47 Meters Down is a 2017 drama/horror film directed by Johannes Roberts, and stars Mandy Moore, Claire Holt, a bunch of people who don’t matter, and Matthew Modine. The plot follows two sisters who go vacationing in Mexico and are invited to go cage diving and see sharks up close; unfortunately, the cable holding the cage breaks and it plummets to the ocean floor with the two girls trapped inside. With their air supplies running low, and being stalked by great white sharks, they must find a way to escape.
I don’t know what it has been with these past few reviews, but these films are getting worse and worse every time I do them. So to me, 47 Meters Down was an absolute train wreck. This film feature some of the worst continuity, possibility, writing, and acting I have ever seen.. Okay, maybe I’ve seen worse when it comes to acting, but still.. this is bad. Not only did this film have me screaming at the screen in rage of implausibility, but it also had me staring at my watch waiting for the suffering to be over.
So the acting in the film.. terrible? Yes. I’ll end it at that. Okay, okay, yes the acting was bad, but what could have made this so bad? I mean Mandy Moore is seen as pop culture legend, there’s no way this can be a bad film since she’s in it, right? Well I think it is partially due to its writing. The film does such a horrible job getting us (the viewer) to care about these sisters that it’s amazing these girls are even sisters to begin with. First, they look absolutely nothing alike, and second they go through a midlife crisis-like, “You’ve always been the cooler one..” type of argument. I’m an only child and even I know that this crap narrative that doesn’t happen in real life. The character development is little to none, and by the end of the film I started rooting for the sharks. Honestly, there guys were the real heroes in this film. The rest of the cast doesn’t even matter except for Matthew Modine if I can even say that he’s a character, as none of the extras past the two sisters are of the slightest importance.
But the characters weren’t the worst part about this film, no no no.. that goes to the errors in continuity and plausibility. There is so much to talk about on this topic and to be honest, I’m gonna name most of the issues here. First, there is no way these girls are talking to each other underwater, as they have no earpiece, and most of all.. they’re underwater! Second, if you sink 47 meters down you will get the bends. It’s not just something that happens when you swim up straight. Nope. It also happens when you dive straight down. Third, nitrogen narcosis is a real problem that divers have to constantly deal with.. But! The effects that are shown in this film occur at a depth that is not true to form with the depth that they are currently at. And to be honest, the main symptom that this film features as a plot device doesn’t even occur for another ten or so feet! And that’s if it even happens since that’s still a shallow depth for those symptoms to occur. And fourth, sharks will attack.. flare or not. IT DOES NOT MATTER!
Ugh, this film is just full of so many issues and problems that I just don’t have the time or patience to point out all of them. This film’s writing was a complete joke as half the time I didn’t know which sister was which, and for the most part, I didn’t care about any of the repercussions that you end up seeing towards the end of the film. Like the thing I thought was the worst part about the writing (aside from all the errors) was it’s ending. You could tell that they obviously wanted to surprise the audience with a twist ending, but it’s like a bad joke from Baywatch as it just doesn’t deliver. You end up spending a good 20+ minutes with this bogus ending, and when the twist comes you’re like, “Yes, I can see where this is going. Awesome.. hopefully they’ll end it here.. that would make a really cool ending.” But instead they hold it out to the point where the audience is like, “Okay movie, I get it.. you tricked me.. wait.. Are they seriously not going to end it here? Why, movie! Why?” And kill any sort of twist with way too much closure. Don’t give me closure film writers! Let me interpret it!
As for the visuals and sound design.. eh.. I wasn’t impressed. You could clearly tell that this was produced and filmed in a large pool, and there was really nothing special about the set design either. The sound was bogus as I mentioned above, as the girls had no ear pieces and so they’d have no way to communicate with one another. Even the music and this film didn’t help in building suspense, and wasn’t at all memorable either. The only thing that seemed probable out of this entire movie was the amount of lighting at that depth. Other than that, there was really nothing plausible or outstanding about this film’s visuals and sound.
So yes, 47 Meters Down was indeed one of the worst movies I have seen in recent time. It features some of the worst continuity, characters, acting, and writing that I can recall, and was ultimately a great concept torn apart by the sharks that are represented by the issues I listed above. 47 Meters Down ultimately got a “Very Bad” on theVade Review Bar, which is a first here on theVade. Skip this one folks, as it is one that you’d rather be mauled by sharks over and over again than watch, and that’s if the continuity doesn’t kill you before then.
