RRAAAWWWRRRR!- Shark
Even in 2020, Jaws: The Revenge is in rarefied air... a critically terrible motion picture put out by a big studio which includes famous actors and is so infamous in the online film community it ranks alongside such “masterpieces” like Battlefield Earth and Leonard: Part 6. The biggest issue with this-which is not brought up that often-was that because then-Universal CEO Sidney Sheinberg wanted a box office hit during a lean time at the studio so Revenge was fast-tracked and it was less than a year that this was released. That was way too fast for a movie like this and much of its problems can be blamed on that... chiefly the absurd story and the shoddy special effects. Technically I believe it did make a profit, although each sequel made less and less cash.
The plot as shown in the movie is that I guess because nature wanted revenge on the Brody family for killing several Great White Sharks, one stalks them from the American Northeast all the way to The Bahamas. I've never read the novelization but it famously gives another explanation: A VOODOO CURSE. I did have to use Google to try and figure out just why some witch doctor in The Bahamas is pissed at the Brody family. Apparently, son Mike told this person-Papa Jacques-that he was a fraud and after two heated confrontations, the curse was put into place. At least the novel does not have a baffling psychic connection between Ellen Brody and the great white, nor any sepia-toned flashbacks from her involving events she was not witness to. Yet it does have Martin Brody dead of a heart attack because he “had constant fear of sharks.”
Even if you exclude the preposterous plot, the movie has other issues. The characters are annoying and bicker too often... the ending is an utter disaster in many ways-such as the incomprehensible way it was shot, or how in this universe sharks can roar... and I feel bad for the special effects people. I am sure they tried their best with no time to make something look good and their lackluster creation was spotlighted often. At least Michael Caine got a paycheck big enough to pay for a house, got to spend time in a tropical paradise where he got to see a junkanoo, and apparently has still never watched the finished product. This is the worst thing I've seen him in, even more terrible than The Swarm.
There are also minor aspects such as Mario Van Peebles sporting what I'll call “a vaguely Caribbean” accent but it's the major flaws that totally sink this. What I know upsets everyone-even if it's only subconsciously-is how the sequels to such a great original movie turned out... if it wasn't for Roy Scheider's performance in 2 then all of them would be only alright at best and rather rotten at worst. Thankfully they stopped after this and at least the OG Jaws is still the classic that (for better or worse) spawned the idea of blockbusters. I'll never forget my mom telling me as a kid how she saw that movie theatrically back in 1975 and it was so popular, the screening she was at had people sitting in the aisles. Imagine that happening in these modern times... back when we could go to cineplexes, that is.
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