47 Meters Down
Adventure
'47 Meters Down' Blu-ray Review: 'Jaws' this ain't
September 28, 2017Ben MK
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FEATURE: Ever since Jaws launched the era of the summer blockbuster over 40 years ago, audiences have been fascinated with watching their favorite actors go mano a mano with one of nature's most fearsome predators. From Samuel L. Jackson to Blake Lively, some of their characters have lived to tell the tale, while others haven't been as lucky. Now, it's Mandy Moore and Claire Holt's turn. A high concept thriller that reduces the battle between human and shark to its barest essentials, the film follows Lisa (Moore) and Kate (Holt), two sisters on vacation in Mexico. As part of her attempt to help her sister get over her recent breakup, Kate convinces Lisa to go clubbing one night, where they meet two men who invite them to go shark diving the next day. However, when the winch lowering their shark cage into the water malfunctions, the pair find themselves trapped 47 meters below the surface, in shark-infested waters. With their oxygen supply also running dangerously low, Lisa and Kate's situation becomes a nail-biting race against time, and the perilous nature of their predicament isn't lost on director Johannes Roberts nor his co-writer Ernest Riera. Indeed, the pair may have taken an extremely straightforward approach to bringing this thriller to the screen, but at least the movie mostly succeeds where it counts, putting viewers on the edge of their seats each time the sisters set into motion a new and daring plan to try and avoid a watery grave. Ultimately, however, what may leave viewers disappointed is the lack of a truly intimidating antagonist. While 47 Meters Down follows in the footsteps of films like 2016's The Shallows, what's missing here, in comparison to its predecessors, is a singular-minded predator intent on cold-blooded murder. Instead, the sharks here are simply creatures that happen to appear occasionally to assist the movie in meeting its quota of jump scares, making bait-and-switch advertising the real villain of the piece.  47 Meters Down's early sun-soaked scenes stand in a stark contrast to the majority of the film, which takes place in the depths of the ocean, where dark blue hues, yellow spotlights and glow-in-the-dark breathing apparatuses dominate much of the screen time. Still, the 1080p picture quality here is never murkier than intended and, despite some minor banding, manages to impress itself upon viewers well enough. Paired with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sound mix that delivers plenty of metallic clanging, garbled radio transmissions and sudden jolts of noise as sharks attempt to chomp down on our two protagonists, the result is uninspired, but solid nonetheless.  VVS Films' single-disc Blu-ray release includes the following Blu-ray extras:
47 Meters Down is available from VVS Films as of September 26th, 2017. The Blu-ray features English and French Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks. The film is presented with English and French subtitles. The total runtime is 1 hr. 29 min. |
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