Review: DEEP BLUE SEA 3 Is A Tremendously Entertaining Piece Of Schlock Cinema
Director Renny Harlin‘s 1999 killer shark actioner Deep Blue Sea is a stone cold cult classic. Harlin played-up the film’s far-fetched moments and the Thomas Jane/LL Cool J/Samuel L. Jackson starrer wore its ridiculous B-movie tropes with pride. The film was a solid hit on its release, but it didn’t get a sequel until the poorly received Deep Blue Sea 2 swam onto DVD/VOD in 2018. Now a second sequel has arrived, and while Deep Blue Sea 3 might not be as good as Harlin’s original, this instalment from The Quiet Ones director John Pogue is a tremendously entertaining piece of schlocky shark cinema.
Deep Blue Sea 3 stars Tania Raymonde as Emma Collins, a marine biologist who is studying how climate change is impacting sea life off the coast of Mozambique. Based on a all-but-abandoned fishing village on the sea, her team is working well in their solitude until their floating paradise is invaded by three three genetically enhanced bull sharks. Hot on the sharks tail’s is Collins’ ex-boyfriend and a group of mercenaries. Things don’t go well. Chomp. Chomp.
Dirk Blackman’s screenplay for Deep Blue Sea 3 is even sillier than that of the 1999 original (sharks recognising guns!), but it embraces this silliness with gusto. John Pogue’s film dives head-first into the CGI fuelled carnage, so if you’re looking for high art or subtlety, then you’d better look elsewhere. Pogue’s film is a straight-up B-movie and the director knows this, keeping dialogue and exposition to a minimum and letting the action do the talking. It’s an energetic piece of filmmaking, and this South African-shot film looks great, with it’s blue skies and even bluer waters. The under-water photography is great, but the shark CGI hasn’t been given much of an upgrade since the end of the last century (but that isn’t enough to spoil proceedings).
A great movie to watch on a Saturday night, Deep Blue Sea 3 is a well made slice of silliness, which is much more fun than it has any right to be.
Deep Blue Sea 3 is out now on DVD and Digital.
