Despite a somewhat scattered presentation and shallow characterization, Underwater manages to float above other films of its type.
Kristen Stewart, wrongly maligned for her work on a decade old franchise, anchors this film with a surprisingly sensitive performance as Norah, one of the survivors on an deep sea drilling rig that must find a way to traverse the black depths and reach the surface. The other characters are serviceable but feel largely one dimensional.
My expectations weren’t exactly high for this film, 90-minute horror films released in January have a certain reputation, and yet, I was surprised by how many things the film does right. There’s an impressive commitment to an industrial style here that works quite well, especially in the first half. The film does stumble later with very messy camerawork when chaos ensues on the ocean floor. It’s not that jerky cam doesn’t have its place, but there’s a difference between communicating the chaos of the moment and visually confusing the audience so much that they disconnect from what’s happening. Another weak aspect was the decision to use slow motion, this isn’t egregious and only happens a few times but I just didn’t feel like it added anything to the moments it attempts to highlight, if anything, by dragging them out, it undercuts the tension of those scenes.
As mentioned previously Stewart’s performance is really what makes this film work as well as it does, she’s competent, yet vulnerable, brave, yet terrified. She’s human, and fully realized despite how little we get in terms of character building. I found myself empathizing with her in spite of how underwhelming I found the plot of the film. Underwater cribs pretty heavily from well established films such as the Abyss and Alien but it does such a poor job of utilizing these elements to its advantage. The Abyss manages to create a sense of community with its characters that this film never gives enough time to foster despite clearly wanting to achieve that feeling. Likewise, the film is way too eager to show off its creature designs that it dissolves a lot of the fear of the unknown quickly, particularly because of how secondary they feel in the scheme of things.
Still, I was reasonably entertained. The film doesn’t drag thanks to its mercifully short run time and its star performance is engrossing enough to carry it through even its dullest sections. Ironically for a film interested in exploring the power of an individual to make a difference, that same character performance is the primary reason to watch the film.
6/10 Doesn’t dig deep enough.