Rish Outfield's reviews
So, this is your basic scientists-in-an-underwater-facility-have-to-survive-a-storm-and-flooding actioner (I hate that word, who came up with 'actioner?'--like, "my picture is much actioner than yours is"--stupid), but with some genetically-enhanced sharks swimming around for good measure. But it wasn't a very good movie. First of all, I despise Saffron Burrows, and I do not apologize for it. Secondly, if you're going to make a "Jaws" movie, do right by it and call it a "Jaws" movie (Peter Benchley is waiting for that royalty check). It's dishonest not to do so.
Still, this wasn't entirely a Jaws clone--they stole liberally from Jurassic Park, as well. The variable special effects (especially the shark effects) went from great to laughable, and the list of different effects studios at the end explained that. While I have seen all of Renny Harlin's movies, one thing they have in common (besides people 'riding' explosions) are a foray into unbelievability. If you could buy all of the obvious disaster movie cliches, and the sharks' inconsistent nature (since when do sharks have skin like rubber?), then the ending would have to lose you. How many "come on?!"'s do you have to utter? Sharks are scary, yes, but this was just overkill--there were too many, they were too erratic, too smart, too powerful--it's one of those situations where there's no way we could win (and the way they handled itbesides further ripping off "Jaws 1 & 2," was totally unsatisfying). And, if the sharks were brilliant enough to break down specific doors, use someone as a battering ram, and trick the people into flooding the facility, how could one mistake WINE for BLOOD? On a positive note, the sets were great. And Ronny Cox was there for about thirty seconds. And people I didn't expect to die, did. And LL Cool J wasn't too bad this go-round. Samuel L. Jackson had a power, a glow to him that forced (pun not intended) my eye to him in every scene--he's a class act. The movie, though . . . I really don't know what to say. It just didn't stay with me.
There were a lot of neat explosions, and some interesting effects, and some good "Where's the shark?" moments (which almost always outdid the actual appearances of the shark), but in the end, I was left with nothing. It didn't add anything to shark movies (though this was gorier than the other four), but it was still a fun ride, as all Harlin films are (though maybe not so much Ford Fairlane).
Best Scare: Jeez, I hate sharks. Isn't that enough?

The tyranist's thoughts
Now before I get into how much I enjoyed watching Deep Blue Sea, it should be noted that I have only seen Jaws once and have never seen any of the sequels. They just usually aren't my kind of movie so I don't go out of my way.
In spite of my, and everyone else's first impression, this is not a Jaws rip-off. Yes, the idea to use sharks as the bad guys has been done before, but that is not all a rip-off is. A rip-off also liberally borrows from the original storyline. Character backgrounds sound suspiciously alike. Things like that. Creature is a rip-off of Alien. This is an original movie. And I, for one, enjoyed it a ton. Granted I took it in on a 50 cent Tuesday at one of the local second run theatres and that meant that there were a lot of college kids just out to have fun there. Still, I think I would have had a blast no matter what. I really like Saffron Burrows (I sometimes think that she was the reason Rish cursed me for dragging him to Wing Commander) and it was great to see Stellan Skarsgard again. Samuel L. Jackson was his normal ultra-cool self. Actors aside, though, there were some moments that were just great. It was pretty obvious that the writers understood horror movies and especially this little sub-genre pretty well, because they kept doing both the expected and unexpected when it would have the best impact. Great!
I would recommend that people see this movie if only to see the phenomenal death effects. Just imagine a rabid dog shredding a rag doll and you get the idea. Those sharks are mean.
Note: Rish and I saw this one separately and subsequently compared our skulls. He vehemently maintains that it is a rip-off and gave pretty decent rationale that pointed at Jaws 3. I haven't seen it, so I bow to his superior knowledge in this instance and it gets the skull.