BEASTS OF WAR

This Australian-made indie film tells an “inspired by actual events” story about young WWII soldiers whose ship sinks in shark-infested waters. The survivors find themselves stranded on a small raft where they have to deal with their injuries, internal group conflicts, and the threat of an aggressive great white shark (who exhibits zero actual GWS behaviours). Coincidentally, out of the two hundred soldiers onboard the ship, the half-dozen who end up on the raft all went through boot camp training together. This film was made on a shoe string budget and it shows. Seventy minutes of the ninety minute runtime was captured in a custom-made tank filled with more than two million litres of water. There aren’t any distinguishable background sets used for these scenes – just a whiteness with a foggy vignette, illuminated by different coloured lighting. This gives a stage play feel, only on a very calm ocean which weirdly doesn’t move. The acting is stilted, with most of the characters speaking in breathy, hushed tones, though they don’t have much to work with given the basic dialogue. Only Leo (Mark Coles Smith) has a backstory and it’s underdeveloped and told in annoying flashbacks. Bruce the shark from ‘Jaws’ over 50 years ago was more believable than the CGI “Shazza” shark used here (admittedly the cost of the two films was vastly different), and the plot is an overused trope used in every other shark vs human movie. Predictable, disjointed and has no point.