Mark Reviews Movies: 47 METERS DOWN: UNCAGED

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 15, 2019

The idea of a direct sequel to 47 Meters Down is almost as silly as that movie becomes by the third act, so while it might sound a little grandiose in the context of this particular movie, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is more of a spiritual or thematic sequel. The key filmmakers return, as does the title, but there's also the fact that our protagonists are sisters, albeit stepsisters in this one, trapped in a restricted space, which is a system of ancient caves—just a considerable bit more expansive than the shark cage of the previous movie.

Oh, the sharks return, too, obviously, but that should be a given. They're not the same sharks, one hopes, but that also should be understood without explanation. That would just be really, really silly.

More silliness is definitely something this movie couldn't take. It's almost the right kind of preposterous, in that it relies on a group of characters doing something quite dumb, only to follow it up with further stupid decisions, and getting in trouble by way of increasingly treacherous situations. It takes a bit for co-writer/director Johannes Roberts to find that rhythm of increasing peril, but when he and fellow screenwriter Ernest Riera do, the movie comes pretty close to transcending the long, awkward roll-out to its later, rather entertaining folly.

A plot is necessary, if only because the act of setting it up gives Roberts and Riera the chance to pad out the already-short running time. Here, Mia (Sophie Nélisse) and Sasha (Corinne Foxx) are sisters by way of the marriage of one parent each to the other. They attend a school in Mexico (which looks suspiciously like the poolside area of a resort hotel), while Mia's father Grant (John Corbett), an archeologist or something close enough to that job, explores the ruins of a now-submerged Mayan city, built among the catacombs to protect that civilization from the encroaching conquistadors.

Grant and Sasha's mother (played by Nia Long, in a glorified cameo) want their daughters to bond, so Grant sets the girls up with a glass-bottom boat tour to watch great white sharks. Instead, the two sisters ditch the boat ride and join two of Sasha's friends, Alexa (Brianne Tju) and Nicole (Sistine Stallone), for a relaxing day at natural pool in the forest. Obviously, it's not going to be too relaxing.

The girls realize that the entrance to the sunken city is just under the water, and hey, Grant and his assistants left behind diving equipment here. Could there be some kind of foreshadowing in the fact that Grant gives Mia a shark tooth he found in the system of underwater caves? Do you think they'll wish they had taken the sight-seeing boat tour instead?

The remainder of this almost doesn't need to be explained, because of course there's a shark in the caves and of course the girls become trapped inside the cavern system and of course Grant's assistants, who just happen to be nearby, end up meeting grisly fates to the teeth of that undersea monster. The shark is blind, by the way, although it seems quite capable of sneaking up on and swimming directly toward anyone who doesn't matter to the story anymore.

The first act or so of Roberts and Riera's script is disheartening in how rote and predictable it is, as well as how paper-thin these characters, despite the lengthy exposition, end up being. It starts to feel like a cheap cash-in on a successful movie (Since most of the sets are stone-paved caverns shot in the dark, it's almost a certainty that multiple sets, if not shots, are used again and again), with only some silly moments (A fish literally screams at the girls) and some clunky dialogue to keep it interesting in a mock-worthy way.

Then, something happens. It's not a particular moment, although the transition happens when the surviving characters seem to have made it to safety with plenty of movie remaining. It's more of an attitude adjustment on the filmmakers' part. There has to be more to this, and if there must be more, why shouldn't they simply embrace the extent of how much more there could possibly be?

That's when Roberts and Riera throw everything at the characters. There's a way out, but one character freaks out in the least productive way imaginable. There's another shark. A seemingly vital character dies without warning. There's a race back into the caverns and against the clock of the constantly diminishing level of air in the survivors' tanks.

There's a grand abyss, leading to the crushing depths and housing a terrifying current that threatens to pull down anyone near it, and a scramble to rescue someone, as well as a difficult climb above the whirlpool. The sharks keep coming back, and characters have to make impossible decisions in which there's almost certain death to the monsters' teeth or slightly less certain death.

Basically, Roberts doesn't give us time to think about any of this. The third act of 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is a rush of obstacles and complications, both absurd and relatively logical—before going completely bonkers with a climax that, somehow, brings back that glass-bottom boat. That turns out to be the right approach to such material, and it's only too bad it takes so long for the filmmakers to learn that.

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