I for one enjoyed Underwater - yes there's various plot holes, what movie has none. There s bit of a question why it went so under the radar with such a great cast (I for one like Kristen Stewart she's done her time since the teen vamp stuff). Its no Abyss and lacks a certain movie gloss however the reason I''m guessing is the Lovecraftian influence. Del Toro's been trying to get a Lovecraft movie of the blocks for years but they do not lend themselves well to blockbusters, well because Lovecraft is so dark. We had another Lovecraft influenced movie recently in the Nicolas Cage led Colour from Outer Space which was wonderfully bonkers. With Video game and movie story telling blurring more and more Underwater does remind me a bit of some Sci-fi games - the detail is there, the intro and end credits expand the story and explain a bit more, disembodied voice messages adding atmosphere as to the environment, as well as pages not even focused on in shot giving more information - some stuff is not spoon fed to the viewer. It does get off to a good start I thought and takes place over not a long period of time. I'm not sure if it would look better in the cinema or not - had a very short run - the in water shots were kinda unclear. However for me its a 7, that's because I appreciate that Lovecraft influence - mainstream viewers may not. It will get compared to Alien and Abyss but to me it does have its character aspect similar to a Lovecraft short story, and that I liked.
Review of Underwater
