★★
A crew of aquatic researchers work to get to safety after an earthquake devastates their subterranean laboratory. But the crew has more than the ocean seabed to fear.
Classification: 15
Remember that scene in Finding Nemo when Marlin and Dory ventured into the darkest depths of the ocean in search of their next clue only to find a tantalisingly light beckoning them from afar. As both fish are drawn closer to it, the light reveals a hideous creature of long teeth and grotesque eyes, the dreaded anglerfish and with then begins a vicious pursuit and attack against our heroes. That scene is from an animated children's film from 2003 and probably lasts three minutes, it is more terrifying, thrilling and captivating than the entire runtime of Underwater which desperately tries to capture that same feeling of being hunted by the unknown horrors of the deep. While this submerged adventure has impressive visuals and production design that immerses audiences into its world, the one-dimensional approach to the characters, plot and themes leaves very little depth to the whole film.
The script from Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad does very little in establishing character, the cast led by Kristen Stewart are all regulated to the motivation of "survive" which in context makes sense but difficult for audiences to directly empathise with. There are minor attempts to graft on character development with periphery exposition (Vincent Cassel has a daughter, T.J Miller has a stuffed rabbit for some reason) but it's all weak shallow attempts that have little effect on the audience. The whole cast takes turns as Mister Exposition spouting technobabble to explain how the underwater drill base is exploding and how they are going to have to travel across the sea bed to find functional escape pods. No one really feels like an archetype though except for TJ Miller who slots into his typecast role as crude comic relief because no actor has a character arc or discernible traits. Although the production design of the underwater mech suits is stellar, each cast member is crammed into an identical looking one for 80% of the runtime making it extremely difficult to tell who is who during the dimly lit and hectic horror action sequences.
Underwater obviously envokes Alien from story structure (crew of people trying to survive a hostile environment and monster), production design ( baby monsters bursting from bodies, combining rustic machinery with futuristic tech) to Kristen Stewart's buzzcut so she looks like Ripley from Alien 3. The problem is that director William Eubank doesn't do anything to make the film in itself unique from its obvious influence, third act revelations tie the monstrous horrors to more eldritch origins but at that point, it's too late to really salvage anything. The editing is frustrating right from the opening action sequence which sees Stewart's Norah running across an exploding corridor, everything is hectic, camera shaking, sets sparking and collapsing and it's just difficult to tell what is happening. Character goals are clearly stated in exposition scenes but the dark shaky cinematography in murky waters may be trying to realistically evoke the terror of being miles beneath the surface but it just disconnects audiences from the action of the film. There are so many sequences where you're not sure who is in danger, what's happened to who and Eubank's direction never elicits a sense of hectic panic just confusion. The minor attempts to give the film thematic relevance are also pitiful with brief references to environmentalism and the consequences of drilling being the metaphor for the arrival of the mysterious creatures. There was potential there for symbolism and story to merge in an unsettling narrative of how little we understand the depths of our oceans but the script never sets ambitions for anything beyond standard creature feature.
The entertainment value of Underwater is let down by the difficult editing and visuals, it is just hard to get invested when you can't see what's going on. The visual effects are impressive in creating realistic watery depths for the cast to wade through and in the calmer scenes it does have an eerie tranquillity to it all but it's all lost when the camera is flung in every direction and you have no idea which character is currently screaming for their lives. Unlike Alien which the cast dynamic desperately tries to replicate in places, there is little distinction or connection between the characters, there is never a real grounding to the relationships to each other. There's no build-up to the danger and how it affects these character dynamics, you're just thrown in and expected to fill in the gaps with very little clue or care to any of this. The scares themselves and the creature designs are not particularly effective either, resembling the Cloverfield monster at points when it gets its obscure close-ups and similar to the best monster movies, it is so much more terrifying when you can't see the creature. The third act reveal of the final monster is quite chilling in pieces especially if familiar with its Lovecraftian connection but Eubank does so little to establish a mythological connection within the film, it very much feels like wasted potential. Eubank mostly uses jump scares or confounding action to jolt audience heart rates but its all fleeting due to the limited connection that can be formed with the characters and actually understanding what's happening on screen. Each development following a clichéd horror or action trope which is never outright terrible but not inspired making the wonderful potential of the film all the more mundane.
Underwater has all the ingredients to make a great movie for me; monsters, subterranean sea bases, Lovecraftian horror, bulky mech suits, and grisly deaths but it never comes together and utilises its potential. It could have been the next Event Horizon or that episode of Doctor Who where David Tennant finds the devil trapped beneath an asteroid base circling a black hole, that tantalising potential of marrying science fiction with supernatural horror. Instead, Eubank and the screenwriters just plod along the more predictable paths with the distracting camera work and editing even making that difficult to enjoy.
Director: #WilliamEubank
Screenwriter: #BrianDuffield and #AdamCozad
Release Date: February 7th 2020
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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