Jaume Collet-Serra's The Shallows is a perfect piece of pulp fluff. There's not much more to it than an excuse to put Blake Lively in a bikini for 90 minutes: the whole shark attack shtick has been done to death by Steven Spielberg and his imitators. There are some interesting shots of people disappearing behind the swells of waves only for them to vanish. But for the most part it brings almost nothing new to the table in terms of suspense. But Lively is exceptional: she delivers what essentially boils down to a one-woman performance. To her credit, we never get tired of her character. I did enjoy the scenes of her character rationalizing and treating her injuries with the detached air of a practicing physician. And though the whole idea of her mom inspiring her to live was a bit trite, I don't think it harmed the film any. Overall, it's a fun popcorn flick. It doesn't have much more than that going for it, but it doesn't really need to. It gets the job done well enough.
7/10
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