Such a missed opportunity

The lagoon scene was definitely a missed opportunity, especially the part with the girls in dresses skiing in formation. They were moving so slowly, and when the fin pops up behind them, it’s moving in line and at the same speed, as if the shark were part of the choreographed performance. Moreover, the fin is so close to them that with a 35-foot long shark, its head must have been directly beneath a couple of them. When they fell, one of the girls could’ve landed on its snout or in its mouth. And strangely, the shark seems to have disappeared momentarily as the girls were scrambling to get out of the water. The shark may have seemed like an even more menacing presence in the film if it had eaten one of them.

While, from a dramatic standpoint, someone should’ve been eaten in that scene, I thought the deaths they did show in the movie were fairly gruesome and brutal. This shark liked to crush its victims in its mouth. Blood flows, bones crunch noisily, and victims scream while getting eaten. Overman met his fate with a nasty crunch. FitzRoyce was totally engulfed and “chewed” for a rather long time, viewed from inside the shark’s mouth as it worked its powerful jaws up and down on him, tossing him around like a rag doll and crushing him to death amidst a cacophony of crunching and screaming. And Calvin’s nephew, of course, got noisily crunched and crushed at the end with a few quick, hard bites in a swirling cloud of blood. Still, an eating scene in the lagoon might have made the shark seem to be even more of a threat than it already was and make the audience more sympathetic to its ultimate demise.

I may be in the minority in saying this, but I thought Jaws 3 was a little better than Jaws the Revenge. Sure, neither was a masterpiece, but the story seemed more believable, and the overall production value seemed a little higher to me in 3 than in 4, which felt cheaper and more rushed in its making. There were more places in Jaws 4 where you could tell that you were looking at props and set pieces, such as one segment where you can see water lapping up against the matte painting used to represent the horizon and another segment where you see the shark’s dorsal fin slicing through the water and you can see that it’s only a fin on a sled--there’s no shark body attached to it.

I thought the shark looked better in 3 than in 4, too--more menacing and not as fake in overall appearance. I agree that the special effects in the movie weren’t that special (though I thought the part where the shark ate FitzRoyce was unique and well done), and there were obvious moments designed to pander to the 3D nature of the film, but overall, 3 “worked” for me more than 4 did. I hope that if they release it on Blu-ray, they can improve the quality of the print so it’s not as dark, flat, and grainy as it is now.

I’d go for a remake of 3 and 4, but only if it has top-notch CGI and animatronics, a compelling story, and kill scenes that still gnaw at you a little as you’re leaving the theater. That’s the kind of emotional impact that makes me feel like I got my money’s worth and what I’d expect from a movie that tries to make me seriously believe that the shark is truly a menace that needs to be killed.

Bad news.

The Jaws attraction at Universal is no longer there. I believe it's been replaced with a Harry Potter ride. I can't believe its gone. I got to do it twice and it was awesome.

They need to bring Jaws back.

I will give them credit...they did try to do something different by putting Jaws in Sea World. The idea was great, but the execution wasn't.

The special effects were atrocious, but I actually enjoyed this film more than part 2. The whole film had a more fun vibe to it. It got bad in the last 20 minutes or so, but until then I actually thought it wasn't all that bad.

Very good. But brick not hit back!