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December 31, 2013.

This blog is now closed. After three years and 311 posts, I have decided to end this blog. I have enjoyed watching the films, reviewing them, and interacting with global readers.

If you are interested in contacting me, you can do so by commenting on any of the posts. The blog will remain live on the web.
Thank you to all the readers for your comments, ideas, and thoughts. They were helpful, stimulating, and enriching. This is Alene, signing off.

August 2, 2012

Darktide (2012)

When it’s over, this film is a sour batch of soup.  It’s a combination of a bunch of uninteresting ingredients (characters) fermented too long in the cauldron (script).  After a fellow crew is killed by a shark, Kate (Halle Berry), a shark expert, must confront her fears when she is persuaded into guiding a wealthy businessman and his son to Shark Alley during mating season.  The story’s poorly thought out and the characters are as real as plastic figurines.  Most successful shark films have a story that generally deals with man vs. Shark, and how man finds a way to outsmart the predator with common sense and logic.  In Darktide, these elements were definitely lacking.  The sharks were never portrayed as bad or threatening and Kate doesn’t use her wits to outsmart them.  In fact, Kate was actually irresponsible in her actions, making her character de-evolve rather than evolve.  How can you top off a poor story?  A poor cast.  Berry didn’t fit the role as a shark expert; and Oliver Martinez as an underwater photographer just didn’t work, either.   Put these two actors in a film about murder and betrayal, that might work, but as on-and-off lovers swimming with sharks, they just looked awkward.  Even I felt awkward watching them.  The only plus to this film were watching the sharks in stunning underwater photography, making them more interesting than the humans.  

My rating: 2 out of 5


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