at the end.
Characters aside the other important aspect is of course the sharks’, as Joey puts it “I liked the shark scene”! The CGI looked pretty realistic - apart from perhaps the scenes in which they jumped out of the water, which although sharks do really do this, somehow it made the CGI more obvious and therefore slightly less effective. The use of real footage of sharks in the title sequence and credits however, was effective (and awesome) as it allowed you to believe that the sharks in the movie were real. It reminded the audience that sharks are not fairy tale monsters created for the purposes of a scary film but are in fact a real threat.
Between all the gruesome shark attacks wrapped up in a modest plot it suddenly all got very philosophical with quite relevant points about the immense popularity of Shark Week. The suggestion that we have an obsession with terrifying, deadly shark attacks is then combined with the issue of the availability of uncensored clips on the internet leading to the inevitable conclusion in the sick minds of the bad guys to record the shark attacks. As shocking as this idea is I did think that for the sake of the plot it was a good concept as it kicked the film up a notch and gave it a purpose and a message. Joey was also impressed with the March of the Penguins reference, adding some humour to an otherwise serious message. However this scene could also be seen as a quick throw in in order to add some depth to an otherwise simple film.
In the end this film surprised me and was not as bad as I expected it to be. I liked some parts and disliked others. If you enjoy shark attack films or Piranha then I recommend this film. The lack of real character development makes it the perfect film to watch with friends as it is funny, thrilling and easy to follow. As Joey put it “Satisfying to watch… but Over all short movie-90min-I rate 3.5 stars”.
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