Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1213458
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 FEBRUARY 2020 10 FILM EVERYONE loves a creature feature, but the recent ones we've been getting have proven to be a tad patchy. Underwater is perhaps a slight notch above the rest, though that's more down to the game cast and some expert- ly designed jump scares rather than the inherent structural in- tegrity of its script or the vision of its director – cinematogra- pher turned filmmaker William Eubank, working off a script by Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad. And in fact, the sudden lack of structural integrity is argua- bly the main trigger for the plot here, as a deep-sea mining pro- ject under the Mariana Trench run by the shady Tian Indus- tries hits a pretty major snag when its base becomes compro- mised by what appears to be a violent earthquake. This all happens as Tian me- chanical engineer Norah Price (Kirsten Stewart) brushes her teeth during her morning ablu- tions, even if an overlaid voice- over – whose stilted, poorly written nature gets no better when it reappears at the climax – informs us that day and night has ceased to have any meaning to Tian's employees, and that her particular glorified incar- ceration among its ranks may or may not have something to do with the fallout of a recent per- sonal tragedy. The quake that announces the action is a beau- tifully designed jolt that is hardly matched by what follows, even as the Lovecraftian sea monsters make themselves known. But Underwater remains a solid slice of B-movie schlock that peeks its head just above its more recent counterparts, such as Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), sequels to variously promising fran- chises which have failed to live up to the bursting fun of their on-paper concepts. There are moments when Eubank's trip six-to-seven miles below the seabed dredges up creepy hor- rors which may, in a flatter- ing light, resemble something that comes close to the legacy of Ridley Scott's original Al- ien (1979). And in the wake of the inglorious evolution of that particular franchise, the grimy and stripped down hide-and- chase monster feature, with the androgynous and convincing Stewart at its centre – now ful- ly rehabilitated as a bona fide actor post-Twilight, much like on-screen partner Robert Pat- tinson has been – serving as something of a Ripley stand in, might be a welcome balm for Alien fans looking for more old school thrills. Sadly, a lot of the promise is sucked out by muddled pho- tography and sound design, where injudicious dim lighting and mumbly dialogue is put for- ward as a shoddy replacement for what could have been an authentically claustrophobic, haunted moodscape that is red- olent to the horror-overtones of the venture. Cast-wise, Vincent Cassel is brought in to match Stewart's A-lister chops as Cap- tain Lucien, and Deadpool's T.J. Miller all-too-easily slips into Kirsten Stewart works hard to lend some earnest dramatic chops to this dour, murkily lit creature feature that nonetheless delivers the thrills when the occasion calls for it Teodor Reljic The great escape from a watery grave Scarred but regrouping: Kirsten Stewart and Vincent Cassel attempt to make the best out of a terrible situation in this entertaining but derivative undersea creature- feature by cinematographer turned director William Eubank