JAWS 2: The Best of the Sequels

  How many times do we go in to see a sequel, expecting the original, only to be disappointed.  And so it was for me, back in 1978.  I walked into the theatre full of hope.  And walked out full of disappointment.  Jaws 2 wasn’t that bad of a movie, especially viewed years later.  And ESPECIALLY knowing what came after!  The fin still conjured up fear, still made people avoid the water, and still scared the living daylights out of Amity! 
  (SPOILERS BELOW)
  The basic premise of the movie is simple.  Amity is again the bustling tourist town four years after a great white shark wreaked havoc on the beaches.  A couple of divers go missing, a chewed up killer whale washes up on the beach, and a motorboat that was towing a water skier explodes.  Brody knows it’s a shark, but Mayor Larry is again sailing up the River Denial in full paddle!  Brody loses his job just as his 2 sons and a whole bunch of friends decide to go sailing on rickety crafts in the open ocean.  You could almost hear the shark mimicking Homer Simpson: “mmmmmmmmm.  Peeeeeple” 
I’ll leave the rest for the story to unfold on movie night. 

  Compared to the original, of course it doesn’t measure up.  But the effects are real enough, and we see just little enough of the star of the show (the shark), to think it’s real, to know it’s there.  When I first saw the movie, I figured the attacks on the water skier and on the helicopter were fake.  However in recent years, we’ve seen video of great white “breaches”---coming clear out of the water to grab a seal.  This proves they can swim at great speeds—by some estimates up to 35 km/hr.  The attack on the helicopter is also plausible, as these fish are attracted to electromagnetic pulses.  Sharks have been known to attack—and inflict damage on—boats 10 metres long.  So these two attacks are not out of the question.  Where this movie fails compared to the original, is in the dialogue.  One of the best scenes in film, is the scene with Quint telling the tale of the USS Indianapolis.  We just don’t get that in Jaws 2.  But we DO get a lot of screaming (an inordinate amount from ONE cast member in particular!)  The good thing is, the screaming is justified, unlike the last two editions of Jaws! 

6.8 out of 10