The Shallows is passable but, could have been much better.

I’m not saying it’s bad. It’s not but, with a few changes it could have been much better.

The original script, “In the Deep” is a good read but, without changes it would have meant more locations and probably a bit more money and, it had a few (for movie audiences) fatal flaws.

The finished film is better and worse, it fixes some of the fatal flaws but, misses some golden opportunities to up the ante. Blake Lively never sucks us into the hopelessness of her position. Though she groans when she should, she always comes up with whatever it takes to get out of one impossible fix and into another. She feels more like John McClane than a broken, lonely young woman being circled by the world’s biggest shark. Lively emoted more in The Age of Adaline (which I liked) than she did while being stalked by a huge fish.

The worst mistake — neither spec script nor film kills the monster in a credible and satisfying way. If we can’t have both, for ten bucks we ought to get at least one, credible or satisfying.

But, looking back on film’s methods of killing sharks, it’s about par. The weakest part of Jaws? — Spielberg’s never ending shot of the shark swimming toward us with a huge oxygen cylinder perched, like a giant cigar, in the side of its mouth, like it was having a post dinner smoke after wolfing down Quint. Ridiculous, right? Yes, ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as both Jaswinski’s and Collet-Serra’s methods of killing their shark.

If you don’t mind spoilers, you can read my review, From In the Deep to The Shallows. It’s not about effects, it’s about story.