Underwater Movie Review

Underwater had so much potential! But it was wasted on a mediocre script and poor execution. Here’s the premise so you can see what I mean. A group of researchers are living seven miles under the sea in an underwater research facility. They’re located in the Mariana Trench, the deepest oceanic trench on Earth. An “earthquake” causes a collapse of their facility and they must try to get to safety. It’s a classic action-adventure, survival story with extreme conditions.

I love movies about survival. Wild, Arctic, Alien, All is Lost, Unbroken, and Gravity are just a few of my favorites in this genre. And luckily, Underwater wastes no time getting into the story. About three minutes in, Norah (Kristen Stewart) is in a hallway when it explodes with water. There is very little time to get to know the characters, you are merely thrust into the story.

As the facility is destroyed bit by bit a small group of survivors is left. The last few standing consist of Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel), Rodrigo (Mamoudou Athie), Paul (T.J. Miller), Smith (John Gallagher Jr.), and Emily (Jessica Henwick). They determine an earthquake was not the cause of the facility’s demise and hatch a plan to walk along the seafloor to another facility that houses escape pods. In theory, this is a perfect survival story. However, the execution of the movie was lacking.

For starters the camera work was incredibly shaky and disjointed. Normally I would appreciate that in a thriller, but it was hard to get your bearings on what was actually happening in each scene. Several times I couldn’t tell where they were or what was happening. It actually detracted from the experience. Secondly the dialogue was particularly bad. Ordinarily I would be able to forgive this, but there weren’t a lot of other redeeming qualities to make up for it.

Kristen Stewart carries the movie and does a decent job. It’s not her best role but she is believable and keeps you interested. The best performance, however, belongs to T.J. Miller, who provides some of the best lines and a bit of comedic relief. The trouble with jumping into the story so quickly is that we don’t know any of the characters so there’s little investment in whether they make it or not. For a long while I didn’t even know some of their names. This would also have been excusable if the story was gripping enough.

There were admittedly some good moments. A lot of T.J. Miller’s lines were funny and there were even a few jump scares that caught me off guard. Underwater could have been a compelling story about survival in extreme circumstances. Instead, it was just a quick 90 minute movie about characters I wasn’t attached to with special effects that weren’t all that impressive. 

Film or Movie: Movie
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like stories of survival
2. You like action-adventure
3. You don’t care about plot and just want to see explosions