Review: The Shallows (2016)

Collet-Serra has delivered some pretty enjoyable films (Non-Stop, Run All Night, Unknown, Goal II) - not necessarily great, but fun nonetheless. He continues that with The Shallows.

Blake Lively stars as an everyday girl on a solo trip of self discovery. She travels to a secluded beach to surf - a place her mum had travelled to in her youth. The story and runtime is barebones, but what we get is a reasonably paced and intense 80 mins of girl vs shark.

The location is beautiful, the cinematography often stunning, with some impressive scenes of Lively in the water. I had a little gripe with the occasionally dodgy CGI surfing scenes (that wasn't Lively surfing?) but the actual shark is very well done.

What makes this work is Lively's performance and the fact this film is not a straight up gore fest with flashy death scenes. The scenes successfully provide dread and really put you in the film, stranded with Lively - you feel her anguish and desperation. Of course, this is a movie with a great white shark being a menace, so there is gore, but it is not like you would expect. It is the anticipation that gets you, not the ripped flesh.

The film occasionally loses pace, but for the most part it is edge of your seat cinema. Some minor grips aside, this is an efficient thriller.

3.5/5

Review: Suicide Squad (2016)

Ok, first up, this is not a trainwreck of a film. It has issues, but nothing to warrant the absolute lambasting it seems to have received. What is it? It's a good popcorn action film with jokes and some pretty dark characters. Is it the smash hit that the trailers promised? No - and that is where the disappointment side of things comes in. Damn that marketing was great. The trailers were astonishing and set it up to be fantastic.

What we do have is some pretty interesting bad guy characters smashed together to fight an evil more evil than them. Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn are the clear standouts here. Robbie in particular is great. She is completely immersed into the character, much like Ledger did with his Joker in The Dark Knight. Speaking of The Joker, Jared Leto gives a completely different portrayal than Ledger, which is a good thing, but it is nowhere near as great as Ledger's. In saying that though, Leto is good. I wish there was more screen time from him to really get a proper feel for it, but unfortunately he's probably got about 10 mins all up. Joel Kinnaman and Viola Davis give pretty good performances. Jai Courtney does well as the bogan/ocker Captain Boomerang. In fact, I quite liked the whole cast of characters. Killer Croc in particular looks pretty menacing. They work pretty well together and seem to be having a blast.

So, where does it falter? For me, it is in the editing and the story/script. Probably less so the actual dialogue, but the story just felt too light on. It is almost like there could have been an extra 20 mins in this film to beef up the plot lines of either the characters or the main threat. The motivations and danger posed by the main villain seem too simple, but that is quite often the case with these big comic book films. The editing is a bit choppy, and some confusion can set in with the flow of scenes. I understand films need to keep a pace, but I really was getting a feeling of scenes missing.

The big aspect in the marketing of this film was the music. I can't leave without mentioning that. For the most part, the music works. It may be over done, but like Guardians of the Galaxy, it adds an extra funky element to the storytelling.

There you have it. An enjoyable comic book film that I will watch again on Bluray and hopefully like more. It doesn't change the game, but it doesn't need to be shit on. I look forward to seeing the SKWAD back together again someday.

3/5