I really wasn’t expecting a lot here. Any movie that has punctuation in its title is worthy of skepticism, especially if the punctuation is an exclamation mark.
But this was a surprisingly fun time.
First of all, it’s low key kind of gorgeous. I couldn’t find any information on where it was filmed, but it was awfully pretty. I may have spent more time admiring the setting than paying attention to the dialogue.
I also have to praise the fact that we got two inventive kills. Normally, the kills in shark movies are all the same. Someone gets yanked under the water, something gets taken out by a flying CGI blur, maybe you’ll get someone bleeding out on shore. Here, though, we have kills that are more shark-assisted than anything and they were both foreshadowed well.
If you tell me about a harpoon that has a self-return feature, then I want to see the self-return feature. If you have a character using strychnine, then I want to see that come back to bite him. I could have done without the shoddy and pointless CGI additions to it, but the kill itself was fun and clever and everything that I had wanted in that scene.
The acting is… I mean, it’s what you expect. It’s not good. It’s often meh and usually bad. Occasionally, you’ll get semi-decent-ish scenes. Occasionally. But there is at least a sense that everyone involved is genuinely trying to make a competent product and that they had fun while doing it.
The CGI is also what you expect: not good. At all. Which was fine, and even a little charming. It was only truly atrocious whenever it had to interact with actual people, like a close shot of the shark chomping down multiple times on someone’s torso, but that made up a minority of the shots.
Honestly, the only problem that I could not overlook was a very simple one. It was the very foundation that the entire plot was built upon. If there were no fish in the lake, but lots of fish on the other side of the dam... then why not have the fishing competition be able to go outside the dam?
Oh, I’m sure that there’s probably some legal reason, maybe something to do with ownership over the waters or whatever. But if you’re so desperate that you’re literally blowing a hole in the dam, then there has to be some other option.
...Okay, I might have a second problem. This one might be just from me not paying attention, but was the shark inside of the lake the entire time, with the implication being that it was the reason why the fish were disappearing? No, right? Otherwise someone would have definitely seen it in the last 20 years.
So it was just hanging out on the other side of the dam? Far from the ocean, although close enough that it gets a flow of salt water, with the fish thing being completely unrelated? And still no one saw it for 20 years?
I’m okay with it being the same shark. Like they said, great whites can live up to 70 years. But this whole premise is just so intrinsically flawed that it distracted me the entire time. If you’re able to ignore that and look past it, then you might have a better time than I did. The quality is exactly what you want for a dumb, fun shark movie.
Random Thoughts
I couldn’t figure out what Alan’s chest tattoo was. It was mildly distracting.
Always have to give points for a semi accurate shark attack wound. This time, we actually got to see teeth marks. Sure, it was just that with no other meaningful damage, but we got teeth! I’ll take it!
Why is there a dam if the water level between the lake and the river was completely even, to the point where blowing a shark-sized hole in the dam did absolutely nothing to disturb the water level?
The water that the boys were playing in looked way, way too shallow for a great white to sneak up and attack them in, so I did some research. Apparently, there are records of great white attacks happening in as shallow as 3-4 feet of water. The more you know.
I have seen the movie title both with and without the exclamation point. I'm keeping it because I feel like it better encapsulates what the movie truly is.
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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally watches far too many shark movies.
I hadn't noticed that punctuation rule, but you're right. :)
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