Just when you thought it was safe to visit the Eiffel Tower…
Do we really need another shark movie? Our streaming services have been swamped with them in recent years, with the majority of them being less than fin-tastic. With such crappy high-profile titles as The Meg and 47 Meters Down to bottom-of-the-barrel trash like Sharkenstein and Sharknado, it’s no surprise that many of us are getting tired of this waterlogged action-horror genre.
My expectations for Under Paris were quite low, considering the aforementioned titles (and the myriad of those like them) which proved to be as intolerable to me as seafood. But I’m glad to say that this new French movie, from director Xavier Gens (Hitman), is actually pretty good. It’s certainly no Jaws (or even Deep Blue Sea), but with some decent special effects, bursts of tense action, and an excellent actress in the lead role (Berenice Bejo), the movie is worth sinking your teeth into.
Bejo stars as a scientist named Sophia who, at the beginning of the film, is exploring a polluted area of the ocean to help the sperm whales who have been affected by the plastic waste in the Great Pacific. It’s here where she sees a shark she named Lilith which has now increased in size. Unfortunately, it has also grown in rage, which Sophia’s teammates find out to their cost when it gobbles them up.
Three years later, Sophia is still trying to get over the death of her crew when she finds out Lilith has made her way into the River Seine. It’s little wonder the shark would want to move location, considering the plastic garbage floating above its home waters. But as it has arrived in Paris on the eve of a major triathlon event, Sophia is understandably concerned for the safety of the swimmers.
Sophia warns the Mayor about Lilith’s presence and is taken aback by her response. The councilwoman demands that the triathlon continues, despite the carnage that could ensue if Lillith and her offspring become hungry. This point in the plot is rather contrived – it’s very reminiscent of the scene in Jaws when the Mayor refused to close the beach – but it’s not overly detrimental to the movie.
Despite the lack of originality in the script (which also throws in an ecological message), the movie is saved by a handful of suspenseful set pieces of human vs shark action. The best of these is near the end of the film when the triathlon competitors begin their swim and get pulled into the water, one by one, by the sharks circling beneath them in the river.
Sophia manages to get a cop named Adil (Nassim Lyes) on her side to help her with her mission to stop Lilith from turning Paris’s athletes into fish food. It’s a race against time, with more at stake than the triathletes winning their race across the Seine.
The shark attack scenes are suitably horrifying and mercifully not as gory as they could been. The CGI in these scenes is mostly convincing so we aren’t pulled out of the drama by any badly-done effects. That being said, there’s never a moment when we can be fooled into thinking we’re watching real-life sharks. But that’s not a massive issue in this movie, which, for the most part, is quite entertaining. It’s certainly better than those awful Meg movies and far more realistic too, as Sophia is a far more relatable character than Jason Statham’s shark-punching ‘hero.’
Under Paris is one of the better shark movies I have seen in a while but this doesn’t necessarily mean I want a sequel. Frustratingly, the movie ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so there’s every chance that a second movie will follow. As sequels often have less bite than their predecessors, this is a bit of a worry. But I won’t dig out my shark repellant just yet, as it might be that Under Paris 2 (if it happens) might also subvert my low expectations.
Read More: Under Paris Ending Explained
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Verdict - 6.5/10
6.5/10