‘The Shallows’ Review Roundup: Blake Lively’s Shark Thriller Is Deeper Than You Might Think

“The Shallows” hits theaters tomorrow, and you may be surprised by how good Jaume-Collet Serra’s survival thriller is. Indiewire‘s David Ehrlich calls it “unequivocally the best shark movie since ‘Jaws,'” adding that “this back-to-basics thriller either eliminates or reclaims all of the excess and gimmickry that have watered down the genre since Steven Spielberg first invented it.”

READ MORE: Review: ‘The Shallows’ Is The Best Shark Movie Since ‘Jaws’

Also enthusiastic is The Guardian‘s Jordan Hoffman: “What could have been mere summertime chum is actually one of the more cleverly constructed B-movies in quite some time,” he writes in his four-star review (out of a possible five). “Without an ounce of body fat on its script, the timing for this refreshing splash couldn’t be better, coming as it does during a deadening summer of flabby sequels. For a slick 87 minutes, ‘The Shallows’ delivers on its promise: Blake Lively, in a bikini, fighting a shark.”

Slant Magazine‘s Carson Lund argues that “what makes the film churn so forcefully for so long, however, is Collet-Serra’s visual acrobatics, which seem almost to flare up in synchronicity with his heroine’s spikes in energy and cunning.” He continues, adding that, “more than that of a babe surmounting a hungry shark, the real story of a conquering here is between the director and his chosen setting. Thank Collet-Serra’s state-of-the-art camera, as it’s both his weapon and his trusty sidekick.”

READ MORE: Watch: First Trailer For Jaume Collet-Serra’s Shark Thriller ‘The Shallows’ Starring Blake Lively

More mixed is Peter DeBruge of Variety. “At times,” he says, “it’s hard to tell whether ‘The Shallows’ is trying to sell a tropical vacation, that Sony Xperia phone or a fantasy date with Lively herself, but in any case, the film looks virtually indistinguishable from a slick, high-end commercial.”

On the deep end of the negative-review pool is Todd McCarthy, who writes in THR that “Shallow is a mild word for it. Others would be silly, miscalculated, unconvincing, artless, pandering, hokey, ridiculous. Or just plain awful.” The film, which opens tomorrow, currently boasts a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 56 on Metacritic.

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