Am I the only one who thinks Jaws III is the worst of the lot?
I can't sleep and have nothing to do, so I thought I'd share my two cents on this.
(SPOILERS)
Often I hear Jaws: The Revenge described as the worst of the saga, as well as one of the worst movies of all time. While I agree it's not a good movie and it's full of useless scenes and bad pacing,awful effects and a stupid story, I believe the third to be the worst.
Here's my reasons:
-
The shark in Jaws III is the worst of all the movies. It looks like a toy floating in the water; the teeth are too few and it really looks like it's made of plastic.
-
The director clearly hasn't understood the principle of why shark movies like Jaws work: it's what you don't see which is scary. The idea of a shark coming from beneath is scary, the fact that the ocean is huge and dark and it could be everywhere is scary; a shark very slowly approaching in a straight line is not scary.
-
The acting is the worst ever seen in the saga.
-
The characters are all unlikable idiots, especially Martin's girlfriend and Lea Thompson's character.
-
Even though the mother shark is supposed to be huge, it passes through extremely narrow places like the gate and pipes, without ever getting stuck. It's size doesn't seem consistent and doesn't seem to have any consequences on its movements across the environment. Also, sometimes in the movie when it's swimming near people, the fin is right behind them, therefore the shark's head should be underneath them. However the fin is shown directly behind them, as if it's supposed to look like it's chasing them. Makes no sense.
-
Lousy 3D.
-
The fucking dolphins.
-
They blow it up with bombs which happened to stay in it's mouth, in the hands of a guy that had been eaten. That's just stupid.
-
No attack scene has any suspense, you never get excited. Things just... happen.
Now, Jaws: The Revenge is full of awful stuff. Too may sex jokes, disrespectful mentioning of Brody has having died of fear, boring and pointless scenes, the absurd way the shark just blows up, the shark roaring all the time etc
However, it does have its moments in my opinion, like the killing of Sean (which is actually a pretty cool scene which keeps in mind that what is scary is what we don't see) and the attack on the little girl, which isn't too bad, especially the way the fin comes out of the water, that shot I always liked.
The characters have their moments and they're not as awful as in the third movie, and they also feel more like the ones from the first movies(in the third movie, they could be anyone, it makes no difference). I also personally like the idea that Ellen is pissed and wants closure, it makes sense.
Music is better, not as kitsch as in the third movie.
Also, we get Michael Caine.
What's funny is that the 3d has a better idea (the idea of Jaws trapped in the park could have been used in a great way) but handles it in a terrible way, giving us a dull dull movie; 4 has a silly premise (vodoo curse, shark wanting revenge and following them around the world etc) but it handles it better than it could have, giving us some fun scenes to watch.
Neither of these movies are good, but 4 has a few redeeming features, which 3 hasn't, in my opinion. And to me 3 is the one that deserves more to be called one of the worst movies ever made.
These are my two cents, what do you think?
Edit: Phrasing.
2nd Edit: Spelling.
Posted Apr 14, 2013, 12:53 AM UTC · edited