Review of Jaws 2

Introduction

Jaws has to rate as one of the most memorable movies of all time. Stephen Spielberg directed a top draw cast through a gripping tale of tension and terror. The inevitable sequel was commissioned, picking up four years after the first movie. After two disappearances Chief Brody (Roy Schieder) suspects that there’s another shark in the waters around Amity. Once again he finds himself in the all too familiar position where no one believes him. So begins what is an unoriginal tale however a lack of originality isn’t always a bad thing, the first movie worked so the betting was that this one would too.

The original Jaws received a first class DVD release last year, setting high standards for all films to follow. Now it’s the turn of it’s sequel but will it ever be safe for me to go near my DVD player again?

Video

The anamorphic 2.35:1 picture is best described as average. Of course it’s better than any previous VHS edition but from the latest cutting edge entertainment media we have come to expect better. Certain parts suffer from film noise whilst others are less than sharp with somewhat flat colours. There are some scenes which look good but overall the “remastered” tag is extremely misleading.

Perhaps this is unfair but for an example of how to remaster a movie onto DVD take a look at the original Jaws movie, the two releases are miles apart.

Audio

A total and absolute travesty. Mono sound in all it’s flat and unimpressive glory. Whoever commissioned this “newly remastered” version should be strung up. In today’s age of fantastic Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks the fact that this movie has the worst soundtrack I’ve heard is a crime. Compare this to that fact that the first Jaws DVD featured a DTS track as well and you really do start to wonder what on earth is going on with this release.

Ok, so it’s mono, but does it sound any good? Nope, it’s total s*** (sorry but I am really disappointed with this one). Given the excellent score from John Williams I expect more, much, much more.

Features

So far things aren’t going too well for this disc, but just when I thought it was safe to put this one down to a bad experience along comes the extras to make me think twice. Along with various production bits and pieces you get trailers, a few deleted scenes and two featurettes. The star of the piece is undoubtedly the 45 minute “Making of” documentary. This tells you pretty much anything you want to know about the movie and is the sort of inclusion which I find extremely interesting.

There’s no Director’s commentary track but a quality documentary about the making of the movie more than makes up for it.

Conclusion

The problem that this movie faced was the acclaim which the first movie received. Yes the reason a sequel was released was to try and cash in on the success of the first movie however it was always in a no-win situation. It’s a shame as it’s not a bad movie, not great by any means and not a patch on Jaws but enjoyable if you can take it for what it is and as a movie in it’s own right.

Given the setting and the subject matter there wasn’t really a lot that could have been done with the story for the sequel. More could have been made of Chief Brody’s apparent shark obsession and perhaps a darker twist on this might have worked, also I would have liked a few more victims to build up the tension some more. This is possibly the weakest part of the film, the lack of any real tension. Jaws succeeded beautifully because it slowly built up a series of events leading to a climactic showdown whereas Jaws 2 seems to have the pace all wrong.

It’s great to see Roy Schieder reprising his role from the first movie and this lends the movie valuable credibility, something which was missing from parts 3 and 4 without a doubt. It’s a shame that more isn’t made of Chief Brody though as for the most part of the movie he’s more of a spectator. This I suppose isn’t helped by the last half of the movie focussing on the exploits of his two sons out sailing, I would have liked to have seen it as more of a personal thing between Brody and the shark.

When all’s said and done though I still enjoyed it. It’s a total no brainer with possibly the worst special effects ever seen but the 110 minutes still passed by without any pain. It made me want to watch the first one all over again, and that can’t be a bad thing :).

So to sum up it’s a bit of a contradiction, poor presentation with great extras and an ok movie. Regardless of anything else the fact that the soundtrack is mono means this disc goes in the “avoid like the plague until the studio gets their fingers out their arses” pile.