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Acting
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Directing
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Story
Starring: Sophie Nélisse, Corinne Fox, Brianne Tju
Director: Johannes Roberts
Running Time: 89 mins
47 Metres Down: Uncaged is an American film and the sequel to 47 Metres Down. After venturing into a submerged Mayan city while scuba diving, a group of friends find themselves trapped in an underwater labyrinth infested with sharks.
Shark movies like this are two a penny nowadays, so it’s easy to write them off before you even start watching. I made that mistake with this film’s predecessor, 47 Metres Down, which actually turned out to be a genuinely entertaining and tense (albeit far-fetched) survival thriller.
However, when it comes to 47 Metres Down: Uncaged, it’s best that you do write it off before you start watching. It’s a pretty terrible film through and through: a pale imitation of its predecessor, and an infuriatingly boring, badly-made movie.
Now, I wouldn’t expect this to be a masterpiece, but it should at least be a fun movie. Similar creature features like The Shallows and Crawl are enormously flawed, but they have an exciting intensity and fun factor to them that makes them surprising delights.
47 Metres Down: Uncaged, however, takes on an unnecessarily serious atmosphere throughout, ruining any chance of delivering fun, easy thrills. The previous film, too, was a little more serious, but it at least had some engaging emotional resonance between its main characters, while its powerful claustrophobia made it a genuinely intense watch.
This, on the other hand, is set up like any generic haunted house movie. It follows a group of dull characters with little strong connection into the depths of the sea, and does nothing to lend any more dramatic depth to the story.
As a result, the serious atmosphere makes a dull story even more boring. Couple that with murky cinematography that makes it difficult to see what’s going on, as well as confusing set design that makes an apparently claustrophobic labyrinth just go on forever, and there isn’t even a modicum of tension to be found here.
What’s more, while the first film used a depleting oxygen supply to great effect in building tension throughout, Uncaged fumbles in its attempt to do the same, as the characters’ oxygen seems to last forever, right up until the moment that the film decides things are getting a bit boring.
There’s no depth, no plan and no structure to this story, and it doesn’t even deliver on the horror front, with predictable and tame jumpscares throughout. And with sharks made by CGI that looks like something out of Sharknado, it’s difficult not to find the film entirely laughable.
There are so many things wrong with 47 Metres Down: Uncaged. On top of everything I’ve mentioned above, the performances are horribly bland, the visuals are ugly, the pacing infuriating and the soundtrack both distracting and utterly ridiculous.
It’s a creature feature with no thrills, no intrigue and no atmosphere. A painfully boring watch that pales in comparison to its predecessor, 47 Metres Down: Uncaged is a really poor entry in an already terrible genre, and that’s why I’m giving it a 4.4 overall.
