Underwater Movie Review

Underwater (2020)

Rent Underwater on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad (screenplay by), Brian Duffield (story by)
Directed by: William Eubank
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, Mamoudou Athie, T.J. Miller, John Gallagher Jr., Jessica Henwick
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
A crew of oceanic researchers working for a deep sea drilling company try to get to safety after a mysterious earthquake devastates their deepwater research and drilling facility located at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Verdict
It's a send up of Aliens, just underwater, with all of the tight quarters-must escape tropes you've probably seen before. The near non-stop action keeps this entertaining, though there's very little time spent in creating the characters. We don't care about the characters. The most interesting thing about the plot can only be seen if you pause the movie at just the right moment. The plot is simply escape.
Skip it.

Review
The movie was originally filmed in 2017, but didn't release until later.

This is part Aliens and part The Meg. , though it's not as good as either. Underwater jumps into the action fast. We're into the main plot of 'stay alive' in less than seven minutes, and that's counting production company logos and credits. This movie is racing to the end. It doesn't even take time to build tension. So big or devastating moments don't have any impact.

John Gallagher Jr. and Jessica Henwick.

The weakest part of Underwater is character development. T.J. Miller plays to type with his wise cracking character and it's just annoying. The rest of the characters are less than generic. Kristen Stewart is the protagonist, a mechanical engineer who's knowledge amasses whatever she needs in the moment. Since none of the characters get an introduction, we don't have a lot of reason to care about them.

Kristen Stewart plays the lead.

We don't know much. This is some kind of underwater drilling operation. That's all we get. The situation goes from bad to worse. They're isolated and have to make a last ditch effort to jump to the ocean floor and get to a substation with escape pods. Despite half of the remaining crew having no experience diving, which seems odd for an underwater station, no one has any issues in the dive suits built like tanks.

Despite the movie's faults, it is entertaining. This is a non-stop action ride encompassing all of the close quarters monster tropes.

The most interesting plot point happens when Stewart's character stumbles upon the Shephard station which she was told was destroyed. If you pause the movie when she's looking through the captain's locker, you will see sketches that tie into the plot. None of that is explicitly mentioned in the plot. It seems the captain may have known the terrible outcome depicted in the movie was more than possible. That would be a nice detail to weave into the plot. I wonder if a lot of plot was cut to shorten the movie.

There's plenty to nitpick about the movie, the most glaring detail is how depressurization is only an issue which it's driving plot issues. With a focus on just action, this isn't a boring movie but that action comes at the expense of developing most of the plot and any characters.