47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019) Entertainment Studios/Horror RT: 89 minutes Rated PG-13 (sequences of intense peril, bloody images, brief strong language) Director: Johannes Roberts Screenplay: Johannes Roberts and Ernest Riera Music: tomandandy Cinematography: Mark Silk Release date: August 16, 2019 (US) Cast: Sophie Nelisse, Corinne Foxx, Brianne Tju, Sistine Stallone, Davi Santos, Khylin Rhambo, Brec Bassinger, John Corbett, Nia Long. Box Office: $22.3M (US)/$47.6M (World)
Rating: *
The effectiveness of a survival horror movie rests on whether or not you care about the characters and in order for that to happens, they would have to have personalities. The four teenage girls at the center of 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, a lame sequel to the 2017 shark flick starring Mandy Moore, are barely distinguishable from one another. There’s no character development beyond “the black one”, “the stepsister”, “the blonde one” and “the Asian one”. Even that becomes moot once the girls put on their scuba gear and jump into the water. It becomes impossible to tell them apart due to the murkiness that tends to come with underwater cinematography. This one is especially dark because the girls are trapped in a cave most of the time. I realize that looking for character development in a silly shark movie like 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is akin to seeking a honest man in Washington D.C. but we need a little something to go on if we’re expected to care about the fate of the characters.
I’ll tell you straight up that 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is yet another example of the Idiot Plot in action. This, as you know, means the plot depends on the characters acting like complete idiots at all times. These girls do so many dumb things; you may find yourself rooting for the sharks. In addition, the plot hinges on a lot of unlikely, unbelievable coincidences. I mean, what are the odds that somebody has left four sets of scuba gear lying around unattended? Remote place or not, if somebody finds the gear, it’s history. And what are the odds that one girl’s father happens to be working nearby; specifically, at the opposite end of the underwater city the girls are exploring when they get trapped? Only in the movies, right?
Remember what I said about character development and the lack thereof? There’s a smidgen of it in the opening scenes. It’s established that stepsisters Mia (Nelisse, The Book Thief) and Sasha (Foxx, Jamie’s little girl) don’t get along. Sasha doesn’t stick up for Mia against their school’s resident mean girl Catherine (Bassinger, TV’s School of Rock) who bullies her for no apparent reason. Their parents, Mia’s dad (Corbett, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and Sasha’s mom (Long, Big Momma’s House), want them to act like sisters. Believing some quality time together would bring them closer, Mia’s dad (an underwater explorer, btw) arranges for them to take a shark-sighting tour on a glass-bottomed boat. Neither girl is thrilled about it but they go.
Sasha’s friends, Nicole (Stallone, Sly’s daughter) and Alexa (Tju, Light as a Feather), turn up with another idea, a better one. Alexa takes them to a remote lagoon adjacent to the entrance of a sunken Mayan city. The idea is to don the scuba gear conveniently left behind by Mia’s father’s crew and explore the first entry point. It’s just supposed to be a quick once-around and right back to dry land, but of course it doesn’t go that way. One girl (who knows which) gets scared by a fish and ends up knocking over a column, trapping them in the cave. As if they didn’t have enough problems already, like dwindling oxygen supplies, it turns out they’re not alone. There’s a great white shark swimming around. This particular one is blind, a result of living in darkness for so long. In turn, his other senses are heightened which gives him a big advantage over the girls. Basically, they’re screwed.
It should be noted that most of the people you meet in 47 Meters Down: Uncaged may as well be wearing shirts that read “Shark Bait”. Other characters turn up from time to time and try to help the girls only to find themselves Mr. Shark’s next meal. It’s pretty much a given thing who will make it to the end which leads to my next point. The movie doesn’t come to life until the last five minutes when the surviving girl(s) try to outswim a school of great whites in chum-filled waters. This is the kind of thing audiences have come to see. Sadly, it’s too little, too late. It doesn’t even begin to justify the preceding 85 minutes.
It’s been an unusually strong year for late-summer releases. 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is the first truly heinous movie I’ve seen this August. Directed once again by Johannes Roberts, it’s dull in its utter predictability. Not only does it rip-off Jaws (as do all killer shark movies), it also rips off The Descent and blatantly so. The shark effects look cheap. That is, what I could see of them. The movie is so dark; it obscures many of the visual details. I couldn’t even tell if the sharks were animatronic or CGI. It’s poorly written and even more poorly acted. Of course, it’s not entirely the fault of the actors. Roberts, who also co-wrote the screenplay, doesn’t give them anything to work with. Take Mia’s bully. She has maybe five or six lines of dialogue. Most of the time, her role requires nothing more than standing around with a resting bitch face. Shouldn’t we at least know what she has against Mia?
It’s one thing for a survival horror flick to be silly. By nature, most of them are. It’s quite another to be stupid. This is the main reason 47 Meters Down: Uncaged sinks to the bottom like it does. One gets the impression that Roberts didn’t even care when he cobbled this unasked-for sequel together. God help the shark movie that makes Jaws: The Revenge look good.
