When you consider that one of my many, major peeves about Deep Blue Sea 2 – the massively belated, low budget follow up to Renny Harlin’s toothy, but endearingly dumbass 97′ classic – was they missed the open goal of naming it Deep Blue Sequel, things weren’t looking good for the third film when it swam up to play a couple of years later – why the hell aren’t you naming it Deep Blue Three?
However, while the low budget sequel game is generally a world where lowered expectations are a virtue and you – like like the filmmakers – are forced to make the best with what you’ve got to work with, there’s still a slim chance that you can still be pleasantly surprised when a rare sliver of gold glides silently right into your blind spot and sinks its teeth firmly into tge fleshiest part of your attention span.
So imagine my suprise when John Pogue’s Deep Blue Sea 3 lured me into the shallows and then struck out with an entry that – more than being not bad – was actually pretty good… Much like Samuel L. Jackson’s fate in the original: I certainly didn’t see that coming.
Welcome to Little Happy, an artificial island that once was a prosperous, South African fishing community that’s fallen on majorly hard times after climate change has caused most of it to be swallowed back up by the ocean. However, while its once thriving population has now dropped to just two – siblings Nandi and Bahari who are still trying to scratch out a living – the submerging of Little Happy has resulted in the Nursery, a thriving, underwater ecosystem that has drawn Dr. Emma Collins to continue her father’s work into the conservation of Great White Sharks along with her colleagues computer nerd Spinn, assistant brain box Miya and Shaw, a grizzled friend of her late father.
Yep, life sure is good when you’re bobbing in crystal clear oceans while trying to make the world a better place, but this idyllic existence is turned upside down when Emna finds a couple of Great Whites have been partially devoured and then discarded like a drunk speed-dating his way through a bucket of chicken wings which leads to the arrival of the Thasos and its crew.
Led by Dr. Richard Lowell, an old flame of Emma’s, and flanked by the chad-like, five o’clock shadow sporting Lucas, the Thasos are on the hunt for three Bull Sharks that boast boosted IQs due to them being the last offspring of Bella, an aggressive, genetically modified shark that caused the consumption of the majority of the cast in the last movie.
Simply put, if any of the trio of voracious juggernauts were to breed and conceive, it could conceivably lead to something one character blurts out as *checks notes* “the end of the ocean”. They’d best get their flippers on then, because the Bulls aren’t going to waste any time wasting them.
After the soggy entry of Deep Blue Sea 2, a watching of Deep Blue Sea 3 felt like nothing more than a random watch in order to furher plump out the Killer Animal section of the reviews page, but barely five minutes in and I began to wonder if the franchise had suddenly been subjected to the same, abilities enhancing experiment that the sharks had as this third film is a massive improvement on its predecessor in virtually ever way. While the last instalment was content to simply retread the first movie with half the talent and probably less than a third of the budget, this third installment changes things enough to keep things interesting while still clinging to the smart sharks vs. shapely scientists theme that the franchise uses. The sunken island setting not only makes sense considering the eco message floating among the instances of heads getting chewed off, but it far easier to realise and nicer to look at than the undersea lab setting of Part 2. Elsewhere, the effects have been given something of an overhaul, looking much less like lighting fast bath toys and far more like examples of selachimorphia that you decidedly do not want to fuck with.
Yet, fuck with them our characters do and the result is a solidly confident and resoundingly competent action/horror movie that’s far better than it has any right to be – think one of the better Tremors sequels and you aren’t too far off.
The cast, while being utterly comprised of actors from the Where-Have-I-Seen-Them-Before, school of performing arts, do good work, especially lead actress Tanya Ranmonde (who was previously the slutty best friend in Texas Chainsaw 3D, if that helps) who makes the typical, shapely conservationist character in an action/horror flick and makes it work, whether it be swimming in shark infested waters in a costume so flimsy that would even protect against a goldfish attack, spouting out clunky, girl-power dialogue such as “Thank you for bringing a big strong man in here because this little girl with a degree in environmental acoustic propulsion engineering could possibly handle it.” or even engaging a mercenary in a knife fight to the death.
Before we take it too far, let’s take a moment to establish that I’m not suggesting that Deep Blue Sea 3 is Aliens level good; after all, it’s got all the questionable plotting, dumb dialogue and limited resources that’s expected from this kind of flick (fuck, at one point someone actually refers to the rising stakes by mumbling “We’re talking… Seamageddon?”), but director John Pogue tackles this fishy fear flick with a knowing sense of how to actually make this shit work well on screen. Much to my surprise, underwater scenes are genuinely tense and the CGI sharks look pretty good, considering most digital versions of the ferocious fish look about as realistic as bath toys. The various deaths are fun and varied, especially considering the previous film copped out by making the main threat a swarm of Bull Shark babies and vary from one poor sap getting bitten in half as everything north of his belly button is propelled along by a sea scooter as he leaves clouds of crimson in his wake, to a fight being rudely broken up after one of the combatants is spectacularly decapitated. In fact, all the action is noticably above par, with the final scenes of Emma squaring off with the last surviving, fined villain within a submerged trash compactor drawing weirdly positive comparisons to both The Shallows and The Terminator.
It sure ain’t François Truffaut (fuck, it’s barely Renny Harlin), but for a third installment of a cash-grab franchise, Deep Blue Sea 3 impressively turns the tide by making some hugely enjoyable waves.
Stacked to the gills.
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