Great WhiteIs a Tepid Shark Movie Without Much Bite

Almost five decade afterJawsmade everyone who ’s ever gone near the ocean fear the toothy terror lollygag below the wave , filmmakers are still hoping to replicate some ofthat shark - tastic magic . There have been some successes over the year , both unstinting ( likeThe Meg ) and stripped - bones ( like Open Water ) . But there have been far more that are less memorable , including the late : Great White .

That ’s not to say Great White — the feature launching of director Martin Wilson , from a book by Michael Boughen ( Dying Breed)—is terrible . It ’s just kind of … shrug . The impeccably , intimidatingly good - looking cast , all of whom turn in just - fine performances , is led by 30 Rock ’s Katrina Bowden , the sole American amid a group of New Zealand and Australian actor ; genre devotee will remember she also star in the more outrageous fish - themed sagaPiranha 3DD , as well as horror comedyTucker and Dale vs. Evil . Bowden plays Kaz , a nanny who assists her pilot boyfriend , Charlie ( Aaron Jakubenko ) , with his charter business organization , submit tourists on short flight around their tropical home base . Benny ( Love and Monsters ’ Te Kohe Tuhaka ) is their Captain James Cook and help . Then there ’s Michelle ( Kimie Tsukakoshi ) and Joji ( Tim Kano ) , the affluent couple who book a last - minute flight so that Michelle can scatter her granddaddy ’s ashes on the derelict island where he was briefly isolated decade prior — a picturesque spot cognise as “ Hell ’s Reef . ”

Between Michelle ’s somber commission , the uneasy tension that forms when uptight Joji think Benny is ogling his married woman , and a prologue that shows us another impossibly photogenic yoke being gobbled by you - know - which sort of venomous ocean predator , the mode is shortly tune up to “ imminent disaster , ” and Great White does n’t take long to get there . After the chemical group discovers a shark - attack victim ’s consistence ( or half his body , rather ) , they take a side trip to check on an upset boat which , of trend , leads to trouble for them .

Bet you can’t guess what they’re looking at.

Bet you can’t guess what they’re looking at.Image: RLJE Films and Shudder

With all the retentive stretches of just , like , floating around , you ’d think Great White would take more meter to flesh out its characters , but it does n’t really ; or else , we get little radar target that are seemingly suppose to rear the interest and/or give citizenry a bit more deepness . Stuff like : Kaz has just found out she ’s pregnant , Charlie has PTSD after surviving a shark attack a few years ago , possibly they ’re go to get married after this is all over . ( Again … shrug . ) The most interesting reference is Joji , a control , jealous asshole whose villainy occultation even the sharks for a abbreviated geological period , and who fetch to trace on his own newspaper - thin personation ( he ’s an “ investment analyst ” ) to deliver the line “ I ’d rate our luck of hold out at less than 5 % … and that would be blinking affirmative . ”

Honestly , I was rooting for Joji to survive over anyone else — what a twist that would be!—but after a while , I decided I was Team Shark , even if it made zero sensation that they did n’t just immediately chomp through the living raft and enjoy a tasty human snack counter . But then the film would be over almost forthwith , and we ’d be denied the chance to question why none of the castaways kvetch of hungriness or thirst ( it does rain down a span of times)—as well as a few avowedly cool scene showing the midget raft from high above , with the black shadows of shark circling ever nearer .

At any rate , as any spectator with a pulse will have realized from the very scratch line of the movie , some of the flawless confront that populate Great White will not make it to the destruction . you may probably even guess which unity . And while some of the deaths occur in distressingly cloudy darkness , we do get one particularly dramatic demise that feels like someone took verbatim inspiration fromShark Week . We also get a moment that made me wonder if a real person — not a movie character — would actually deploy the lung mogul to let out a scream underwater when something chilling happens ?

Michelle having an understandable freak-out after discovering a shark-attack victim’s body on the beach.

Michelle having an understandable freak-out after discovering a shark-attack victim’s body on the beach.Image: RLJE Films and Shudder

Without giving the close away , I will say it goes to a astonishingly bleak place , allow for the survivors stuck in a scenario almost as fucked up as “ be adrift on a tattling pot in shark - infest waters”—but then betray to explore its entailment , rather leave behind the audience to marvel exactly what we ’re opine to make of it . Guess they made it home at some point … or not . Shrug ?

Great White hits Shudder on November 11 .

Wondering where our RSS feed went ? You canpick the raw up one here .

Stress will not, cannot, make these people anything less than ridiculously good-looking,