Among
fish, sharks are considered comparatively intelligent and sociable. However,
bull sharks are such mean killing machines,even a touchy-feely shark conservationist
like Misty Calhoun won’t go near them. So why would pharma billionaire Carl
Durant make them his smart drug guinea pigs, like Bradley Cooper in Limitless? Maybe it has something to do
with his reckless megalomania. Regardless, people are about to become fish food
in Darin Scott’s direct-to-DVD sequel, Deep Blue Sea 2 (trailer
here),
which releases today.
It
has been a while since the original Deep Blue
Sea released in 1999, so you may have either forgotten it, or been faithfully
pining for a sequel. In either case, you can feel free to dive into DBS2, because there are no returning
characters. We just get another batch of smart sharks. As we know, sharks are Calhoun’s
specialty. That is why Durant wants to recruit her for the project, even though
her value-added seems minimal. At least she can tell just by looking Bella, the
queen bee bull shark is mega-pregnant.
Of
course, Calhoun is appalled by Durant’s scheme, as any rational person would
be. Even his shark herder (or whatever) Trent Slater is pretty disgusted with his
boss. Frankly, Durant was always arrogant, but he has become alarmingly erratic
since he started dosing himself with the experimental cocktail. However, things
really get ugly when the facility starts to flood—and Bella gives birth to a gaggle
of piranha-like babies.
So
yeah, killer sharks. Its definitely meathead stuff, but the execution is more competent
than we would expect. Michael Beach is flamboyantly nutty as Durant and his
motivating fear of an artificial intelligence-induced singularity is an
interesting touch. Danielle Savre also makes Calhoun a pleasingly forceful
protag. However, the rest of the ensemble bring little energy to their stock
characters. Frankly, many of them look like they are just waiting around to get
eaten.
Hopefully,
The Meg will be better than this. However,
as direct-to-DVD sequels go, this is much more watchable than most, but whether
it is worth the nineteen-year wait is a question only you can answer for
yourself. Probably decent hangover viewing material, Deep Blue Sea 2 releases today on DVD, exactly where it belongs.
