Blake Lively is Nancy Adams, who is on holiday in Mexico, taking a sabbatical from her studies in medical school after her mother has passed away following a battle with cancer, in order to track down a secluded beach which was her mothers favourite spot. When her friend bails on a day on the water with her she decides to continue with her plan regardless and heads out for a day enjoying the waves.

All starts well as she meets up with some locals who give her a few tips about the dangers under the water such as coral and rocks but what none of them realise is that a far greater danger is nearby in a huge great white shark which has claimed the area as a feeding zone. When she is chasing one last wave before calling it a day she comes across a whale which has been attacked and realises that the waters may not be safe. As she is making her way back to the shore she is attacked by the shark and barely manages to haul herself onto a rock which has appeared as the water approaches low tide. Badly injured and seemingly without any means of escape she must use all of her survival instincts in order to win the battle of man (or in this case woman) versus nature.

The first thirty minutes or so of this film felt like it dragged a little, although it was needed to give some background and exposition via phone conversations with her sister Chloe (Sedona Legge) and father (Brett Cullen), photographs of her mother and a section of surfing which threw me back to the original Point Break movie, I wanted to see a shark and I was waiting to see a fin or some ominous underwater presence. I will say that once the shark does appear however it is worth the wait as it looks spectacular. The movie then kicks into it’s main event and for an hour or so we are treated to a good, tense and dramatic film. Lively does a good job of making the situation and most of her actions believable however there are a few moments which go a little too deep into asking me to suspend my belief, for instance there is a part where Lively does a bit of self surgery with what I termed her Swiss Army necklace which, while graphic and with the desire impact to make your toes curl, and while doing a good job of showing just how tenacious Lively is, felt a bit over the top to be realistic and there were a few moments of co-incidencal events that just felt included to move the story along.

All in all for a movie which is for the most part, in essence, about a woman trying to escape from a rock, with next to no interaction with any other actors and only the shark and Stephen Seagull for company (you’ll see what I mean) it done a very good job of keeping you watching and engrossed. There are a few heart in your mouth moments so the sense of the danger and peril was always there and Lively held the screen very well with her performance.

While it is obviously going to be compared with Jaws and there are a lot of nods to that movie, it was going to be a tall order to live up to the standard of one of the greatest films of all time so take it on it’s own merits, enjoy a survival tale where director Jaume Collet-Serra has done a does a good job of keeping you on the edge of your seat despite the very basic premise. The movie does have a few nice surprises as you expect one event but it doesn’t quite occur like that as the shark does something different which was a nice twist.

Forget this being sold as a horror movie and take it for a good action film which, as most good action movies do, expects a certain element of leaving your analysis on hold and just going along for the ride. If you can do that then there’s a good film in store for you although I recommend you catch this one on the big screen as I feel that some of the drama may be  lost in the transfer to the smaller screen.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6 out Of 10