“Under Paris” (2024) / Z-View

Under Paris (2024)

Director: Xavier Gens

Screenplay: Yannick Dahan, Xavier Gens, Maud Heywang, Yaël Langmann

Stars: Bérénice Bejo, Nassim Lyes.

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

Three years ago Sophia, a marine researcher, barely survived a shark attack that killed everyone else in her group. Now Sophia, still not fully recovered from the attack, works at an aquarium in Paris. She keeps up with the location of the killer shark thanks to a tracking beacon on it.

When the beacon shows the shark has traveled into the Seine River, Sophia can’t get anyone to believe her.  When mutilated bodies begin to appear, it becomes clear that sharks have mutated and are indeed in the river.  Despite this, the mayor refuses to cancel a huge event that includes a triathlon in the, you guessed, Seine River.

Didn’t anyone learn anything from Jaws, Jaws II, Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge?

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Under Paris suffers from bad cgi, cliched characters and supposedly smart characters who die because of simply stupid choices.  The mayor knows there are mutated sharks in the river and still allows hundreds of swimmers to compete there.  A “smart” woman who has survived several shark attacks and has had her boat destroyed decides to swim towards the shark feeding frenzy.  Bombs from World War II are inadvertently detonated by sharks destroying bridge after bridge.  And so on…

I made it through the whole thing so it barely earns a 2 star rating.

After writing this, I saw a Tweet (er, X) from Stephen King which read…

I thought UNDER PARIS would be a jokey movie, like SHARKNADO, but Twitter convinced me to give it a watch, and it’s really quite good. The last 25 minutes were amazing.

Now, I’m not one to argue with Stephen King.  My opinion stands, as does King’s.  So, I’ll just say, “Your mileage may vary.”

Under Paris (2024), (for me) rates 2 of 5 stars.