Dark Tide (2012)
Brief review: Stockwell's latest shark flick, "Dark Tide" falls somewhere between the greatness of 2010's "The Reef" and the cheesiness of last year's "Shark Night". It's neither as excellent as the first, nor is as lame as the latter. It's just mediocre. While the whole story feels fairly realistic, and the movie is technically well-executed, it's the weakly-written script, the underdeveloped characters and the many pacing issues that really bring the film down. Moreover, aside from a few chilling shark attacks, "Dark Tide" offers very little to no thrills and suspense. Even though John Stockwell provide us with good variety of camera angles and some amazing shots, mostly underwater, his direction lack something, and that is energy. As a result, the lazy camera work combined with a slow pacing and an overlong running time, make "Dark Tide" a bit boring to watch. The washed-out, fuzzy cinematography give grittiness to the visuals, but at the same time it all appears a bit bland. On a positive note, set in Cape Town, the movie boasts plenty of gorgeous scenery and stunning seascapes, plus, the sharks themselves look thoroughly realistic. Not only none of the characters here is particularly likable, but the actors who play them fail to deliver. Halle Berry looks great as usual, but she gives a surprisingly mediocre performance, and Olivier Martinez along with the rest of the cast are forgettable and somewhat annoying.
Overall summary: A couple of stunning shots aside, "Dark Tide" is just a below average shark flick with very few thrills, that crawls along at a tedious pace, and disappoints with lifeless execution, shallow characters, and unexpectedly sub-par acting by its otherwise solid cast.
12 comments:
I remember seeing something about this when it was in production. Was it originally also 3-D, and kind of racing Shark Night to the theaters? Something like that?
In any case, seems like a home viewing if at all for me. Thanks for the review, N-Man!
Craig, I was actually excited about this one, because I'm a sucker for shark flicks. It was watchable, but also pretty boring most of the time.
I dunno about the 3D and the racing with Shark Night, because it's actually 2012 release (Mar 30), and Shark Night was released back in September 2011.
You're welcome, Mr. C. LOL. My name is George, by the way. ;)
You'd think a shark flick couldn't be boring. Especially when you get to see someone as hot as Halle Berry.
bleh. after the disappointment that Shark Night was, my enthusiasm on shark flicks has lowered a lot.
I'll probably skip this. The teasers look mediocre and the poster is just laughable.
Rick, yeah, I didn't expect it to be boring but it was, at lease for most part. Halle couldn't save it despite her good looks and solid screen presence. In fact, she was almost as boring.
Maynard, I agree the poster looks cheap and horrible.
Hey, it's not as bad as Shark Night, but it's not that great either.
Definitely a DVD showing for me. I long for a truly great shark flick like Jaws, but they nostly go for the gore and scare without thinking about story and other things. Also, can we get one that doesn't involve scientific mishaps? LOL Great, honest review and I can't say I'm surprised by Halle Berry's lackluster performance. She's not a consistently great actress. For every great performance like Monster's Ball or Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, you get Catwoman and Bulworth.
Mel, if you want to see a Jaws-caliber shark movie, than you should definitely check out THE REEF. It's the best shark flick I've seen since the original Jaws. It was tense, realistic, brilliant and terrifying. See it ASAP!
I was kinda surprised to be honest. I expected her to pull this performance off, but she didn't. She's still super-hot though. :)
I tend to be very careful about 'shark flicks'. While I LIKE to be scared by some things, sharks is not one of them.I live on an island. I prefer not to be looking over my shoulder while snorkeling.
farawayeyes, I understand. If I was living on an island, I wouldn't be watching movies that involve sharks either. There are plenty of other scary things that can give you the chills, so you'd better stick with the zombies, ghosts, creatures etc. :)
One of those movies were ten minutes later you ask yourself "Did I just watch a film?"
Alex, exactly.
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