Despite the cold open taking place during WWII, we are back to the modern day this week. That was a mistake.
The Last Breath is not the worst shark movie I’ve seen. It’s not even a bad one. It’s something worse: boring. And ridiculous. Not the fun kind of ridiculous either, but the kind that just makes you shake your head because sure, I guess we can use painkillers that expired in 1945 and spent the last 80 years underwater and act like that’s a totally rational thing to do.
That could be fun! It’s not! It’s just stupid. And it takes up so much of the runtime that the movie squanders what could be a cool premise. Diving with your friends through a newly discovered WWII shipwreck only to get trapped inside by a swarm of sharks is a promising set up. Especially if you lean into the idea of getting lost inside of the ship and not knowing how to get out.
Is the interior of a battleship too cramped for a large shark to swim through? Probably. Those doors are pretty small. But so what? That’s what suspension of disbelief is for. My brain needs to be engaged for that to happen, though, and the plot didn’t allow that. Not when we have underwater surgery and characters who start bleeding literally 90 seconds after they solve the previous blood source.
It’s just lazy, and it doesn't have to be when there are one or two genuinely good ideas in there. Characters naturally running low on air at different points and becoming increasingly limited in what their options are is naturally very tense. It’s a natural way to cause conflict that doesn’t have to rely on people being over-the-top assholes or idiots.
The Last Breath only really dabbles with this, and they’re the best parts of the movie.
The cast is likable with one major exception. Unfortunately, he’s so obnoxious that he brings down the group average by a significant amount. Brett is such an entitled, pushy jerk that I have no idea why anyone is friends with him. I get that people change and that they’ve been friends for years, but he is so annoying that I could barely stand to spend ninety minutes with him. I have no idea how someone would survive a full day.
Everything that happens is his fault, which means that he was not just selfish but dangerous. Seriously, I have never been scuba diving but I can’t even fathom what compels someone to deliberately drag your supposed friends into a dangerous situation just because you want to prove that you can.
No one is given the chance to be anything more than a thin archetype, but I liked spending time with everyone outside of Brett. Logan in particular had hints of character growth that ultimately went nowhere, but still made me root for him. The performances were also solid all around.
The shark species isn’t specified, but they mostly look like great whites. Sometimes. The head shape was way too rounded whenever they were in the ship, but the coloration was largely correct. Wikipedia calls them great whites, so I’ll trust that. They were CGI either way, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
The CGI itself was decent. It wasn’t distracting by any means. The injuries looked very good, though, especially the extended look that we get at one of the characters’ legs. Unfortunately, the attack sequences themselves left something to be desired.
I don’t expect realistic shark behavior in this kind of movie. I’ve made my peace with that, and it generally doesn’t annoy me. But the idea that the sharks only knew that the divers were there if they could physically see or otherwise hear them moving is ridiculous. I don’t care if you’re hiding and absolutely silent. If you’re actively bleeding a sizable amount, they will find you. Not to mention their electroreception.
The movie treated them like poorly coded guards in the annoying, forced stealth section of a video game, and it genuinely made me roll my eyes. Luckily, my planned movie for next week is supposed to be better in this area.
Random Thoughts
This movie is not to be confused with the 2025 movie Last Breath, which is about a diver who gets trapped 100 meters below the surface with very little air, or the 2019 documentary that is also called Last Breath and that the 2025 version is based on.
I can’t tell if Levi’s insistence on calling Brett “Ben” was because he knew that it would annoy him, or because he genuinely couldn’t remember his name.
Drinking while diving is genuinely dangerous. The pressure makes your organs absorb alcohol significantly faster than if you were on the surface.
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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally watches far too many shark movies.
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