If you missed the first movie 47 METERS DOWN don’t worry.
The similarities between that film and this are superficial and the two don’t
connect with the exception of danger underwater and sharks. For me I was able
to see this one without the other but now I want to go back and find it.
Mia (Sophie Nelisse) and Sasha (Corinne Foxx) are
stepsisters relocated with their family to the beaches of Cancun. Mia’s father
Grant (John Corbett) is an archeologists who may have come across the find of a
lifetime, this forcing the family to move. The move is more intrusive for the
reluctant Mia who is the focus of school bullies with Sasha hangs with the more
popular crowd.
After the latest incident Grant has booked his daughters on
a glass bottom boat ride that will take them near where his discovery is. The
girls reluctantly go but once there run into Sasha’s friends who convince the
pair to come with them swimming in a nearby lagoon. One of the friends, Alexa
(Brianne Tju) tells them there is a secret entrance in the lagoon to a hidden
Mayan city underwater, the same place Grant and his team are examining. Of
course the group decides that they need to see this place, don scuba hear and
head down.
They find the underwater city and begin swimming around.
Their hi-tech gear allows them to talk to one another while underwater. When a
cave fish scares one of the girls, she backs up and knocks down a column,
closing off the tunnel they used to enter the city. Once the silt clears they
find one another as well as one of Grant’s helpers, Ben (Davi Santos). As he’s
telling them to follow his guideline to get out he’s whisked away by a shark.
It’s a great white in the ultimate sense, white from being trapped in the
tunnels all its life and blind as well.
Now the real thriller begins. It’s no longer a story of
trying to simply escape from an underwater city but trying to escape from the
shark as well. With only precious minutes of air in their tanks the odds are
against them. When they realize there is more than one shark, even more so.
The movie works on many levels, the basest of which is the
fear of sharks that was instilled in movie goers when JAWS was released in the
70s. Technology has moved forward since that time and now we have CGI sharks to
contend with. This film does CGI proud making them seem more real than one
would expect.
Other fears are at work here as well, combined to make the
film even more hair raising. There is the sense of time as those trapped didn’t
come expecting a long visit and have a limited amount of air. Then there is the
sense of claustrophobia as the walls of the underwater city provide little room
to move as well as escape paths for the sharks as they barrel down the tunnels
the girls are trapped in.
This is not a movie where you’re talking about the acting
but the fact is all involved here do a good job in the roles they’ve been
given. That’s not an easy task when for over half the film you’re seen in scuba
gear and your facial expressions are pretty much lost to the camera. That’s
when body language kicks in and these actors seem truly frightened.
The movie provide plenty of moments when you’ll jump, plenty
when you’ll be on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens next and
plenty of entertainment all around. As I said, I’ve not seen the first film but
if it compares to this one I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. And the two together might
make for a fun double feature. Especially outside. And shown next to a swimming
pool.
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