Underwater Review

My first movie of the new decade is not particularly good, or bad for that matter, but it is somewhat interesting as a film that feels like a relic before it was even released. It was originally supposed to be released in late 2017 or early 2018, but then one of the stars, T.J. Miller, became persona non grata in Hollywood after damaging allegations related to the Me Too Movement, and the film studio chose to sit on the film for a while and hope that a time would come when it would be less contentious to release it. The studio in question, Twentieth Century Fox, was bought out by Disney in the intervening time and no longer exists, leaving the film to sit on a shelf potentially forever. Disney did choose to release the film, and I hope all of that background was interesting for you. What you get from the film is far less interesting.

The film in question, Underwater, is a science fiction action horror film set on a deep sea oil drilling rig built at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest point on Earth in the Pacific Ocean. Things start to go wrong almost instantly as the rig experiences catastrophic structural damage and most of the crew is killed instantly. The few survivors, including Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, and T.J. Miller, are trapped at the literal bottom of the ocean and must walk a mile in almost complete darkness across the bottom of the trench to reach functioning escape pods before air runs out or before the drill completely implodes around them. In the process of escape, the survivors encounter unique, dangerous sea life linked to the trench which is meant to suggest that there are some places on Earth that man simply should not interfere with.

Does this description sound like several other movies to you? It should. As effective as the underwater environment is for a horror setting, Underwater feels like a relic of a previous century, let alone a previous decade. From the late 1980s through most of the 1990s, there were a series of films that could collectively be referred to as, “Alien (or Aliens) but underwater.” There are two reasons for this collective title. One, the plot points and general structure often mimic these two famous science fiction horror movies. Two, the uncontested best film in this genre is, appropriately enough, the one from Aliens director James Cameron: The Abyss (1989). At best, all of the other films in this sub-genre compete for second place, and while Underwater is nowhere near as good as The Abyss, it is much better than some of the other imitators like Deep Star Six, Leviathan, or Sphere (a strong contender for one of site editor Kora’s most hated films of all time).

When you have a generic, derivative concept, success is determined by how you execute your premise, and Underwater executes its premise very well. The low lighting, the use of unique environmental dangers of deep sea exploration, and constantly failing equipment and structures make for effective threats and set pieces. The creatures in the film, while also generic, are effectively used and they make enough minute changes to their designs from what they are normally portrayed as to make them somewhat novel. The problems emerge when you try to smash these two effective concepts together. The film often flip-flops from high octane disaster movie underwater to existential dread and suspenseful horror with undersea monsters. When the film attempts to combine these elements in the final stretch of the film, the results are atonal and confused.

The cast is, similarly, a mixed bag of highs and lows. On the good side, the two female leads played by Kristen Stewart and Jessica Henwick (who played Colleen Wing, one of the few good parts of Netflix’s Iron Fist (2017)) give dynamic, engaged performances that showcase the wide range of emotions involved in this harrowing situation. Vincent Cassel, who plays Capt. Lucien, is a strong performance hurt by inconsistent writing and direction. On the bad side, I know that T.J. Miller’s bad tendencies as a person are what got this film buried, but I also don’t want him to ever come back if this is the quality of his comedic performance. He’s flat, unpleasant, and gross, and his delivery makes already lame, poor jokes even more of an annoyance to put up with. The other two survivors are not worth mentioning other than one of them easily gets the worst death in the movie.

I won’t talk about the finale of this film here because it constitutes a really big spoiler that may entertain the audience or bore them depending on their familiarity with/interest in the final antagonist, but it’s what made me start thinking of other films I would rather be watching, like the similarly unsuccessful Deep Rising (1998). The films have a number of similarities even if Deep Rising is on a shipwreck lost at sea versus deep underwater, but they have the same basic problem of being too derivative of other films that people liked better and not doing enough to stand out from the pack. The other, bigger difference is how each film spent its money. Underwater spent most of its budget on its effects, which do look decent, whereas Deep Rising spent most of its money on a good cast made up of charming character actors. The result is that Deep Rising’s effects have aged badly (think The Mummy from 1999), but the cast is more engaging and the general tone of silliness with the creatures makes it more fun to watch. Underwater takes itself more seriously, and its effects look pretty good (when you can see them through the murky, shaky cinematography), but its writing is too weak and its cast is for the most part not strong enough to keep you engaged. Deep Rising is actually 20 minutes longer than Underwater, but it feels shorter while watching it.