Open Water Review
Open Water ReviewDirector: Chris Kentis
Starring: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis
Year: 2004
I remember watching a good number of movies out of my sister’s VHS collection. One of those movies was Open Water. Now years later, with the power of Netflix, I thought I’d watch it and pump out a review. And I’ll be honest, this morning I felt like shit. I felt sick, I needed like three bottles of water in a row, it wasn’t good. Then watching this I feel a little better, because I’m not drinking ocean water for over a day. And I thought this was an okay movie. I thought I’d be going back, and bored out of my mind. And yeah, I was a little. It started, and I could see they were going for normal people for the main characters, and since it’s based on a true story, that makes some sense. It starts, and the camera angles are kind of bugging it. It’s just going in random places, and it doesn’t look good, especially since the quality isn’t good for a 2004 movie. Then later, I didn’t mind. With how many shots are in the water, I’d kill for anything awkward later. And the plot can be piled up pretty quickly. Probably three sentences. Here’s the first two. Two people in a couple are on vacation, and are going to be scuba diving. Things go wrong, and the boat leaves them there. There, that’s two thirds of the entire movie. And I’m guessing the movie came from two things. One: since Jaws people have been scared shitless over the idea of sharks. And two: this one more of a guess, but this guy wanted a movie completely inside the paranoia, never leaving the characters who are likely to die at any minutes. And with that, it succeeds. And yeah, you would think watching two people drifting for hours on end would get boring. And it does. But those moments are a grey line on top of a stronger point, the point that they throw everything they can to make it interesting. And if it did things better, this could have been a great movie. But the characters are too real if anything. Sure they’re relatable, but a movie thriving on fear is simply not enough. We like horror movie characters dying because we were attached to them, (well, some horror movies) and watching them go left and right is like bitch slap to the face after bitch slap to the face. But in the end it works. That feeling you get when you know the characters could die at any moment. Although this did get me on the edge of my feet, I was definitely thinking, "Well, they’re not going to die.” And sorry, everything until the end where they either are killed or rescued is a big tease. Sure it does what it can, but in the end there is not much you can do. The actors do feel real, and they do their part. Their dialogue is simple, and realistic. I felt for them (after they’ve been in the water for awhile) but as soon as your getting into it, the movie ends. It doesn’t suddenly just end, but it ends pretty quietly, and you don’t feel any slap to the face, more of a turning of the stomach. Sorry, but my movies I’d rather be slapped in the face. It’s not that bad, in fact it’s really good. It has a pretty damn good score on Rotten Tomatoes (Hey, for once I’m on the opposite side of the fence) and I can see it’s appeal, but in the end I don’t feel it stands alone for it’s own thing. When I play open world games, I think, "Was that really worth the hours on hours I spend in this virtual world I just left?” When I watch a movie, I usually can easily say even if it’s bad, it was worth the two hours. This is little over an hour, and I don’t feel it did enough. Sure it’s good as its own separate thing, but when I put it up to any movie with a higher score, it quickly falls. I didn’t love the two characters, and although I cared, I wasn’t entertained by them. The story is nonexistent, despite throwing as many things as you can. But in the end you feel about as nuances as them, and how I felt when I woke up this morning. There is little wrong with it, but what’s good doesn’t stand out. It’s a harmless little movie. But there are harmless little movies I’ve gone into, and they turned out fucking amazing. Open Water plucks on the emotional strings, but doesn’t really let them vibrate, just slams its hands down on it and makes anything it had going stop. I didn’t hate the ending, but it was like, "Oh, well we’re over. Peace!” I don’t like those kinds of endings. At least other movies where it practically ends at the climax make them work, and makes what happened to before hand develop in your head, and you have closure. This had nothing like that, it just ended like, "Yep, that’s it.” It’s a good movie to pass some time, but that’s not what movies should be. It’s a good movie to feel nervous or possibly a little scared at times, but movies are suppose to be more than that. I had no fun, and wasn’t really scared that much. I wasn’t moved all that much, and to be honest thought everyone would hate this movie. But no, they’re saying it’s average too good. And usually the movies they say are awful I think are just average, or even like a little bit. I felt even bad movies like the Happening had me more gripped, and cared more for the bad characters. But the Happening at least had that development, and that cold feeling when it was over. This, not really. It’s just in the open water with me.
Open Water gets a 2/5
Spoilers: Well, yeah, they die. And it’s not like the Titanic or something. It’s like if suddenly Jack just collapses and Rose keeps running, then just jumps off the bridge, and ends about thirty seconds later. And yeah, I thought the credits scene was cool, that camera was spooky. But the more jellyfishes, constant shark doing nothing under them, and ships and planes that didn’t do anything but pass by were really getting old. And the music and some other things help, but still don’t erase what’s happening, only dresses it up.
(Received No Badges)
