REVIEW: ‘Deep Water’ is a serviceable survival drama

Sharks. The Animal Kingdom’s gift to cinema that just keeps giving.

The latest film to feature the sharp-toothed creatures is “Deep Water,” which stars Golden Globe nominee Aaron Eckhart as Ben, the first officer of a flight going from Los Angeles to Shanghai. He is joined in the cockpit by the captain, Rich, played by Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley.

While it’s a long flight, everything seems routine. That is until a device in the bag of one of the passengers causes a fire, leading to an explosion, resulting in a crash landing in the ocean. The plane breaks apart in the process, leaving survivors clinging to wreckage. As the crew works to help passengers, they learn the waters they’re in is full of sharks.

When a person walks into a shark movie, or any creature feature, they have an idea of what they’re getting in to. Plenty of blood is going to be spilled, the real question is the execution. How well the suspense is built up, and the quality of the human characters in the ordeal, are going to be pulling a lot of weight when the underwater threat is at bay.

“Deep Water,” helmed by veteran journeyman director Renny Harlin, has some positives and negatives when it comes to both. In terms of suspense, the film is effective in building dread. A plane crash is harrowing enough, and it’s certainly thrilling, but that’s just the beginning of the tension.

Each section of the plane is filling with water, putting the survivors in peril, there are limited working life rafts, and any rescue attempt is going to take time. It’s a hectic, stressful environment that keeps a person properly on edge, making the sharks loom larger under the surface.

There are a couple solid characters, too. Eckhart’s protagonist Ben, as an example, makes for a really good survival movie hero. He’s resourceful, strong, empathetic and good under pressure, while still being human and imperfect. Other crew members and a few passengers, while fairly generic, work well enough, too.

However, some of the film’s characters are a detriment, ranging from forgettable to annoying. That’s especially true with Angus Sampson’s character Dan, who is insufferable throughout the whole movie. Now, that sort of is the point, as he’s made to be a human obstacle along with the other disasters. However, he’s dialed up to an otherworldly level of bothersome here.

How the movie handles the fates of certain characters is also poor. There are important figures in the movie who die offscreen, and not all of the deaths overall sit well. This is of course a disaster/survival flick, so obviously some characters aren’t going to make it. However, there’s at least one or two that don’t make it who would have been better off living, and maybe two that do survive who shouldn’t have.

 The film, with a budget of $40 million, also doesn’t look great in a few scenes. The CGI in some sequences is rough and can take a person out of the experience. To be fair, many of the film’s scenes do capture the fear of the moment, from the plane crash to staying alive in the ocean, but there are a few that visually miss the mark.

“Deep Water” is a movie benefitting from an experienced action director, good cast members and a solid premise. Does it elevate that premise like other survival flicks, such as “Jaws” or “The Grey” did? No. Does it still do its job of serving up some shark thrills to an audience? Yes.  There’s enough here for fans of the genre to enjoy, though not go crazy over. 3 out of 5.