Is JAWS 2 worth it?

JAWS2
Writer: Carl Gottlieb and Howard Sackler
Director: Jeanot Szwarc
Music: John Williams
Based on Characters on Novel by: Peter Benchley
Producer: Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown
Associate Producer: Joe Alves

Have you seen Steven Spielberg's classic JAWS, one of the most horrific thrilling blockbuster movie that Universal Studios has ever made? 

Well, have you seen JAWS2? Its one of the worst sequels to ever hit the movie business! If  you have seen it, some of you may know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, this review may give you some considerations before you see it. The reason I'm doing this review is because this film was a disappointment to the JAWS franchise and people are claiming its the best JAWS sequel movie ever made! Personally, I don't believe its the best JAWS movie, like JAWS THE REVENGE. How can you call this a good movie if the shark looks fake, has bad cinematography, distorted music and sound score, bad acting, pointless action sequences, and most importantly, the film shows the shark too much, which ruins the suspense?  These are some of the negatives I want to include in my blog review. There will be no spoilers, but I will explain certain aspects of the movie which I believe affects the film.

STORYLINE

Roy Scheider has returned to the big screen as Chief Brody, a policeman of  Amity Island in JAWS2, who has a fear of sharks  after a strange encounter in the first JAWS movie. Chief Brody becomes overprotective of residents and believes that another shark has returned to Amity after a few disappearances on the island.  Everybody believes he's paranoid and he ends up losing his job after mistaken evidence but his prediction and fear of a shark problem is actually true.

BACKGROUND

The first things I want to talk about before I explain more of this film is how the decision was made to make the sequel. After the film of JAWS was complete, Universal Studios immediately demanded a sequel. The producers of JAWS discussed if they really wanted to do it because if they didn't, somebody else would make another shark movie.  They felt very protective of the film so they decided to make a sequel based on the characters in the novel by Peter Benchley. Steven Spielberg would have none of it, however. He claimed that he was done with shark movies so the studios decided to use another director named Jeanot Szwarks.

DIRECTOR

I found that the problem with the movie was not hiring the right director ; however, Szwarks made bad decisions from the first day of shooting this film. The director claimed and felt they needed to show the shark often in the film because of the poster in the first movie.  The JAWS poster showed the picture of the shark, but throughout the original film, you don't see the shark until the middle and end of the movie, so Szwarks decided that it was never going to happen again. Because the audience was coming to see the sequel and knew it was about a shark, he believed there was no need for hiding it.

This in my opinion was the sequel's biggest downfall and a very bad decision by the director because it doesn't capture your collective imagination, which would've made things scarier for you.

ACTION SEQUENCE

In the beginning of the film, you don't see as much of the shark except for dated footage of a real shark, which was kind of an overkill for me. For those looking for gruesome and bloody scenes, I must warn you that this film is not as horrific and thrilling as they said it was like in the first film. Perhaps in retrospect the problem of showing the shark wasn't that it was shown, but rather how it was introduced to the audience. 

    

The thing that I found of poor quality in the film were the action sequences. The first bad action sequence that I spotted was the scene with the girl skiing in the water.  She is unaware that she is being chased by the shark in an unrealistically fast speed. The shark swam like it had a motor boat engine!  After the shark eats the girl, the woman who was pulling the girl on the skiis turns around and notices that she's gone and, out of nowhere, the shark attacks her boat.

This next scene is also pointless and I feel it affects the film in a bad way. The shark rocks the boat, the woman overreacts to the situation, and she grabs gasoline and pours it all over her body - as if its a coating of protection. She then grabs a gun from out of nowhere and shoots the shark, leaving a scar on its face.  It leaves, but in the same moment, the woman shoots herself in the buttocks, screams pathetically, and blows the boat and herself to kingdom come.

ACTING & CASTING

This woman's character made a really dumb move for a last chance of survival. She was just not a good actor, but then again she worked with what she was supposed to do so it not all her fault. Its more likely the director's fault, who worked to make this sequence "exciting" but instead, it came off as dumb. 

Joseph Mascolo was another actor who's role I didn't like. He played one of the council members in the mayor's office. I've seen him in good films but he did not play a good role, and as a mater of fact, he played a weak role in the film. His character just did not match, in my opinion, that of a real council member. There were several actors in the film who's acting I didn't like but this one in particular was one of the worst. 

MUSIC

The music of JAWS is strong and powerful. John Williams composed a really strong and scary score for the first film. For JAWS2, however, the music was okay but it was not as powerful as in the first movie, although it was the same composer.  The music sounded very distorted and was not really restored when I bought  it on DVD. This doesn't take away from the fact that I like John Williams music. But you know what really ticks me off? John Williams music does get suspenseful in the film, but unfortanately, the scenes in the film are so over the top dramatic that the music doesnt flow with rest of his music. 

SPECIAL EFFECTS 

The special effects  for this film were really disappointing. The shark in the first film looked really realistic, but for this movie, it looked really fake. The studios spend so much money on set design but didn't put much effort on the shark to look at least believable.  Instead, they give the shark a dopey scar, which made the shark look even worse.  In some scenes, I saw robot machines inside the shark's mouth!  Were we not supposed to notice this magical feature?

SUMMARY

It might just be me, but I know I did not like the obvious flaws in this movie. Sequels are a funny business as they can fall apart if not properly made and this was just not a good sequel. Jeanot Szwark did not do a good job of directing this movie. To Szwark's credit, however, he has done other good films that I've really enjoyed. 

In the meantime, if you don't care about bad sequels, go ahead and see it. Maybe you won't mind the ugly shark or silly shots that I've pointed out about this movie.

"That's a wrap!"

Charlie the pundit