REVIEW: Deep Blue Sea 2

It was 1999, and things were going to get crazy.  December 31st was going to be the last day of modern society, as computers (which we can accept as being able to complete complex math equations) were feared to be unable to change the date on their calendars.  Planes were going to fall out of the sky and humankind was going to break down into feral gangs on motorcycles fighting over the remaining fuel.  And canned food.  We were going to be fighting over lentils.  To the chagrin of preppers everywhere the end wasn't nigh, and everything carried on as normal.  We weren't in danger.  Or were we?

Earlier in the year, on July 28th, Deep Blue Sea came into theatres, bringing sharks.  They weren't just killer sharks, but they were intelligent sharks.  With it came one of the best on screen deaths ever, and one that I am happy to have seen in theatre.  It wasn't the biggest hit, but it fared well in the box office.  It is the kind of movie that lives comfortably in the memories of fans of Hollywood camp and fun.  I mean, goodness... it finished with a song where LL Cool J claimed that his head was like a shark's fin.  Surprisingly it took nineteen years for someone to usher in a sequel.

Deep Blue Sea 2 starts off in a way that should be an indication to genre fans that this is going to be a silly ride.  It begins with, of course, poachers hunting for shark fins.  Poachers in creature features getting killed is quite common, and I love that director Darin Scott threw that one at us right away.  It doesn't take long for sharks to appear (using the exact same 'flying V' approach that Emilio Estevez taught to The Mighty Ducks,big shoutout to coach Bombay!) and ram into the boat.  Obviously the poachers are for some reason standing on the edge of the boat and, once again obviously, fall into the water only to surface thirty feet away from the boat.  Well, you can guess what happens next.

There are many ways in which this sequel throws back to the original.  Instead of professional shark wrangler Thomas Jane, we have the ruggedly good looking Rob Mayes doing essentially the same thing.  The difference?  Mayes has a phenomenal screen name, in playing Trent Slater.  Shark researcher Misty Calhoun (another great screen name), played by Danielle Savre enters the picture for reasons such as 'because.'  And there we have our obvious leads who will survive.

Like the first movie, the sharks in this movie are being used for research, which makes them hella smart.  It also has an underwater complex with many tunnels that only exist to give the actors something to wade through when it inevitably fills with water.  There is a rich person who is behind it all, and, like a good genre picture, he is also taking these mind enhancing drugs himself.  The problem is that the rich pharmaceutical exec, Carl Durant (Michael Beach) talks to Misty about how he is going to kill the sharks when he is done with the experiment.  Bad move, Durant.  The head shark, Bella (MacBook Pro), is eavesdropping on the conversation.  That's right.  Bad move, indeed.

Bella is knocked out by drugs to be inspected just before things go sideways.  If you have seen the original, the setting that this happens in will instantly bring up memories of shark violence, and there is a scene that plays specifically off of the first attack in Deep Blue Sea.  The other four sharks hatch a scheme where they cut loose the moorings of a boat and then push the boat, ramming it into a stack of fuel barrels that are precariously on the side of the dock for reasons such as 'because.'  Fire!  Electrical problems!  Hull breach!

Where this sequel tries to up itself from the original is that Bella was pregnant and gave birth to hundreds of tiny sharks that swarm like piranhas.  It's a different idea, but this becomes the most boring part of the film.  There is nothing exciting about seeing people running away from these lethal little critters that are represented by bubbles on the surface of the water.  People running away from a shark fin equals fun.  People running from approaching bubbles equals not fun.  Also, these baby sharks can only killt the people in one way, making all of their destruction rather routine.

That aside, this is a fun little movie that cannot be taken seriously.  There are some winks that those familiar with the first film will appreciate.  If you want to see a shark movie that is actually trying to be something that pumps adrenaline, do not watch this.  It is camp, but not as far in that direction as the crazy shark movies that were popular five to eight years ago.

Along side the drab nature of the little sharks there are also some pacing issues.  It's not major, but they are there.  Also, don't expect to see payoff to things that are set up.  Durant takes the magical intelligence formula, which causes him to see images of Cartesian planes and fractions.  At no point does that story point lead to anything at all.

Perhaps I have written more than needed on this film.  Looking at my review, it is more robust than I expected at the beginning.  It is a film that I would recommend to certain movie fans, but tell others to stay away from.  For me, it was an enjoyable ride.  There are this time five sharks over the original's three.  At least I think it was three.  That's one way it tries to be a bigger event.  Another way it attempts to up the ante is in outdoing Samuel L Jackson's death.  It is good, but, like the rest of the movie, it is entertainment that will never be as memorable as the first film.

Rating - 3 out of 4 stars

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the opening title sequence is very much like a James Bond film for some reason.  It has an original song playing while there are shots of a curvy lady swimming up and down.  I'm not completely sure why they did this, but heck, why not in a film like this?