Renny Harlin had a decisive influence on Hollywood action cinema in the 1990s. The director’s credits include “Die Hard 2” (1990), “Cliffhanger – Only the Strong Survive” (1993), “Deadly Christmas” (1996) and finally “Deep Blue Sea” (1999), his last big box office hit to date. Genetically manipulated, intelligent super sharks decimated the team at an underwater research station and caused some iconic moments in the process – the scene in which Samuel L. Jackson, in his role of the financier, is eaten by a predatory fish rushing in the background in the middle of a pathetic speech, is unforgettable.
“Deep Water: Surrounded by Sharks” was actually conceived as a sequel to “Bait – Sharks in the Supermarket” (2012). But due to many similarities to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in 2014, the project was put on hold for nine years. After extensive script changes, which were also due to the involvement of Chinese co-producers and the addition of Chinese protagonists, the action thriller was finally realized as an independent project. Renny Harlin is completely in his element in the director’s chair: both the plane crash and the numerous shark attacks are staged with confidence. However, unlike “Deep Blue Sea” with its humorous B-movie charm, the film relies on a decidedly emotional and serious tone – which is why the many flat characters around Aaron Eckhart (with whom Harlin worked again after “The Bricklayer”) are disappointing.
As if a plane crash wasn’t bad enough, ravenous sharks soon appear…
For Captain Rich (Ben Kingsley), who exhausted himself at karaoke the evening before, and his much more conscientious co-pilot Ben (Aaron Eckhart), the flight from Los Angeles to Beijing is actually routine. But because a defective charger belonging to the selfish chain smoker Dan (Angus Sampson) causes a fire in the hold that gets out of control, the plane crashes. Somewhere in the Pacific, miles off the coast of Guam, around 30 people survived the bumpy crash landing – at least for now. Because a whole swarm of voracious Mako sharks is after them.
After a good 20 minutes of running time, Northeastern Airlines Flight 140 makes its grippingly staged ditching – and until then, new characters are introduced almost every minute. In addition to Dan, who will of course be punished as an asshole on duty at some point, the passengers include Sam (Li Wenhan) and Lilly (Rosie Simei Zhao), who are secretly in love with each other, from the same Chinese e-sports team. A patchwork family, consisting of Cora (Molly Belle Wright), who is estranged from her new stepbrother Finn (Elijah Tamati), and her parents Declan (Ryan Bown) and Jaya (Kelly Gale), is also on board. The passengers also include grandmother Becky (Kate Fitzpatrick), who believes that gaming nerd Matt (Richard Croughley) has little chance with the attractive and tough stewardess Zoe (Nashi).
» “Deep Water: Surrounded by Sharks” on Amazon on Blu-ray and DVD*
A total of seven authors worked on the script for “Deep Water: Surrounded by Sharks” and tried to extract as much humanity as possible from the numerous characters, briefly introduced like a drawing board – which composer Fernando Velázquez (“Seven Minutes After Midnight”) gratefully takes up in his interchangeable but melancholy strings and piano score. However, the plot of the catastrophe scenario quickly becomes unnecessarily overloaded – especially because some of the characters end up as fish food pretty quickly anyway.
It’s a lost effort, because ultimately – unsurprisingly – the focus is on the numerous bloody and well-tricked shark attacks, which ensure a lot of tension due to their unpredictability. So you finally forget the emphatically tragic backstory of a pale Aaron Eckhart as Ben (ex-Air Force pilot, no pension, sick child) when he badass-shoots a ravenous Mako shark with a flare straight into its wide-open mouth – and actually briefly brings back memories of Thomas Jane’s performance in “Deep Blue Sea”.
Aaron Eckhart unfortunately remains pale as the trauma-stricken co-pilot Ben – unfortunately so do almost all of the other dozen or so characters.
Even when a quartet trapped in an air bubble has to dive for their lives or a nighttime helicopter rescue operation goes terribly wrong, Renny Harlin shows that he is still a solid action craftsman who can create entertaining action fireworks even with a modest budget of $40 million compared to Hollywood’s A-league. However, a focus on fewer characters, a little less kitsch and a little more logic (crumbling coral reefs miles from the nearest coast?) would have done “Deep Water: Surrounded by Sharks” good.
Conclusion: Emotionally and in terms of the number of characters, “Deep Water: Surrounded by Sharks” is very thick. But in the bigger action scenes and the shark attacks, Renny Harlin proves that he still knows his craft.