Jaws 3-D

A pair of Great White sharks attack Sea World in Florida.

Jaws 3-D is a mostly weak film but has the redeeming quality of presenting such an outrageous concept you cannot help but watch it unfold. Additionally, it's artistic and technical merits are quite enjoyably flawed.

Jaws 2 was an unnecessary yet well made sequel, but having members of Brody family face yet another "murderer" shark is a laughably daft concept. Rather disturbingly it continued a trend of movies that demonise sharks. There are numerous other ideas involving the behaviour of sharks/dolphins and reactions of the main characters that are equally as bizarre, but if you can switch the brain off and appreciate their entertainment value you might find it a worthwhile investment of time. It also contains recycled character arcs from the original movie that feel like pale imitations.

Technically it has problems, particularly when most viewers will not get the chance to see the theatrical release. Most visuals designed for a 3-D experience stand out and do not have the same impact.

The shark horror sequences have little build up or tension and are quite unconvincing. I do admire the ambition of attempting to create a victim's perspective sequence from the inside of its mouth, but most of the final scenes of painfully slow moving underwater horror, (particularly the moment in the control room) are incredibly ropey.

That's not to say that the classic original did not (in principle) have the same problems. A mechanical shark looks like nothing else in every Jaws movie. However, Spielberg understood this and wisely kept the shark mostly hidden and focussed on developing great characters and tension.

I feel sorry for the editor of this sequel as it appears they had to cut together footage from both above and below the sea level that make the water's depth and lighting conditions look very inconsistent.

For some balance I am positive about the performances. Most actors do their best with dodgy material. Louis Gossett Jr, Bess Armstrong, and the coked up Dennis Quaid standout. Lea Thompson has some memorable moments as the "professional water skier". It feels the direction was more focussed on making the cast look good in shorts and swimsuits than character portrayals, but they manage to elevate some scenes. Armstrong convinces me as a whale/dolphin wrangler and I think she is the strongest performer.

As a young child of the 80s I quite enjoyed it on VHS. On a recent rewatch I placed it in the genre: so bad it's good, and sub-genre: never rewatch and spoil that of which you have fond childhood memories.

I'm certain if you read the screenplay for this third entry in the Jaws franchise you'd think it could amount to a solid sequel. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the idea, it at least adds many new elements to the Jaws formula. Where it all goes wrong is in the execution. The acting, direction, and production values are way, way below what they should have been. The 3-D effects are ridiculous. They bring to mind a SCTV parody of 3-D films, with exaggerated tricks that add nothing to someone watching this in regular format. Compare this to something like The Creature From The Black Lagoon, or It Came From Outer Space- those films were 3-D but play perfectly well as flat films. But those were made by people with talent, this film is not.

There's also the weird idea of using the Sea World park, but making it a fictitious one located near the ocean with completely different attractions- it's a strange bit of promotional advertising. The real Sea World is quite different, and yet it's shown with all these fantastic elements that are pure fantasy. A better idea would have been to name the marine attraction something original. The scenes somehow come off way more corny and trite than the actual theme park was at the time. The use of the dolphins is a great idea that is staged horribly. The old Flipper show had better shark vs. dolphin scenes.

The effects are wretched. In fact, had they worked it would have helped save the whole film from being a waste, but they are totally amateurish, below that of a Roger Corman exploitation film from the 50s or 60s. One expects more from a major studio mounting a sequel to a mega-hit.

The actors offer nothing here. Dennis Quaid and Louis Gosset have shown remarkable talent, but none of it is on display here. Bess Armstrong and Lea Thompson are both very attractive, but again they don't really add anything, and Thompson seems especially vapid here. Luckily all these actors are in a film so filled with incompetence that the music, effects, editing and overall storytelling distract from their work.

JAWS 3 is one of my favorite childhood movies, I was so glad they did not make JAWS 3 take place on Amity Island where it would be just another remake of the first JAWS like JAWS 2 was, they went in an interesting direction, took a gamble and to some it worked and to some it did not the same can be said for HALLOWEEN III which is also a good movie. Joe Alves is a great director and his vision for the film works for me. If I were to complain about anything it would be the lack of people being eaten by the Great white Shark, especially during the water skiing scene where no one die I think at least one person should have gotten the big bite. The underwater scenes were done very well and in 3-D looked fantastic, I think a lot of the bad rap JAWS 3 gets are from those who have only seen the 2-D version, it is a shame that theaters can't do 3-D anymore it would be fun to have these classic 3-D movies pop up at your local Multiplex from time to time. On a final note The soundtrack to JAWS 3 by Alan Parker is outstanding.

I had avoided seeing this film for fifteen years because of it's bad reputation and because I love the first Jaws as one of the greatest movies ever made. Having survived the horror of "Jaws: The Revenge" once, I decided to see if I could brave this one, though.

About the only thing that surprised me was that the premise wasn't quite as dumb as "Jaws: The Revenge" is. And while there is a reference to the events of "Jaws 2" at least they don't insult our intelligence with a shark pursuing one family etc. of any "Brody curse."

What sinks this film though is that it's dull in every sense. The FX are cheap and terrible and too often it's hard to figure out what's going on here. Scenes that could have been suspenseful with a competent director just plod along in a muddled fashion. In the end, Jaws 3 comes off more as a glorified made for TV type disaster movie with none of the high quality that elevates the original Jaws above such fare.

Jaws 3-D (1983) was not only a sequel to the first two JAWS films, but it was also one of the few movies that took advantage of the rebirth of the 3-D fad that was sweeping Hollywood during the early 80's (see Amityville 3-D and Friday the 13th 3-D). When the film hit the video shelves, they scrapped the whole thing. Why make a 3-D movie in the first place if you're not going to take advantage of it when it's available for the home video market? The video looked bad when it was released as a rental. Many of the scenes that were shot didn't make any sense or were badly projected. The movie did poorly at the box office and after a couple of years, no more mainstream films were presented in 3-D. The movie itself is pretty bad. Only for die hard fans of the JAWS series.

Not recommended, unless they re-release it in 3-D. other than that it's pretty much worthless.