Deep Blue Sea 2

I confess!!!!!!!!!!
I am without a doubt one of the biggest Sharknado fans in Sweden. I collect all the films, and i can watch them over and over again, because Sharknado makes my life complete. I know a lot of people out there think Sharknado is crap. Well, let me ask you this.

Name one good film from director Colin Nutley?

No? You see, maybe Sharknado films are good after all. So in general i love to check out B movies with sharks. You have all kinds of cheesy wonderful titles to choose between, and i just love the crazy film makers out there who choose to do these films. Even if a lot of shark movies are released today, we have some classic ones that have been around for a pretty long time. I know, you might think of Jaws, but let´s not go that far back in time. Let us instead think about the year 1999, when Die Hard 2 director Renny Harlin released his action horror film Deep Blue Sea. Considering this film had a great cast, and a lot of action scenes, i really enjoyed the film during the theatrical release. I remember i bought the DVD and watched in several times. Deep Blue Sea had a fun concept of horror and action, mixed into each other in a underwater facility, and the film clearly showed that you can make a good action film with sharks included. Director Renny Harlin continued releasing ( some ) good films, like the underrated Mind Hunters, released in 2004. There is a specific reason why you should get Mind Hunters on DVD, because the concept of the film is actually fun to watch. And you have a fun cast as well that includes LL Cool J, Christian Slater and Val Kilmer, how can you say no to this ? In the end of 2017, i was going through upcoming DVD and Blu Ray releases, and i came across a title of Deep Blue Sea 2. A sequel was made almost 20 years later ? I did not expect this to happen, and i never heard before that a sequel was planned. Of course when you make a sequel so many years after the original film, you don´t know what to expect. It could be a rip off that looks exactly like the first film, or they have tried to do a different concept and still call it a sequel. Since i enjoyed the first film from director Renny Harlin, of course i had to take a look at the sequel. Siuce almost 20 years have passed since Deep Blue Sea was released, is this sequel better than we expected, or is this a sequel that should have been left on the bottom of the sea ?

Dr. Misty Calhou ( Danielle Savre ) is a shark conservationist, who have studied sharks for a very long time. Her knowledge about sharks holds very important information. Dr. Misty is invited to consult on a new, top secret project run by pharmaceutical billionaire Carl Durant ( Michael Beach ). Carl believe that the project, located at an underwater facility, is one step closer to cure human diseases, extracting shark antíbodies. Dr. Misty does not approve the way this project is being handled, doing experiments on full grown sharks. No matter how secure Carl believe this facility is, there is always a risk something unexpected could happen.

I did not have any high expectations before watching this film. And i can tell you, i am glad that my expectations were low. Because this is a sequel no one asked for, and in some ways i don´t understand why someone wanted to make a sequel, almost 20 years later. Thankfully, this is not as awful as it could have been. Let´s start with the positive. The sharks looks pretty good, and their attacks are not all bad either. The acting is not top class in any way, but the lead actor Danielle Savre as Dr. Misty Calhoun, is a great character for a film like this. She is strong, intelligent and she clearly knows why you should not do experiments on sharks. And now we get to the negative. If you think about the first film, it had a lot of intensive action scenes, this is something Deep Blue Sea 2 can´t handle well. The action scenes does not deliver on the same level as the first film, and that makes the film look pale. Another problem is that the story does not feel very interesting. I know this is a B movie, and usually a story is not the most important thing. But in this case, knowing this is a sequel to Deep Blue Sea, they could have tried a bit harder to develop a story surrounding the experiments of sharks. If the film would have been named something else, then i might have looked at this film as a stand alone film. But since this is a sequel, it is hard not to judge this film, knowing that the first film was good. I will say this, there are a couple of scenes where you at least feel that they have tried to follow some good ideas. But this is eventually lost, when we get some typical cliches. Director Darin Scott ( who have produced classic films such as The Stepfather 2 and Menace II Society ) probably had fun making this film, but he clearly missed some very big details on how to make a worthy sequel. The budget does not have to be a problem, if you know how to do things right. He does get some details right, especially the shark design. Still, without any real effective action scenes, it is hard to connect with this sequel. Deep Blue Sea 2 is not completely awful, and completely useless. The problem is that you don´t need to see it, just because this is a sequel to a classic 90´s film. You could just watch the first film and have fun, and there is a chance you will forget that a sequel exist. Take my advice directors, if you are doing a sequel, make it as good as possible, or there is no point in making a sequel.

Rating: DD