Jaws 3-D (1983)

Plot Outline: A baby Great White shark is found inside in the man made lagoon of a Florida sea park. The park owner hopes to put it on display as no great white has ever survived captivity. But after the partially chewed body of one of the gate workers is found, everyone realises that there is an even bigger shark loose in the lagoon - the baby's mother.

The Review: In my opinion, we are looking at one of the worst sequels ever made. The original is a masterpiece and easily one of the top 20 greatest films of all time. The sequel was flawed in many ways but still managed to provide some scares and fun. But this is just.....it's just downright appalling. They've taken the good brand name and completely ruined it with a joke of a film. It was made for 3-D during the early 80s 3-d craze and some of the effects look horrible. They exist simply to allow for a 3-D object to be placed on screen (such as the goggles of the first victim, the half-eaten remains of a fish, etc). Instead of filming and thinking that something might look good in 3-D, some scenes are designed to simply build up to a 3-D moment, instead of furthering the story. There is also a ridiculous 3-D effect when the shark is swimming towards the underwater viewing port but no part of its body moves at all so how is it swimming? The shark looks crap here as well. It really needs to move quicker if it ever wants to catch its prey. The actors underwater simply swim casually away as the shark slowly swims along. Sharks can't swim backwards so once the shark gets trapped in the pipe then its had it basically. Not this shark though. The next thing you know, it will stand up and walk along the beach looking for people to eat. There are very few deaths (6 and that's including the pre-credits fish) and even then they are poor and you can't see what happens in 3 of them (the guy fixing the underwater gate and the teenagers on the boat). The acting is lame too, with the exception of Louis Gossett Jr. who chews the scenery up as the park owner. He knows the film sucks so at least he's going down with a bang.

Final Verdict: It was actually a decent premise and a lot of horror and terror could have been created, especially in the underwater tunnels. But it's completely bog standard execution means this is a quite horrendous film and brings the name of Jaws right down with it. It's a dead heat to say which sequel is the worst out of this or Jaws: The Revenge but both don't do anything to help their cause.

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