Great White (2021)

Directed by: Martin Wilson | 91 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: Katrina Bowden, Aaron Jakubenko, Kimie Tsukakoshi, Tim Kano, Te Kohe Tuhaka, Jason Wilder, Tatjana Marjanovic, Patrick Atchison, Kate Jaggard

Although they are actually not as bloodthirsty as we often think and the predatory fish relatively rarely target humans, sharks have been popular movie monsters for decades. They probably provoke a primal fear: being eaten alive by a creature that you don’t see coming in an environment where humans as a terrestrial creature are naturally not in their element.

Sometimes that cinematic obsession with sharks leads to masterful (‘Jaws’) or quite acceptable (‘Open Water, ‘The Reef’, ‘The Shallows’, ‘Deep Blue Sea’) nail biters, but much more often to bland and wacky B-movies. . That trend actually started with ‘Sharknado’ (which got a whole battery of sequels) and eventually led to a lot of nonsense prints. Sharks in the snow, in the desert and the streets of Venice, but also zombie sharks, robot sharks and hybrids between sharks and octopuses: you can’t imagine it exists.

‘Great White’ is a film that takes a more serious approach. The film opens with images of a couple enjoying an idyllic splash in Australia’s clear blue waters. However, the fun is short-lived when we see a dark figure approaching from the sky and the water turns blood red a moment later. We then meet Charlie and Kaz, a couple who take tourists on a seaplane for a beautiful day out along the Australian coast. Business isn’t going so well.

But at the eleventh hour, they receive a reservation from wealthy businessman Joji and his wife Michelle. Once they arrive at their destination, however, they come across a corpse, while at sea they also see a capsized boat. Charlie lands and starts looking for survivors. An accident causes the seaplane to break down and the group gets stuck on a raft. It doesn’t take long before they land in the sights of two hungry white sharks.

The prologue and first act of ‘Great White’ look quite promising. Beautiful aerial images of a beautiful water landscape and a solid build-up of tension seem to pave the way to an exciting film. However, that is disappointing. ‘Great White’ mainly uses predictable elements (turbulent waters, legs dangling under the water like tempting shark snacks, the characteristic triangular dorsal fin that emerges from time to time) and therefore rarely surprises. Moreover, the stereotypical main characters pile up the stupid and bad decisions and are hardly explored in depth. The best example is the spoiled and insufferable financial analyst Joji. Pretty soon you’re going to hope that this arrogant lord ends up in the jaws of the hunting sharks first. It also doesn’t help that the sharks and shark attacks are portrayed using rather mediocre effects. The somewhat unrealistic appearance of the predatory fish makes them a lot less scary.

Towards the end, ‘Great White’ goes completely off the rails in terms of credibility. After floating around helplessly, fearfully and above all screaming at sea for a long time, the survivors actively fight the sharks under the motto of girl power. As if by magic, they suddenly appear capable of almost superhuman feats. In the last part, for example, the film becomes unintentionally campy, something that, for example, fits with a film like ‘The Meg’, but is out of place here. Despite some beautiful panoramas and some successful action scenes, ‘Great White’ is a film that barely sticks and mainly sticks to good intentions. If you start biting your nails, it will be boredom rather than excitement.