i watched deep blue sea, and in a way it was what i expected. it was fun to watch, but part of that fun was in the formula. the characters were pretty well stereotypical so you knew who'd die, and i even got the order down pretty well. but it was also exceptionally well done for its genre. I have never quite understood why I like this genre so much. I seem to have a softspot for them. As long as they're well done, and this one definitely was.
when i said "in a way it was what i expected" i mean that in certain ways i knew what was going to happen. Certain people survived who I had pegged for dead, and also people died when I had them pegged as survivors.
but, one notable rule was broken. The Brother Always Dies First. This is a rule I've always been against, and in this day and age you'd expect more filmmakers to intentionally stay away from carrying this out. Anyway, LL Cool J was one of two survivors at the end of the movie. of course, some of what he was part of was really formulaic, but the makers of the film obviously knew it and were just having fun with the genre. like the whole thing in monster movies about the last monster. it's always the hardest one to kill, and it's always the smartest and meanest. when trying to kill it, the plan seemingly falls through, then suddenly works again. Woohoo! Back to what i was talking about now. LL Cool J not only does NOT die first, he survives the course of the movie. Director Renny Harlin seems to enjoy teasing the audience into thinking that he's going to die, then he survives.
anyway, another way it sort of breaks the formula is in who it kills. Sam Jackson (who looked to be having a blast, by the way) gives an inspiring speech about how they WILL survive, then is eaten. To tell you exactly where he's eaten, I don't have the cruelty to give that away. But when watching the movie, you can see it happening. Jackson's death was against the mold for his character type, although when he's actually seconds from death, we see it being called. An interesting addition here; "Arlington Road" sort of holds itself up to this movie. It was more ludicruous than "Deep Blue Sea" and for that reason I'm glad I saw it on home video, with the good ol' fast forward button. Sometimes it was just unwatchable. But Tim Robbins really saved that movie as well. I think of this for two reasons. First, it holds as another action movie from the year that I enjoyed. Second, Tim Robbins seemed to have as much fun in his role as Samuel Jackson did in "Deep Blue Sea." Two great actors slummin' it.
also, in movies like this, only 2-3 people ever survive. the atypical loner type hero, and the damsel in distress. occasionally we see a buddy of the hero survive, but i correctly assumed it wouldn't be happening. the buddy in this movie fit more into the "good for a few tasks, and then good for the hero to see being eaten alive for tension's sake." But here they killed the girl. This was definitely not what I had expected. LL Cool J survived, which is good. His character really kept the film moving along. I've never said this about any movie I've ever seen him in before, but he did a very good job at keeping in character. And the "damsel in distress" did not. Now, normally the director doing this would be bad. You create a female lead to sympathize with, then kill her. Although I wouldn't outwardly say that's not good, I would have ended the film not feeling too good about the movie as a whole. But in this case they get away with it because our female lead is combined with the stereotypical "overly smart pretentious scientist out to change the world." she created the sharks, and her death sort of keeps in stereotype because it's her proverbial "comeuppance."
It was interesting, right up until they showed her being ripped in half and swallowed whole, i figured she'd get out of it somehow. At the time, I hadn't really figured out that she *was* the mad scientist. I figured there was none. That's another way this movie broke the genre. The mad scientist is usually truly dastardly and breaks away from the group, only to come back later to kill them. She was with them and on their side through the whole thing.
this isn't art, you don't need to see the movie to know that. but it was a fun movie, and what it did it did very well. it amused me because i was able to catalogue who'd die in the first scenes from the way they acted. like the radio operator on the surface, the fat annoying lady. I saw her, she didn't even have to talk. Goner, is what i thought. I see a helicoptor ambulance coming in, my first thought is "goner" and i was right again. This could have very easily turned into another "Deep Rising" but it kept itself in the arena of subliminal self mockery without delving into public humiliation.
Oh yeah, I was really surprised when i noticed that LL Cool J was the most fun part of the movie. I mentioned the rule above, The Brother Always Dies First. this rule is not only unwritten gospel, but it's even referred to in the movie! really poking fun at itself. that's one of my favorite parts about movies like this. i don't like a cheesy action movie that's full of itself. LL Cool J was just a funny guy in the movie, and the writer's decision to allow us to *think* he's going to die right up until the end is really well played out. I admit i was a real nay sayer when this movie came out, it's not really often you find a fun action movie; maybe 4 times per year, at the most. but this year i've found two movies of the genre that are a lot of fun and are able to poke fun at themselves. not only is the film sufficiently suspenseful, it's kept trim at less than 2 hours. that's something that the other good action movie of the year (The Mummy) didn't do. it was over 2 hours, and I think that was really the only detractor to the entertainment there. also, both movies kept a certain air of humor about themselves. like i said, this movie wasn't great, but it was plenty fun for me. i think it's something visceral. sometimes i just like to see shit get blowed up.