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"Underwater" dir. by William Eubank

 


"Underwater"

I saw an early screening of UNDERWATER starring Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel and TJ Miller.
In a blatant ALIEN rip off, Norah (Kristen Stewart) finds herself leading a group of underwater research facility crew members through the depths of the ocean after being attacked by sea aliens.
It's important to note that the film was set to be released in 2017 but was delayed until 2020 due to allegations against TJ Miller and the recent acquiring of 20th Century Fox by Disney.
There isn't much to say about this film as it's as standard a sci-fi plot as they come. Large group of crew members try to survive an alien attack in a other-worldly environment (in this case it's not space, its underwater) and get picked off one by one. While that might sound like a fun night at the movies, its ultimately dissatisfying due to it's PG-13 rating.
 
The acting is adequate, although TJ Miller's typical comic relief character completely goes against the tone of the film and that coupled with the issues surrounding his misconduct allegations makes me wonder why they didn't just remove his scenes from the final edit.

Vincent Cassel essentially plays his character from Black Swan however he is completely underwritten, so much so that his character name is just "Captain"... and he's in the lead supporting role.
The "reveal" is pretty cool from a creature-feature/ design aspect but comes much too late in the film and probably would have been more effective as a photo or painting.
 
UNDERWATER was frustrating to watch due to it's likeness to other films and lack of character development. Blank stares from Kristin Stewart as per usual.


5/10


*Be sure to check out Adrian Patterson's video review:
https://youtu.be/hrZqgjs0aZ8

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