A pretty great sequel

I think it's unfairly judged FOR being a sequel, as opposed to being viewed as a film in it's own right. It's never fair to compare to an original. That is why it's an original. It's the first, it has a blank slate, it can set the standard. A sequel has to overcome that stigma. People claim T2 as superior. It is superior because the special effects had greatly advanced in 7 years and had a LOT more money thrown at it, something like 10 times more, I forget the actual budget right now.

Jaws 2 produced some truly memorable moments in cinema history. When someone says "which Jaws is which?", you can answer simply by saying "Jaws 2 is with the waterskier" or "Jaws 2 and the teenagers on the boats" or "Jaws 2 is where it bites the cable". The tagline is immortal. It had characters that we liked from the first. It had some incredibly successful action sequences that surpassed the capability of the shark in the first film.

Yes, the shark was shown a lot. I agree with Jeannot Szwarc's decision. When the viewing is sitting down to watch a movie about a killer shark, they want to see a killer shark. Hiding it as much as they could would be pointless. We've all seen Bruce from the first film. We know what it looks like. That Spielberg hid it is because it was broken. He didn't design the movie that way. He had to think of other methods. If the shark had worked, would Jaws 1 have been as popular as a finished product? It would probably be as reviewed like Jaws 2 is. A fun adventure with a few screams.

Except a lot of people aren't being objective. They say Jaws 2 is terrible. I say they're wrong, because the fact that they need to come online and write about a 36 year old movie - that shows it has longevity. It remains, without a doubt, the second greatest shark movie and that has to do with the fact that a lot of the elements from the first - cast and crew - returned, so it has that similar "feel".

In a time when computer effects were non-existent and they had to use mechanics, or sharks being towed by boats, I think it's an incredible film that holds up very well and it saddens me that certain people have such limited vision to appreciate a film on it's own merits. It all depends on what you want from a film. Do you want to be entertained? Then watch it as it is. Do you want to go in and watch it with a "it's a sequel, it's going to be bad" attitude? Then you'll be proven right and never get the enjoyment out of it.

The point of a sequel is to take the successful elements of the first, repeat it, but tell it in a different way.

Thank you cast and crew for all the effort put in, I think you did a great job under difficult circumstances of trying to make the movie, the original director getting fired and have a new script come in as you were filming the available pages written shortly before. I defy anyone else to do better and generate a movie that is 36 years old, still a talking point and remained one of the top box office grossing movies for 2 decades.