Summary
Sequels can be dangerous. A great film can spawn an endlessly enjoyable franchise under the right circumstances, but a bad entry can ruin the legacy of the early days. When a movie with a simple central concept is a success, the follow-ups should be obvious. How does something as elegant and effective asJawsturn into an unmitigated disaster by its third sequel?
Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classicJawsis credited with creating the summer blockbuster as fans understand it today. With a small cast of minor stars, dozens of screaming extras, and three gas-powered sharks,Jawsbecame the highest-grossing film ever released at the time. Modern cinema wouldn’t be the same without it. It didn’t need a sequel, but its impressive box office take made one inevitable.
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What isJaws: The RevengeAbout?
Former Police Chief Martin Brody has passed away, leaving his widowEllen on Amity Island. Brody killed the abnormally large great white shark that terrorized the territory many years earlier, making him famous. Ellen lives near her youngest son, Sean, who followed his father’s footsteps into the Amity Police Department. Sean is sent to clear blockage from a buoy a few days before Christmas. He’s attacked by asuspiciously enormous great white shark, which mutilates and kills him. Distraught, Ellen leaves Amity Island for the Bahamas with her eldest son Michael and his family. Ellen believes she’s escaped her greatest fear but swiftly discovers that the beast is following her.
Michael works as a marine biologist. He and his colleague Jake discover a great white shark in the water, though it’s much warmer than their natural habitat. The shark haunts Ellen’s nightmares. She seems to develop an empathic linkwith the great white, allowing her to sense when it’s about to attack someone she knows. Michael and Jake want to study the shark, but it seems to have a pathological hatred of them. It doesn’t act like a normal animal. It seems to hold a grudge against the Brody family. Ellen determines that the beast that ate her son won’t rest until it’s consumed her entire brood. Once again, it’s up to a Brody and their allies to take down the monster of the deep.
Why wasJaws: The Revengeso poorly received?
Jaws: The Revengeis a strange case. The quality of shark movies is a broad spectrum.The Revengeis better thanmost trashy SyFy moviesabout marine predators. It would have likely been better received without the wordJawsin its title. Returning star Lorraine Gary and the main characters' last names connect the film to its predecessors, but the title conferred expectations that crushed the film. The film’s subtitle and tagline sold its hilarious premise. The audience is to believe that the shark of this film is somehow exacting vengeance upon the originalJaws’s killer. Its desire to kill the Brody family specifically suggests some connection to the previous shark. It’s not dissimilar to the twist inHalloween 2. It’s one of many absurdities that makeThe Revengemuch funnier than the rest of the franchise.
The Revengeis a film in which Ellen Brody’s connection to the shark leads her to see visions of its attacks. She has traumatic flashbacks of events she didn’t see. The shark inThe Revengeroars, despite lacking the lungs it would need to produce sound. It frequently comes across as a parody of itself. The film was rushed through production to capitalize on the limited success ofJaws 3Dand to promote theJawsride at Universal Studios. Its dodgy fake sharks shined a light on the success of the original film. Director Joseph Sargent, late ofThe Taking of Pelham One Two Three, was derided for his work on the project.Roger Ebert’s review ofJaws: The Revengeremains one of the funniest pieces of cinematic criticism of all time. It deserves its reputation, though it’s still fun to watch.
How does Jaws 4 end?
Ellen decides that only she can end the shark’s reign of terror. She commandeers a boat and sails off to confront it. Her new partner, a pilot named Hoagie, flies Michael and Jake in for a landing on the ocean. The shark drags the plane under, forcing the three of them to leap into the water. Jake is bitten as the three men assemble a shoddy device that emits electricity. Jake jams itinto the shark’s mouth, causing it to leap from the sea and roar repeatedly. Ellen rams the shark with the sailboat. In the original ending, the shark thrashes wildly as it dies, leaving Ellen, Michael, and Hoagie to swim to shore. The revised conclusion depicts the shark exploding for unknown reasons before Jake cries out for help. Either way, Hoagie flies Ellen back to Amity Island.
Jaws: The Revengeis a great watch for fans of “so bad, it’s good” cinema. It’s a comical decline for the franchise. The film broke even financially but massively underperformed compared to the other entries. Its withering critical response places it in the exclusive club of 0% positive scores on Rotten Tomatoes.Jaws: The Revengeholds many lessons for long-running film franchises, but none so succinct as the simple virtue of letting something dead remain dead.
