Underwater (2020) Review
Underwater (2020) Review
For one group of scientific researchers, a day at the office has never been easy. With a laboratory located at the bottom of the ocean, conditions can change at the drop of a hat. And when an earthquake damages the lab one fateful day, it seems as if the team will have to rebuild from the ground up. But it’s not as simple as it seems, especially when it becomes obvious that something very strange is happening beneath the water.
UNDERWATER is an ALIEN wannabe that had the potential to be so much more. Instead crucial moments are rather messy to watch and the action is lost in a muddle of images as cloudy as a disturbed sea floor. However the film’s star Kristen Stewart looks great and acquits herself well, as do the meagre supporting cast, but the film is in such a rush to tell its story that there’s little time to engage with the characters or indeed feel any empathy for them.
There’s nothing in director William Eubank’s movie that you wouldn’t have seen a number of times before – and better – in the likes of ALIEN, THE ABYSS or even LEVIATHAN (a guilty pleasure of mine). With an estimated budget of between $50-80million UNDERWATER clocked in with a cumulative worldwide gross of $40million making it a box-office bomb but then the studio probably guessed as much which is why they quietly released it in January, a month notable as a dumping ground for flicks that studios have little faith in.
UNDERWATER was originally shot in the spring of 2017 however due to the acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney the film’s release date was pushed back to January 2020, almost three years later. It became the last film to be released under the banner of 20th Century Fox films with the acquisition of the studio by Disney seeing their name change to 20th Century Studios.
I imagine that through changing hands this film underwent a massive re-edit. The finished product smacks of studio interference with the flick’s death scenes toned down to ensure a more audience-friendly PG13 rating in the States. I anticipate a director’s cut of UNDERWATER in the near future which I imagine will be a more coherent flick and less messy and muddled than the cut we have been presented with now.
