Something dangerous lurks beneath the crystal blue waters of “The Shallows”. Critically acclaimed Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra helms this fast-paced thriller about a young pro surfer named Nancy Adams (Blake Lively), a full-time student at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, who is overheated by a stressful last year after her Mother unexpectedly passes away, is surfing at a secluded beach called “Paradise” when she becomes stranded on a giant rock 200 yards away from shore after an enormous great white shark attacks her. Brutally wounded from the dangerous predator, Nancy finds herself abandoned from any other lifeform in the quiet landscape, with only herself to depend on. Now she has to find a way to get safely back to shore without getting attacked by the shark again, proving the ultimate contest of wills. “The Shallows” is rated PG-13 for bloody images, intense sequences of peril, and brief moments of strong adult language.

Over the course of the last fifteen years, survival films are becoming the fad, after hits like “127 Hours” and “Open Water” struck it big. “The Shallows” might not be the best of this particular drama, but it certainly has enough memorable action to make this one cause the biggest splash of the movie weekend. With very little actual running time (82 minutes), the film surprisingly has a strong offering of character exposition and backstory that really left me caring about this girl’s misadventure with great intrigue. The film offers this branch of positivity for the story with some interesting concepts and decisions visually for its presentation. While it has been done before, the use of technological advances like Skype and Instagram certainly doom it with a timestamp for this place in time, but it does accurately portray what young adults use for communication. How this is used so smartly is that we hear about everything our main character has went through in her troubling past in passing conversations with her Sister and Father. Most importantly, screenwriter Anthony Jaswinski doesn’t beat exposition over the heads of his audience. If you miss it in the opening fifteen minutes, you may be lost for the entire film, and I love that lack of practicality when it comes to storytelling.

Blake Lively is also excellent as Nancy, displaying a satisfying blend of emotional distress and relatable personality. Lively hasn’t really taken a step as big as this film has given her, and she more than succeeds on the film’s heavy coating of vulnerability and suspense. She feels like more than a cardboard cutout that is the status quo for these films, and a lot of that has to do with her carrying the entire reigns on her shoulders for this movie. The film only has seven characters in it, most of which are in passing with Lively, so she really does serve as a one-woman show for the movie’s progression. We never leave her side through every single minute of terrifying carnage that she perseveres through. And oh what carnage it is. The movie certainly tiptoes the line of its PG-13 rating, offering plenty of cringe-worthy moments that even had me squirming in my seat. To say that Nancy takes a beating in this movie, would be selling it short. Collet-Serra is all about putting his main protagonist in harm’s way, and it’s that danger that really sells this movie as more than just another shark movie.

The film also uses some nice spins on a tired CGI format for its monster. There were a couple of times in the movie where you can spot the computer generated movements of the underwater destroyer, but I really had to look hard for a majority, as the first half of the movie really had me guessing if a movie actually used animatronics to establish the menacing and intimidating presence. There are very little jump scares, and what ones there are makes sense with how the shark lunges at the screen.

Some of my problems with the movie came in its predictability, as well as a double cover-to-cover problem on the story that really angered me in terms of script. On the former, the film is pretty basic with its structure, and that is because of poor ideals when it comes to foreshadowing scenes. What do I mean? Well, sometimes in movies a film will begin a movie midway through the story and give us plenty of clues to spoil our initial welcoming into this plot. This more than happens in “The Shallows”, as the opening five minutes give away more than one clue as to what is coming, and frankly I can’t understand why it was in there to begin with. If we just begin the movie in real time, nothing is sacrificed creatively, and maybe just maybe there is a little extra shock factor to a familiar premise. I mentioned about this being a cover-to-cover problem, and the post-ending scene left me with a bad taste in my mouth leaving the theater. I won’t spoil anything for the readers, but there is nothing believable about this two minute scene, and Collet-Serra should’ve just left it on the editing room floor. It makes everything about the previous 82 minutes seem pointless.

“The Shallows” certainly isn’t treading new water, but it does swim instead of sink with a compelling character and a heart-pounding radiance of well-built suspense. A fun and effective popcorn thriller that really packs a bite for the audience. Welcome Ms. Lively, we’ve been waiting for you.

7/10