Studio: 20thCentury Fox
Director: William Eubank
Writer: Brian Duffield, Adam Cozad
Producer: Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Tonia Davis
Stars: Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher Jr., Mamoudou Athie, T.J. Miller
Review Score:
Summary:
When a massive earthquake destroys a deep sea drilling station, six survivors discover unfathomable dangers while making their way across the ocean floor toward safety.
Review:
Plenty of people have likened “Underwater” to “Alien(s).” Apparently irked by the comparison, others have asked, “does every movie featuring an entrenched blue-collar crew battling an unknown entity while helpless in a harsh environment have to be called an ‘Alien’ clone?”
Yes. Yes, they do. Certainly in this case at any rate.
Start with the setup. Tian Industries (cough, Weyland-Yutani, cough) has teams of engineers, scientists, and wise-crackers embedded an unprecedented seven miles down in the Pacific Ocean. Their deep sea drilling operation purports to be about resources and research. Later clues point to at least one authority figure secretly staying silent about strange sights and sounds reported in the murky darkness. Something else is going on down here, and Tian knows more than they’re telling its employees and the press.
One character wears a tank top with a rainbow reminiscent of the Nostromo’s logo. Another wears a Hawaiian shirt like Harry Dean Stanton’s and a headband like Yaphet Kotto’s. If “Underwater” doesn’t want “Alien” on your brain, it does a terrible job of not constantly reminding you where its inspiration comes from.
How is “Underwater” not like “Alien?” Well, the film starts with a literal bang. After meeting Kristen Stewart’s Norah, who serves as our surrogate Ellen Ripley complete with a shaved head, a catastrophic structural breach immediately devastates the submerged station where she works. Chaos consumes the rig as several workers die while others successfully eject in escape pods. Norah eventually unites with five other survivors now stranded in a collapsing structure surrounded by deadly dangers on all sides.
“Underwater” earns deserved applause for getting straight to the “good stuff” six minutes into the movie. Some supporters of the fast start have gone further by saying the film doesn’t feature a first act at all.
That’s not true. “Underwater” includes average amounts of cursory exposition. Delayed introductions just take place after the explosive opening. Following that initial frenzy, huffing and puffing calms down considerably as Norah puts together the “team” one person at a time. By the half-hour point, right when you’d expect such things to happen, the first meaningful death occurs and “Underwater” returns to following formula.
The best thing going for the film is its cast. Without the screen presence brought by talents like Stewart, John Gallagher Jr., et al., characters would waste away into wisps due to underdevelopment. It’s the personalities of the performers, not their roles, that move the movie. Without their charismatic chemistry engaging our attention and maintaining small spurts of tension, we’d be left to snicker at the beyond bulky pressure suits that make everyone clomp around like 40k Space Marines.
Pre-cancellation T.J. Miller provides, what else, comic relief by growling out his trademark shtick. It’s a lot harder to find his humor favorable now that he’s colored by offscreen issues. Yet most of Miller’s moments are surprisingly endearing in addition to being funny. “Underwater” fits as a solid sendoff for the ‘sarcastic sidekick’ stage of his career before he inevitably tries to reboot his image.
Vincent Cassel manages to still be smolderingly scary even though he plays a caring captain exhibiting sincere concern for his crew’s safety. Cassel’s casting creates a tell in that anyone familiar with his usually villainous roles immediately suspects he’s not being upfront about everything. But the balancing act he does to meld icy intensity with persuasive confidence makes for a man I’d follow into a fiery fray, although I’d still be frightened of falling on his bad side.
While Norah and company crawl through collapsed tunnels and struggle with oxygen depletion and drowning threats, “Underwater” marches to the familiar beat of a routine claustrophobic chiller. In other words, steel yourself for the standard suspense of flinching at shadows, creeping around corners, and trying to make out exactly what those fanged shapes are that lurk in the darkness.
While you’re at it, you may merely want to anticipate a pretty typical C+ creature feature. No need to mention “Alien” again. Just think of “Life” (review here), “The Cloverfield Paradox” (review here), or any other moody monster adventure that blurs together in your memory after you’ve seen one too many takes on that template.
Review Score: 55
If you want to see impossible amounts of blood explode crimson colors like the world’s worst version of a gender reveal, well, “Abigail” at least has that.