47 METERS DOWN: UNCAGED

  • 07 Sep - 13 Sep, 2019
  • Mag The Weekly
  • Reviews

In 47 Meters Down: UNCAGED, Mia (Sophie Nelisse) and Sasha (Corinne Foxx) are reluctant stepsisters, with Mia's father, Grant (John Corbett), married to Sasha's mother, Jennifer (Nia Long). Grant has found an underwater cavern and is busy mapping it out, so when Mia and Sasha are booked on a glass-bottom boat tour, Sasha convinces Mia to run off with her two best friends, Alexa (Brianne Tju) and Nicole (Sistine Rose Stallone), instead. Since Alexa is dating Grant's assistant, she knows where the cave is and brings the girls there to swim. Discovering a shipment of scuba-diving equipment, they decide to go exploring. Unfortunately, hungry sharks appear, and the girls find themselves trapped, with their air tanks running out.

Unlike the tight, gripping original, this pointless shark-related sequel is meandering and unfocused, with interchangeable characters and confusing visuals. Writer-director Johannes Roberts and co-writer Ernest Riera follow up their crafty 2017 hit with entirely new characters and a new scenario and location. But while the first movie deftly developed its two characters and then kept them in one spot, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged has four characters who rove all around a disorienting cave. It's impossible to tell at any given moment where anyone is or who anyone is. (It's almost as bad as Open Water 3: Cage Dive.)

The four teen girls, covered in scuba gear, continually shout one another's names ("Mia!" "Alexa!" "Sasha!" "Nicole!" "You guys!") as if that will help clear up who’s who. It doesn't. The swishy underwater photography and constantly swinging flashlights completely obscure the space of the action, rendering much of the attempted suspense inert. Instead, Roberts is reduced to turning his movie into a traditional slasher-type scenario, with cheap jump scares and sudden appearances; none of it makes much sense. The ancient cavern setting could have been quite spectacular, but instead 47 Meters Down: Uncaged only serves to taint the memory of its predecessor.

– Compilation

RELATED POST

COMMENTS