'Deep Blue Sea 2' (2018)

So, today was meant to be a book review post but I ate a lot of pizza last night and didn't finish off either of the books that I was planning to write about, It happens :o)

Nope, when pizza is involved, you won't find me reading but you will find me watching a movie and the 'Deep Blue Sea 2' DVD turned up a day earlier than expected so the evening pretty much arranged itself really.

Onto the next round of ludicrous shark action then! Or, as it happened, not... Thank goodness there's only one more film to watch after this. Actually, that's being a little harsh but 'Deep Blue Sea 2' wasn't what I was hoping for...

Years ago, the Aquatica Project used genetically altered sharks in hopes to develop a cutting-edge cure for Alzheimer’s disease. They came close to achieving their goal, but an unforeseen tragedy derailed the experiment. Now, pharmaceutical billionaire Carl Monroe is conducting his own experiments on sharks, with nothing less than the aim to save humanity... With former Navy SEAL Trent Slater and scientists Daniel and Leslie Kim already on board, Monroe hopes to enlist shark conservationist Misty Calhoun to the team. But Calhoun is shocked to learn that the company is using unpredictable and highly aggressive bull sharks as its test subjects, the most lethal predator in the sea. Before long, the drug-enhanced sharks, led by den mother Bella, are growing smarter, quicker, and much, much deadlier. 

'Deep Blue Sea 2' looks to take everything that made the first film awesome (to me anyway) and repackage it into something that will appeal to everyone, whether they saw the first film or not. It's a shame then that it doesn't quite work on either front.

Part of this failure is that, well... there are loads of shark movies now and while 'Deep Blue Sea' didn't have an awful lot of competition on that score, 'Deep Blue Sea 2' very much does and this only serves to put greater emphasis on the bits that this film gets wrong. Bits like the decision someone made to esentially rehash the first movie but without the bits that made it cool.

Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of mileage to be had out of sharks hunting humans through a claustrophobic underwater facility and the resulting inevitable deaths that occur (all with just the right amount of gore). There's even a shark that I am positive was trying to lip-read a conversation and I thought this was brilliant, a sign of more mad stuff to come. And that's the thing, it wasn't, it was just a one off. No, 'Deep Blue Sea 2' takes itself a little too seriously and that's fine if what you're after is a straight thriller but it makes for a film that doesn't have the spark of its predecessor and doesn't really stand out amongst the competition. And what was with the decision to take the focus off the bull sharks and make it all about the shark pups? Would you rather see a big shark swimming down a corridor or some bubbles in the water, with some squeaking, to signpost the shark pups...? I know what I'd rather see and I didn't get it here, it felt like a real missed opportunity to be honest.

'Deep Blue Sea 2' isn't a bad film as such, it just feels like an odd choice to rehash the original and leave out all the bits that could have made it great. It was fun to watch but I've got the feeling that I'll come across this film, in a years time, and have forgotten that I ever owned it. I hope the next film is better.