Dr Lenera
Posts: 3450
Joined: 19/10/2005
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Four years after the events of Jaws, Saif Adris Khan is opening a new resort in Amity to attract people. Two divers are photographing the wreck of the Orca, Quint’s boat, when they are suddenly killed by another large great white shark, though not before one of them has photographed its eye. After another death and a dead killer whale is found beached with wounds all over its body, Police Chief Martin Brody is convinced another shark is on the loose, but Mayor Vaughn refuses to believe him. Brody stops Mike from sailing and, when he mistakes a school of bluefish for a shark, causes a panic on the beach. Despite now having the photograph of the shark’s eye as proof, none of the members of the town council believe him and he is fired from his position, just when Mike and some other teenagers decide to go sailing……
They were really brave by making Jaws 2 [1978], to be honest. Though it was a production that was bound to make money, its predecessor was so good that in terms of sheer quality they were asking for trouble. There was no way they could really match it. Taken on its own Jaws 2 is a solid, entertaining movie, and I think the fact that it’s such a drop from Jaws has caused it to be underrated somewhat. It doesn’t seem they were trying to match the first film. All they were trying to do was make a similar but simpler, lighter, more kid-friendly [I suppose one could use the term “dumbed down”, but that does the movie a disservice] variation on it. In that, they certainly succeeded. Jaws 2 is a mostly well acted, technically proficient, well paced and often exciting movie, and actually for younger viewers and those out for some mindless shark thrills, it might be more appealing, as in this one you certainly see the mechanical fake animal throughout!
Jaws 2 was an even more troubled production than Jaws, and it’s a wonder that it turned out as well as it did. Originally it was to be a prequel about the sinking of the Indianapolis and Spielberg actually wrote a script, but he couldn’t shoot for another year due to making Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. John D.Hancock began shooting with a script by Howard Sackler, with alterations by Hancock’s wife Dorothy Tristan. With Amity as a rundown, virtual ghost town, the Mafia, and lots of gore, this looked to be as intelligent as, and darker than, Jaws, but the studio wanted a lighter, brighter film, so Hancock was replaced by Jeannot Szwarc and Carl Gottlieb asked to return to rewrite the script. Roy Scheider returned as Brody but hated doing the film and rowed with Szwarc constantly, while, again, the mechanical sharks were a nightmare. Eventually costing three times the amount of Jaws, Jaws 2 came out amidst a wave of publicity and merchandise and quickly became the highest grossing sequel to that date. As with Jaws, a slightly longer version was shown on US TV with some deleted scenes restored, most notably the shark attacking the helicopter pilot and two extra bits involving the town council. It’s also worth mentioning that a version of Jaws 2 was once shown on Irish TV with a shot that has never been officially shown elsewhere, where you see one of the girls, Marge, inside the shark’s mouth.
So what we basically have is a film which is partly a semi-remake of Jaws but which is also partly more of a teen horror movie, closer to something like a slasher film at sea. The opening scene is actually very clever in the way it plays on audiences memory of the original picture’s beginning. Two divers are swimming underwater and John William’s atmospheric music, with nice use of a harp, emphasises both the beauty and the mystery of underwater, but not menace and horror for a few minutes, until suddenly the famous two-note theme kicks in, though faster and somewhat lighter, and the divers are killed. This time there is no blood though, in fact Jaws 2 has hardly any of the red stuff at all and just one good shock, a bit where Brody ventures out from the beach to a wreck and is greeted by a burnt corpse. I sometimes think if Jaws 2 would have benefitted from exploiting its slasher film aspects such as going for the gore and having the teens do more with each other than chat each other up, and I reckon the studio would have done this if it had been made a couple of years later when Halloween and Friday The 13th had both been smash hits.
Never mind, Jaws 2 trudges along in its pleasant way and never really makes any major mistakes, though it annoyingly introduces its teenagers near the beginning and then all but forgets about them until half way through when they set out on their foolish boat adventure. It’s also ridiculous how no one believes Brody second time round, even the Mayor, who was around when the first shark was eating his people. Roy Scheider though is excellent in these scenes; in fact, he’s terrific in the whole movie, with the absence of Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss not leaving too much of a hole because it allows Scheider to shine and boy he certainly does. It’s a mark of his professionalism that his unhappiness during the shoot doesn’t affect his performance. He is wonderfully warm in the scenes with his wife, which may slow the film down for some but pleasingly show a marriage in a film of this type that is love-filled and not beset with problems.
As before, the first half has a few shark attack scenes before revving it up for the second half, though the intensity of the previous film is only occasionally reached. Szwarc refuses to copy Spielberg very much and manages to use to his advantage the decision to show the shark throughout by filming some scenes behind or even on the animal. It’s quite exhilarating being, or being right behind, the shark at times, though it does mean one is less scared. There are also some great aerial shots which show the sheer size of the beast. An early attack where the boat explodes is very well edited and one scene where a girl is in a boat and her boyfriend is in the water desperately trying to swim to her, replete with the girl screaming at him, has a real edge to it. You still see the shark from the front an awful lot, though him having a burned face helps things a little, and I do think it looks slightly better than before. We do, though, finally arrive at the point where the series officially gets silly when the shark capsizes a helicopter. Still, they did well keeping things believable up to now. The climax is well worked out and even clever in the way the shark is dispatched, but just isn’t quite as thrilling as it should be.
Besides Scheider, the performances are mostly fine, with Murray Hamilton and Joseph Mascolo appropriately sneaky as the Mayor and the real estate developer Len Peterson [has there ever been a nice real estate developer in a film?], though it would not be till the fourth film that Lorraine Gary’s character Ellen Brody would get some real development [and we all know how that turned......damn, I’m getting ahead of myself!]. The teen actors fare okay but are not characterised enough for us to care about them. A highlight of Jaws 2 is the fabulous score by John Williams. He brings back his main theme from Jaws but uses it less and gives it differing variations, while overall following the tone of the film by giving the score a sunnier feel, with some great jaunty pieces for the teenagers sailing and some beautiful underwater music. While Jaws 2 is a pale shadow of Jaws if you watch one movie after the other as I have just done, its score is in my opinion a better musical work and superbly played too [now where’s the complete soundtrack release somebody?]. Overall I do like Jaws 2 quite a bit, it’s a relaxing, pleasant watch and it has enough good qualities to justify its existence…though I think I would like it even more if it wasn’t related to Jaws at all!
ORDER OF SERIES IN TERMS OF QUALITY
1/ Jaws Rating: 9.5/10
2/ Jaws 2 Rating: 7.5/10
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check out more of my reviews on http://horrorcultfilms.co.uk/
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RE: WEIRD/STRANGE favorite movies fan base? - 
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of course some you do like get a real pasting too
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