Great White
Shark horror movies always seem to go to the same place- people isolated, deep in the ocean, going mano a mano against the predator. Sometimes, you get “Jaws” or “The Shallows,” sometimes, you get “Jaws: The Revenge” or “Great White.” Don’t get me wrong- I think Martin Wilson’s film, primed to hit Shudder on November 11, is better than that awful threequel, but it’s so predictable and silly that you can’t really take it seriously. Not that one should, anyway.
A movie like “Great White” rests less on the shark than on the characters. If you don’t really get involved with the characters and their dilemma, it’s difficult to get involved in the story. Sometimes, the B-movie thrills are just too well-crafted to not get caught up in, but there still has to be enough of a hook to make that succeed. In the case of “Great White,” the screenplay by Michael Boughen does have some decent build-up and release, but the story follows fairly familiar structure, and the characters don’t have much in the way of personality.
The film begins with a shark attack with two unrelated characters to the story. Next thing we see, a husband and wife (Tim Kano and Kimie Tsukakoshi) go on a charter run by Charlie (Aaron Jakubenko) and Kaz (Katrina Bowden) to do some sightseeing. There’s a fifth in Charlie’s assistant, Benny (Te Kohe Tuhaka), and sharks are not expected. That doesn’t mean sharks won’t show up, though. Besides, they went to the Caribbean in “Jaws: The Revenge.”
“Great White” follows the formula of these movies to a “t,” and there are some decent set pieces when the crew gets stranded. Unfortunately, the characters don’t really engage. There are tensions that arise, of course, and close calls and it all is done effectively. Bowden and Tsukakoshi acquit themselves best, but there’s not enough of the survival tension and suspense to really deliver the goods a movie like this needs to be.
