Jaws 3-D

Joe Alves’s Jaws 3-D has a sensible place to put a shark and disappointingly little idea what to do with it. A marine park ought to be useful territory for a thriller, since everyone arrives expecting the animals to be under control. Sea World gives this film that starting point, but the human drama keeps getting in the way of the danger. This is a poor sequel with occasional liveliness in the attacks, and a 98-minute running time that feels generous.

The screenplay by Richard Matheson and Carl Gottlieb spends too much time on relationships that give us little reason to care about the people involved. Dennis Quaid plays Mike Brody and Bess Armstrong plays Dr. Kathryn Morgan, and both are agreeable enough company when the writing lets them be. We were bored by their relationship scenes, because they delay the shark without making us more concerned for either person. Their conversations need more humour, or sharper disagreements, to justify how long we spend listening to them.

James A. Contner’s cinematography rarely makes us anxious about what might be outside the frame, a serious shortcoming in a shark film. The 3-D asks us to attend to what is coming towards us, but anticipation needs more than an effect aimed at the audience. Editors Corky Ehlers and Randy Roberts do little to make the stretches between attacks feel tense. Joe Alves also moves on from the great white too readily, so even the creature’s appearances can feel less satisfying than the wait promised.

Woods Mackintosh’s production design at least gives the marine attraction some appeal, and the setting remains an asset even when the story struggles. There is room here for the pleasure of exploring a place as well as the fear of what might be swimming through it. Alan Parker’s music supplies some urgency, although the score is too often left to encourage excitement that the scenes have not earned. Louis Gossett Jr., playing Calvin Bouchard, brings welcome energy; more of that energy in the writing would have helped.

The attacks provide the clearest evidence that this could have been an entertaining, undemanding thriller. For brief stretches the danger is immediate, the conversations stop taking priority and the shark gets the attention it deserves. We do not need elaborate psychology from a creature film, but we do need either people worth worrying about or suspense that can manage without them. Too much of Jaws 3-D passes without either, and the extra dimension does nothing to improve the pace.

This is not a sequel we would choose for a return visit, nor a promising place to begin with shark films. Its reputation for being poor should not be taken as a promise of an entertaining evening spent laughing at it. Dull stretches remain dull in company, and there are too many here to excuse as part of the fun. Reserve it for a completist evening, with company that will not object when the conversation starts.