Underwater

UK Release Date. 7 February 2020
Certification. 15
Running Time. 1 hour 35 mins
Director. William Eubank
Cast. Mamoudou Athie, Vincent Cassel, John Gallagher Jr, Jessica Henwick, T. J. Miller, Kristen Stewart.
Rating. 42%

Review.

Apparently, it was a long, arduous and torturous journey for William Eubank's Underwater to ever see the light of day. Filming and production concluded in 2017, but the film sat on a shelf for almost three years before an unspectacular release in 2020.

Underwater employs a familiar plot line. A crew of aquatic research scientists are left isolated when an earthquake destroys most of the Kepler 822 Station, a research and drilling facility situated on the bottom of the ocean. 

Substituting deep space for the deep sea, it’s fair to acknowledge there are obvious similarities between Underwater and Alien,

• The authority, resilience and quick thinking in the face of an unknown threat displayed by the main protagonist, Norah Price (Kristen Stewart) are characteristics shared with Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)
• The bulky deep-sea diving suits used by the crew of Kepler Station bear an uncanny resemblance to the suits worn by the crew of the Nostromo as they explored the fateful chambers of the moon LV-426 (Acheron)
• Hell, Kepler 822's engineer, Liam Smith (John Gallagher Jr), even sports a blue headband to evoke memories of Nostromo's chief engineer, Dennis Parker (Yaphet Kotto). 

The deep, dark water proves to be just as forbidding as the vastness of space, heightening the sense that something is lurking out there. There’s a lot in the way of exposition - a reactor is reaching meltdown, a diving suit is running low on oxygen, etc. - but little in the way of sharply defined characters or interesting dynamics to spark genuine interest. This was one of Ridley Scott's (many) masterstrokes - the character development of the crew of the Nostromo.

Following an initial expositionary title sequence, the film opens with an impressively ominous opening scene as the camera descends to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Once onboard the research facility, Eubank throws us straight into the action with a frenetic opening sequence. Indeed, the first hour of the film is enjoyable - the relentless pace is maintained amidst a tense and taut storyline. But once the surviving crew members venture out into the cloudy depths of the Mariana Trench, the film implodes with heavily effects-laden kaiju sequences.

Joining the ranks of Leviathan, DeepStar Six, Deep Rising and Sphere, Underwater is ultimately yet another damp and flaccid attempt to translocate the Alien formula to an equally hostile environment.