Reviewed by Marc Butterfield
GREAT WHITE is an aptly, if not particularly creatively named movie. It is merely one in a long line of movies that vilify the species of shark, and not even especially a good vilification. It starts out with promise, a young honeymooning couple enjoying a dip in a peaceful lagoon, only to become the first people eaten by the titular beastie. This is the highest quality the movie will achieve however, as from here on out there is clunky dialogue, strange character building, and the one thing that kills a movie faster than a speeding shark, the requisite stupid, predictable mistakes it takes to put otherwise apparently intelligent people in to dumb, dangerous, and almost always fatal positions. There are unexplored plot threads, unlikeable characters, and unnecessary things that serve no purpose other than to drag the viewer in to a “this character is flawed” or “this character needs to live” or “this character is too dumb to have survived this long on his own without falling to his death in a fast-food chain” internal discussion.
Ever since the original shark as the monster movie, JAWS, an indisputable classic, set the bar for the genre, filmmakers have been struggling to be the next to make sharks, great whites in particular, the boogeyman of the ocean. Most fail, because JAWS had what none of the others had: Memorable characters with flaws, but well fleshed out personalities. A couple have come close (DEEP BLUE SEA, because it added original elements and had a better-than-average cast), but this one went straight for the easy money, make the shark LARGE. And this one was not only large, but seemingly cunning and persistent. Meanwhile, the survivors, the pilot and owner of the airplane tour (Aaron Jakubenko), his girlfriend and soon-to-be baby mama (Katrina Bowden) and their friend/chef (Tim Kano) are taking their clients (Kimie Tsukakoshi and Te Kohe Tuhaka) to an island where the clients grandfathers ashes are to be spread. They find the body of the previously mentioned first victim, and the tour owner decides that this is the time to start a search, even before he radios the mainland telling them they have found the body. (see: stupid mistake #1). From the air, they see the wrecked boat the honeymooners were on, and instead of (again) radioing the mainland with the coordinates, he decides to land the pontoon boat in the water near it (see: stupid mistake #2) From here, The shark rams them and strands the 5 of them in substandard safety lifeboat, where the drama of five very different people tears them apart (that is when the shark isn’t aiding them with that).
Each character is really responsible for their own fate, It’s unclear if this is what the writers intended. Shudder has a big future, if it can embrace it’s mission like the SyFy channel has, and makes it’s movies more about the horror, and stops taking the easy route with the largest fish. We already had THE MEG. What we also don’t need is another group of people that aren’t all that bright. Even the analyst comes to mind-boggling conclusions, given the lack of data he has to come up with very precise percentages.
Directed by Martin Wilson (in his debut feature), along with the screenplay by Michael Boughen, the special effects of GREAT WHITE are actually better than you’d think, and the actors are probably better than this, but did the best that they could given the script and direction they got. What’s a shame is that the story, with a few tweeks, might have been decent, even worthy of Saturday afternoon TV viewing. As it is, it just seems like too many missed opportunities, and a story that wasn’t carefully edited.
2 out of 4 stars
RLJE Films and Shudder will release GREAT WHITE in Theaters and On Demand and Digital on July 16, 2021.
