|
Shark
Night
is
Deliverance
meets
Jaws
with a script on par
with
Freddy Got Fingered.
Yup. A movie that
was meant for 3D
presentation gets
shipped off on Blu-ray
in a 2D format and
what was supposed to
be a gory thriller
shot in 3D with
excitement bouncing
off the screen ends
up being flatter
than two dimensions.
Seven college kids
at Tulane University
decide to take a
trip to remote
Louisiana for a
weekend of fun in
the sun. One of
them- Sarah (Sara
Paxton) is obviously
incredibly rich and
she has a private
island of sorts in
the middle of a salt
water lake. Sara,
Nick (Dustin
Milligan), Malik
(Sinqua Walls), Maya
(Alyssa Diaz), Beth
(Katharine McPhee) ,
Gordon (Joel David
Moore), and head to
their private
paradise only for it
to turn into their
private nightmare.
Sharks attack and
kill them off one by
one until we get a
climactic peak
that’s not terrible
but isn’t altogether
great either.
There’s a reason why
3D is falling flat
on its face in the
home entertainment
world. It’s not just
because it’s prone
to give you
headaches or because
the glasses are
annoying, it’s
because the quality
of movies with 3D
implemented can be
spotty. When you
make a 3D movie you
have to add in 3D
scenes and 3D
effects and that can
affect your pacing
for a movie and the
overall presentation
of it too. You’re
left with
unnecessary scenes
and/or you’re left
with a bunch of
unnecessary footage
that doesn’t make an
impact the second
time you watch in 3D
or the first time
you watch it in 2D.
There’s a place for
3D movies and some
studios and
directors implement
it correctly- but
other movies--- like
Shark
Night---
do not. Bill Ellis’
film falls flat on
its face from the
very start due to
that and the first
part of the movie
being incredibly
boring.
I’m
not a fan of the 3D
work of
Shark
Night
or the story but I’m
impressed by Ellis’
normal shots and his
pension for telling
a story with some
great action shots.
Some of the action
scenes get lost with
3D effects but other
action shots where
that’s not
centralized to
what’s going on
looks amazing.
Ellis’ direction is
above passing grade
the CG work is under
it, but the
animatronics work on
this film gets an
A+. That team did a
great job designing
shark models on
their end and then
Ellis and his team
did a great job of
implementing them.
This release’s Blu-ray
bonus features
aren’t in abundance.
There’s a short
making-of feature
called Ellis’
Island. There’s a
trivia piece on
sharks that’s
obnoxious and then a
five minute sequence
of all of the deaths
in the movie. It’s a
good amount for
what’s here, the
movie being better
would make the
special features
look better.
Shark
Night
has its place; it’s
for those nights
where you need
something dumb to
watch. It’s not
going to frequent
anybody’s television
but for a nice
change of pace when
you need something
mindless, this isn’t
a bad choice. Ellis’
movie looks okay and
animatronics are
great.
|