“It’s okay, no sharks come here”

***

The warning signs are there from the off that we’re heading into rough waters with this one; odd stylistic choices, clunky dialogue and cheap slo-mo bikini shots, all within the opening act. Glimpses of early promise appear in the form of some effective underwater photography, where striking blood red contrasts with the rich ocean blues, and where the restrained threat of a deadly shark looms at large, but those flashes are swiftly replaced with egregious foreshadowing and tiresomely predictable bloodshed.

The big bad shark itself remains better served as an off-screen threat than a fully revealed, budget-stretching CGI beastie, and in spite of Blake Likely’s committed performance, her character offers less of interest than the seagull which accompanies her through her gory predicament. The Shallows walks firmly along the already well-trodden shark movie path and staunchly refuses to falter from the course set before it.

Rating (out of 5):