‘Deep Blue Sea 3’ (2020)

After the ‘slightly mad but happy to send itself up a little’ awesomeness of ‘Deep Blue Sea’ was followed by the ‘taking itself a little too seriously and not in a good way’ disappointment of ‘Deep Blue Sea 2’, things were finely balanced for my watching of ‘Deep Blue Sea 3’. I love slightly contrived situations like this as it feels like the whole fate of a franchise hangs on one film and I’m going to be there to see what happens…

In an event I never saw coming this year, I actually went and pre-ordered my copy of ‘Deep Blue Sea 3’ which is just something I never thought I’d hear myself say. It makes you wonder (well, it makes me wonder) how the Hollywood types decide that a film is suddenly ripe to be turned into a franchise, especially one that has been left to do its own thing for just over twenty years. Not that I’m complaining, I love a fun shark film, it just makes me wonder that’s all.

But back to the film itself. I watched it last night and it ended up being the film that I’d really hoped ‘Deep Blue Sea 2’ would be, that’s the long and short of it. Let me tell you a little bit more…

Welcome to Little Happy, a tiny man-made island in the Mozambique Channel that’s home to a flourishing nursery of marine life, where Great Whites come to mate and give birth every year. This peaceful conservatory is overseen by Emma Collins and her team of environmentalists, determined to continue her late father’s legacy. This idyllic existence comes to an abrupt end, however, when Emma’s ex-boyfriend arrives on the hunt for three bull sharks accused of butchering a half-dozen people. Their mother Bella was genetically engineered to be smarter and far more destructive. As the body count rises it becomes clear that Bella’s offspring have inherited her enhancements, and if free to mate, will mark the end of life as we know it… 

After ‘Deep Blue Sea 2’s’ slightly baffling decision to take all the fun (and adult sharks) out of the movie, it was brilliant to see ‘Deep Blue Sea 3’ go back to its roots and just be an unapologetically fun, action movie with slightly implausible but awesome shark action going on. It worked for ‘Deep Blue Sea’ and it really works here as a film that draws you in with the promise of excitement and proceeds to deliver on that promise. Things are tweaked just enough so that it feels different but with enough hints of the previous films that you know it’s going to be cool. No claustrophobic research facilities this time, this time it’s all happening on a tiny shanty island that is slowly sinking. The stakes are raised just that little bit higher then and there are still plenty of spots where our heroes can be ambushed by a highly intelligent ‘super shark’ (and are…) You know what’s going to happen but I still jumped when it did.

The sharks are the real stars of this movie and that’s just how it should be. Don’t get me wrong, the human cast are great (Tania Raymonde in particular is great as a vaguely unassuming marine biologist who goes all action hero in her attempts to defeat genetically modified bull sharks) but they’re not doing cool things like jumping out of the water and biting people’s heads off or trying to sink a ship by ramming it. If you’re anything like me, you’re here for the sharks; ‘Deep Blue Sea 3’ knows this and lays on a show that will satisfy even the most jaded of shark fans. Ingenious shark kills followed by ingenious ways of killing sharks, you literally cannot ask for anything more from a shark film.

‘Deep Blue Sea 3’ is no ‘Jaws’ but then it was never meant to be. It’s a unashamed popcorn movie and sometimes that’s ok if it’s done right, with a liberal dose of mad action and a glint in its eye that tells you the movie knows what it is and doesn’t really care. That’s ‘Deep Blue Sea’ in a nutshell and it’s a film I’d totally recommend on that score. Summer looks like it’s coming to an end and now it’s starting to get a little colder, you could do a lot worse than check this movie out, trust me.