Filmology Rating: 2.3 out of 4

After the loss of her mother, medical student Nancy Adams (Blake Lively) tries to find the beach that her mom was at when she was pregnant with her. When she finds it, the beach is a paradise….. or so it seems. When Nancy goes out for one last surf before the sun sets, she is attack by a great white shark. Stranded about 200 yards off shore and injured, it is now a fight for survival.

The best shark movie since Jaws! Well that really isn’t too hard to say since there really aren’t a whole lot of shark movies out there since then. However, The Shallows would be right up there though in the best shark movies ever made. Not quite at Jaws level but very close. The Shallows was fantastic! It was intense, it was well acted, and it was a beautifully shot film.

Blake Lively delivered a surprisingly powerful performance. I have always thought that she was a decent actor but I feel that this role really pushed her over the edge and showed us that she is a true talent. She really sold every aspect of the role. She sold the surfer, she sold the woman looking to find herself after a traumatic event, and she definitely was convincing when it came to the attack scenes and the physical struggle of an injured woman. With this role, it really will show Hollywood that she is much more than just an attractive woman. I very much look forward to seeing her in hopefully some more serious roles where she will continue to grow and develop.

The Shallows is also very visually beautiful. The scenery of the ocean and the beach, the color of everything, and the CGI of the shark was so incredibly lifelike. Everything looked so lifelike that it felt like you were there in the moment and seeing everything for yourself. Also kudos to the director Jaume Collet-Serra for doing an awesome job; he really put us in the ocean with her. Since this is such an isolated location and confined to a confined space, it gave the movie an even more tense feeling to it and really made us feel like we were there. The tense moments could really be felt and I was really at the edge of my seat wanting to see how she would get out of this horrific situation. Also one quick little thing about the visuals, early in the film she is either texting of using facetime and the way that they showed this was really well done. It was the best use of text or in movie phone usage that I have seen.

The music and the score were good for the most part except for when it comes to my only complaint. Too much slow motion camera usage! This was really overused at the beginning before the attack and the music would que in and then go out and it felt a little off and also slightly irritating. Other than that issue, this movie is fantastic! I would highly suggest seeing this one over Independence Day Resurgence. The Shallows felt like much more of a ride than ID:R did.

Rating: See It 

-Nick