47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019) Review

"It's a dead end!"
-Sasha



A group of teenage girls decide to do a bit of cave diving to check out an ancient Mayan city.  After they get trapped by a cave in, the girls have to find a way out of the cave system before they run out of air.  To make matters worse, some Great White Sharks have made the cave their home.


What Works:

My favorite part of this movie is the use of slow-mo.  There are a handful of absolutely gorgeous shots that are in slow-mo.  The opening shot of the movie shows Mia (Sophie Néliss) falling into a swimming pool and later we get another slow-mo shot of her firing a flare gun.  They look incredible and are the highlights of the film.

This movie is pretty dumb, but it does have some fun sequences.  One I really like had the girls using a distress alarm to keep the sharks at bay.  The alarm flashes red light.  The alternating red and black makes for a memorable sequence.

The kills are mostly unmemorable with one exception.  I'm always up to see someone get ripped in half by two sharks.

Finally, the 3rd act as a whole is incredibly stupid, but boy is it fun.  The final swim to the boat is gloriously entertaining and cheesy.


What Sucks:

Man, the writing for this movie absolutely sucks.  The dialogue is generic and terrible all around and once they get in the caves, it gets really repetitive.  Three times, the girls run into what appears to be a dead end only to immediately find a way out.  All three times, they have the same conversation about it being a dead end.  It's like the writer copied and pasted the scene into three different spots in the movie.

None of the characters are likable in the slightest.  I didn't have anyone to root for.  The girls range from boring to irritating and it was hard for me to be invested in their story.

Finally, most of the move takes place in underwater tunnels.  That makes it hard to tell what is happening some of the time and I often didn't know who was who.  The filmmakers needed to do a better job at showing us what was going on.


Verdict:

I think the original 47 Meters Down is slightly better than this sequel.  There are a few fun moments and sequences, but the characters and the writing suck and it's hard to tell what's happening a lot of the time.  I can't give it a recommendation.

 4/10: Bad   

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