It was evident to me just by the trailer what was going to happen in this film. I don't think they really try to even hide that. The amount of theft that this film does by basically making Aliens and underwater feature is kind of embarrassing to be honest, and they paid for this in both critical review and by losing money at the box office. Of course it would be really easy to argue that at least part of this loss was due to Covid as well but I like to believe that the movie was shunned after it was exposed as being a near direct ripoff of Aliens.
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I have a fear of deep water and I also enjoy a good jump scare sci-fi(ish) film even if the story is completely unoriginal. Therefore, I gave this big-budget film a whirl anyway and ok, it is reasonably entertaining and has some pretty fantastic special effects, plus the addition of T.J. Miller is always welcome in my book.
[src](https://rogermooresmovienation.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/under2.jpeg?w=1400)They don't spend a lot of time on setting up the plot as to why everyone is 7 miles under the sea and this is probably a good thing. I do enjoy how they were able to slowly reveal this to us over the normal events of the film because honestly, if they had spent a bunch of time on the lead in information I probably would have switched it off. In this regard, I like the way that director William Eubank decided to take the story in that within a couple minutes of the film starting, the tense atmosphere of being trapped underwater, FAR underwater, is established right away.
[src](https://bookandfilmglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/underwater.jpg)Instead of spending half an hour on a backstory, instead we see Norah Price (Kristin Stewart) wake up and brush her teeth and 1.5 minutes later disaster strikes and continues to strike for the remaining hour and half. There is very little time in this film's roughly 90 minutes that was wasted and the "go go go" pace is kept up nearly the entire time. I do enjoy this but I still have to mark the movie down some points just because they basically lifted the entire premise from other films. The only thing they didn't do was discover a little kid that has been living in the ventilation system that has somehow managed to outsmart the baddies for a long period of time.
[src](https://hellardmedia.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/o_rnd_comp_markettingstills_v2.1044.jpg?w=1440)Filming in the underwater suits couldn't have been easy and I wouldn't actually mind seeing a behind the scenes about how they pulled this off. Obviously they weren't actually really far underwater for safety reasons but if they managed to pull this off without actually being in water at all I can't really understand how they would pull this off because the movements are very consistent with how one would move underwater - well, most of the scenes anyway, there is a certain one where a metal box that is filled with air once it gets detached from the cabling actually sinks downward rapidly and well, that is not how that would happen. Depending on what it was made of, it might have actually went UP.
The plot quickly turns into a "we accidentally unleashed a plague of monsters onto the planet" and this is when it becomes *Aliens" and it only becomes more so as the story unfolds. None of this really matters though because the movie is kept entertaining because there is very little downtime.
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At least this thing didn't wake up and latch onto someone's face
Before anyone accuses me of spoiling, basically all of what is said above is hinted at in the trailers and also the wording of the poster.
Should I watch it?
I found it pretty entertaining but at the same time was irritated about the similarities between this film and legendary ones that came before such as of course Aliens and also Sphere. I get annoyed when Hollywood throws a bunch of money at a completely unoriginal idea and then expects us to all love it. This film ended up losing a bunch of money but I don't know if they even tried to engage the Asian audience with it, which seems to be what a lot of big budget action/thrillers with not much going on as far as the plot is concerned are designed for.
When the ending finally comes, it isn't a surprise but almost a "really?" moment. I don't think this is a great film and it certainly isn't an inventive one outside of some of the creative cinematography that was probably pretty darn difficult to pull off. Mostly, I think that people will enjoy this one, but just don't expect a great deal from the plot since you likely already know it after just seeing the trailer.
I would say to watch this if you are feeling kind of brain dead and incapable of following any sort of complicated plot (this one has none of that) or if you are drunk. This film is currently not available on Netflix and is unlikely to do so since the company that it was made by is owned by Disney. I am sure you can figure out how to get it otherwise though :P
