Above & Below Review: Antonio Banderas Can’t Save This Sinking Shark Thriller

Above & Below is an example of a movie that squanders a fun premise with weak writing and lazy execution. Throwing the threat of sharks into the storyline of any thriller has the potential to elevate the fun or sink faster than an anchor. The shark subgenre is becoming a specialty of mine. I’ve reviewed several of them over the past few years and, as with any niche, the results have been mixed. Dangerous Animals is a prime example of how to use sharks to a movie’s advantage, with Jai Courtney delivering a career-best performance and serving as the film’s primary villain. Above & Below attempts to create this same, human-level threat with Antonio Banderas, but the Zorro actor feels hindered by a poor script and even poorer dialogue.

What is Above & Below about?

While vacationing in Mexico, a group of friends embarks on an unforgettable boat trip to experience sharks up close and personal on a cage diving expedition. Their day of fun is quickly transformed into an afternoon of terror when a band of criminals, led by Burns (Antonio Banderas, The Mask of Zorro), boards the boat in search of a package of narcotics. With sharks in the water and dangerous criminals on the boat, the friends must battle two threats to survive.

Above & Below review

Audiences have been equally fascinated by and terrified of sharks ever since Steven Spielberg’s Jaws took a massive bite out of the box office in 1975. As the perfect predator, lurking unseen beneath the ocean’s surface, they make for a perfect horror villain. But filmmakers have quickly learned that they’re often best served as a secondary threat, rather than the sole villain. The newest entry from filmmaker Jesse V. Johnson takes that route, using the sharks as only one element of the tension while positioning Antonio Banderas’ Burns and his criminal crew as the primary threat. The problem is, the human threat never matches that of the one in the water.

Banderas is a master of his craft; there is no denying his talent or acting abilities. But he never feels invested in the role and largely seems bored by the material, lacking the menace and persona necessary to make the character feel commanding. The way the action is filmed and edited does the movie no favors. Every struggle feels slow, staged, and lacking in urgency. Armed goons stand idly by, looking confused as action unfolds, feeling more like video game NPCs than members of a lethal drug cartel.

The elements involving the sharks feel much more cohesive and realistic, but they don’t make up for the majority of the film, which flounders. There isn’t a single character that feels genuine. The interactions between the friends are composed entirely of stale, generic dialogue that’s intended to tell the audience, “Look at us! We’re all really close and fun!” But it’s all entirely surface-level and lacks authenticity. That artificiality runs throughout the entire film and is the movie’s ultimate downfall. The relationships feel fake, the threat feels fabricated, the characters feel hollow, and the performances are hindered by incredibly weak and generic writing.

Is Above & Below worth watching?

I watch almost every shark movie I find. I know going into them that the odds are stacked against me, and the majority of them have the depth of a chumbucket. But at the very least, I’ll likely be in for a fun time. Above & Below is intermittently fun, but far more eye-roll-inducing. It certainly has a beautiful setting. The ocean backdrop and idyllic location make for a pleasing visual experience, and the concept of drug dealers tormenting vacationers on a shark-diving expedition is primed for a good time, but the final product is too bland and creatively bankrupt to make this a worthwhile venture.

Above & Below Review: Antonio Banderas Can’t Save This Sinking Shark Thriller