Underwater has some cool elements to it but the lack of character development in any way hinders the story beyond recovery.
“A crew of oceanic researchers working for a deep sea drilling company try to get to safety after a mysterious earthquake devastates their deepwater research and drilling facility located at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.”
Underwater opens with Norah (Kristen Stewart) brushing her teeth as she sits miles beneath the surface in the Mariana Trench. With no time for any type of introduction we’re immediately thrust into the action as the facility she’s in begins to suffer catastrophic damage and falls apart around her. She makes it to one of the access points where she can cutoff contact with the damaged sections, and with the help of Rodrigo (Mamoudou Athie) they are able to close the doors before the rest of the station is destroyed. The two make their way to the command station and rescue Paul (T.J. Miller) along the way. Once they arrive, they find the Captain (Vincent Cassel), Emily (Jessica Henwick) and Smith (John Gallagher Jr.) and must find a way off the station before the pressure crushes everything, finding out along the way the strange cause of the catastrophe.
Underwater’s overall premise was very promising. Without spoiling the ending and knowing the film was marketed as ‘underwater horror’ one might guess where the story eventually takes you, which was definitely intriguing and left me wanting to know more, but that’s the problem with this entire film, you are given absolutely nothing, no piece of information of any kind, nothing to form a connection with the story or any of its characters.
As I mentioned above, the film has no real introduction to the characters at all. We are thrust into this situation not knowing anything about them, and because you find no connection with them you really don’t care if they live or die, making the entire film dull, uninteresting, and quite frankly a waste of time. Kristen Stewart does a fine job leading the film, especially during some of the tense sequences. She seems to be a smart, caring and considerate person with maybe some kind of long history with the Captain, but again, due to the lack of any character development in the story we are just left to speculate. Given different circumstances, I really do think she could excel in this type of role: the Ripley type, which they were clearly going for, but even Ripley went through a drastic change before she picked up that flamethrower in one hand, cat in the other, and kicked ass. Underwater chooses to give her a moment, not nearly as good, in the final minutes of the film, too little too late, but for a story that cares nothing about traditional rules of storytelling, might as well, right? Vincent Cassel is painfully underused. He’s about the only one that has an iota of information to him as we find out about his daughter and divorce, but that information fails to come at a relevant time. Jessica Henwick was one of the only good things about Iron Fist, but here, her relationship with John Gallagher Jr. is unclear, and really the only defining thing about her. Oh, and why is T.J. Miller still getting jobs? The guy called in a fake bomb threat against a woman he got into a fight with on a train. Get rid of him. He is untalented, plays the exact same character in everything he’s in, and needs to just go away.
The best thing about the film is definitely its look. The cinematography can be quite stunning at times, especially the opening shot. The dark, bluish hue throughout the majority of the film really adds to the overall tone. You may not feel connected to the story in any way, but at least you’ll be experiencing it in a beautiful way.
There were elements I enjoyed about Underwater, but adding them into a story where you care nothing about the characters is just pointless. But, if you’re just looking for something to have on in the background you occasionally glance at, this might be one of those films because I promise you, you won’t be missing anything.
