Despite several flaws, The Shallows is still a thrilling experience thanks to a few high-tension moments and Blake Lively‘s fantastic performance. Though not in league as Jaws, this can still qualify as the second best entry in films where shark plays an antagonist (though I admit my guilt of having enjoyed watching Deep Blue Sea more than this… My bad!).

Your breath will be hitched for the most part. I’m not saying that The Shallows is as good as Jaws – the Steven Spielberg film was a masterpiece and it doesn’t seem likely that it will ever be toppled from its No.1 position.

The Shallows fails to invent new things for itself in the third act. It becomes predictable, falling on easy survival movie devices like recording on a video camera, or the fact that Nancy, being a medical student, is able to tend to her wounds. But it is a well-crafted film that engages for the most of its 1.5 hours of running time.

You should watch this film, but you can walk in twenty minutes late for an even better experience, unless of course you dig endless shots of a bikini lady surfing in slow mo.

I cannot emphasise enough how beautiful (and dangerous) this film and its leading lady look. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and rocky waters to say this: give Blake a standalone superhero movie already. God knows, she deserves it. Dive headlong into this one, killer sharks, notwithstanding. But hey, Jaws, it ain’t!

Blake Lively starrer can seem repetitive, and a little pointless in the talk that Nancy has going with the seagull and later with a camera.

It’s a magnificently crafted film, tightly paced, impeccably cut, with tense direction, just enough drama to anchor it all, and a livewire of a Blake Lively performance to keep it afloat when it threatens to get swept under the current.

The Shallows is a taut thriller. It also features some stunning cinematography and slow motion surfing sequences. Director Jaume Collet-Serra has steadily improved over the years making action thrillers with Liam Neeson. But with The Shallows he’s definitely made the best film of his career.

For a survival thriller film, there’s plenty of action and drama in the movie. If you like watching Blake Lively on screen, enjoy doing that for 86 minutes straight. Her perfectly toned body is an added perk. 

For its part, The Shallows’ antagonist is an efficient CGI-created shark, not scary by itself but, like any horror film, what it’s capable of. In this case, its ability to rip a human in half, which it does in one gory instance. But the film is not just about a shark attack, it’s about fighting till the end no matter what and — clichéd as it sounds — overcoming the odds.

Okay, Collet-Serra has taken a few liberties (read: many gratuitous close-ups of Lively’s pert posterior) here but all said and done, this is without a doubt the actress’ most daring and challenging role to date. Blake Lively, take a bow. You rock.