Death of a Series- ‘Jaws’ (Part 3)

Jaws: The Revenge

Revenge is a dish best served cold, which was also the audience reaction to this film. Following Jaws II, Mrs. Brody has seen her two sons grow up, but, sadly, lost her husband due to a heart attack. Things turn bad when her youngest son is killed by a shark in what appears to be a sort of trap. This makes her believe that her family is cursed- she blames the heart attack on the shark somehow- so she goes to the Bahamas to see her eldest son, now a marine biologist. The beast follows her, apparently being able to thrive in both fresh and salt water. Once in the island region, our heroine meets a charming, young man named Hoagie, played by Michael Caine. The cycle of attacks soon moves there as well, with a friend of the son's girlfriend killed on a boat. This drives Mrs. Brody to go out to sea, convinced that she should finish off the beast herself. Hoagie, the son and his friend Alex (Peebles!) fly out to stop her, but their sea plane is attacked when they land. All of them survive the attack, however, and get on the boat with our heroine. Hoagie even emerges from the wreckage completely dry. This builds to the climactic face-off between woman- in boat- and shark. If you are must watch any part of this movie- poor soul- at least choose to watch this part. So many bizarre and stupid things happen in the span of a few minutes. A shark roars, a shark is impaled by the barely-sharp plank of wood, a giant shark turns into a tiny one in a puddle of water & a shark explodes. While I won't recommend this movie to anyone, this part is funny. At the same time, however, it also tries to mirror its finale to that of Jaws. The film got one holdover star because she was the wife of a studio executive that released the film and wanted to be top-billing on a poster. This is an affront to good cinema, with its implausible story, bad acting and terrible pacing. They wisely chose to end the series here. Little did they know that it was too late.

So how does a series go so bad, so quickly? Changing directors is never a good thing. Jaws is a great film, but no others are. Is that solely due to Spielberg's absence? No. Second, watch how stars flee from your series like rats on a sinking ship. Dreyfuss, while not killed off, only appears in the first film. By the third film, Scheider and Gary were replaced with young actors Quaid and Thompson. Gary did return in the fourth film, but they wrote out Scheider. It is similar to how Linda Hamilton's character died of 'cancer' in the interim between T2 and T3. Another film series to look at for comparison is Tremors. With every successive film, a star or two chose not to appear, to the point where only the guy from "Family Ties" was left to carry the franchise. Let's also not forget how the quality of writing got diffused as well. The first film is a mostly-direct adaptation of the Benchley novel. After that, the series was constructed around brand new stories. You see how that ended up. Some film series can go off-material and survive- see the Bond and Bourne films. Another thing that helps put the nail in a franchise coffin is experimentation. The third film changed the setting, cast and dimensionality. The response to this was bad box office and awkwardness regarding its place in continuity. Key things are ignored from three- particularly in regards to what jobs the two sons have- and even the studio referred to Jaws: The Revenge as the climax of the 'Jaws trilogy' in a press release. Do not mess with the cast, writing or setting just because you want a new film out really quickly. This is what happens, Hollywood.

Death of A Series- Jaws (Part 2)

Jaws II

This film was directed by the man who would later make "Supergirl," as opposed to the guy who would later make "Schindler's List." I could probably just stop here, but that would be lazy. Another shark is back in the waters around Amity Island and Sheriff Brody has to stop it again. Unfortunately, he is missing his marine expert friend and his helpful shark hunter, since one of them has left and the other was eaten by the eponymous jaws in the last film. On top of that, people are suspicious about believing him, creating an environment in which the shark can thrive. The climax of the film is built around Brody's kids being out in the water with their friends when the shark attacks. They are sitting ducks, leaving only our hero to put an end to the beast yet again. This movie is not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but there are problems. The shark is seen a lot more, acting less as a harbinger of doom and more like a beast. Some people who did not like that aspect of the original film may like this more. "Jaws II" is lacking for good actors, with Dreyfuss and Shaw not appearing this time around. It also lacks the subtle direction of Spielberg and stronger writing. Szwarc is not a bad director, merely a competent one that does not stand out. That is the biggest strike against it: the film does not stand out. To many people, it seems to be similar to a slasher film, being produced around the same time as "Halloween." "Jaws II" is more of a popcorn film than a classic one. Things do not get better from here.

Jaws 3-D

While they claim that the 'third dimension is fear,' it is actually disgust. Down in Florida,- thanks, movie- a new SeaWorld is being opened up and Sheriff Brody's eldest son is working there. His younger brother comes to town, but the visit coincides with a rash of shark attacks. A small great white is captured, but it soon becomes apparent that a larger one is to blame. The boss is trying to keep it secret- feel familiar- while our hero is trying to stop the beast. The climax of the film involves the new attraction- Undersea Kingdom, a tube-shaped walkway through water- being attacked by the titular shark and trying to eat the tourists. Well, at least he has the right idea. It later attacks the control room, leading to yet another explosion for an ending. This film is highlighted by its dated effects and questionable recasting. They take the film away from the famous setting and have no original cast members appear. It is sort of like taking a "Star Wars" and making it about Anakin and some stupid alien who is his buddy. The other thing of note is how the movie was released as part of the nineteen-eighty 3-D craze that included "Amityville 3-D" and "Friday the 13^th: Part 3." To say that the effects look somewhat ridiculous is to say that the sky is somewhat blue. The two famous shots are of Jaws driving into the glass panel and his disembodied jaw bone flying into the screen. They are amazingly stupid looking and really make the film stand out in a bad way. By replacing Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw with Dennis Quaid, Lea Thompson and Louis Gossett Jr., they put the nail in the coffin. Unfortunately, this corpse would not stay dead!

Death of a Series: Jaws (Part 1)

Jaws - Jaws: The Revenge

It is easy to make a good movie. The challenge is to make more than one of them. The challenge of following up a successful film- either critical or financial- is a daunting one for a studio and/or director. Very few film series' have ever been able to do more than two films and maintain any semblance of the quality that people expect. It is something that every fan of cinema- nerdy or casual- knows all too well. Movies like "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" or "Leprechaun 4: Leprechaun in Space" pop up when you think of series' that run that long. So many things can go wrong- from your series changing its tone completely to your studio hiring three different people to play the same role- that you should learn to leave well enough alone. In an era that has given us "Wrong Turn 2" and "The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting, "clearly this lesson has not been learned. The key to this changing is to look at famous examples in-depth. One famous series that suffers from this kind of a problem is the "Jaws" one. The first film is just classic, full of great moments and dialogue. The second one is not terrible, but is also not even close to the same quality. "Jaws 3-D" is as bad as the title sounds, daring to change the setting, characters and clearly the writers. "Jaws: The Revenge" is a painful exercise in boredom that drags the original film through the mud to connect its terrible plot to a classic. Watching this series go downhill so fast is like watching a bald eagle choke to death on a squirrel. With the prerequisite disturbing image out of the way, let me get down to the films.

Jaws
The mother of all shark films is still a great film to this day. A killer beast is loose in the waters of Amity Island, snacking on tourists and late-night nudist swimmers. Tough-talking Sheriff Brody has to tame the monster, but is thwarted by politics, lack of resources and primal fear. He teams up with a marine expert and a shark hunter for a journey out into the shark's home waters. They are humbled to learn that the size of their boat is not adequate in comparison to the size of the monster they are trying to capture. If only there was a more concise way to say that? Things go downhill pretty quick as all attempts to catch or outsmart the big guy fail pretty badly. The finale involves an exciting- if scientifically inaccurate- climax that is emulated and referenced to this day. It is hard to find any major gripes with this movie, but, I probably should. The shark/human interaction is more minimal than people who only know the film by its reputation might think. This is less the fault of writers (as in other films), but, rather, it is with the technology itself. The damn thing just would not work reliably for them, so they had to cover it creatively. Fans of the book were upset by omissions in the script- including a subplot involving an affair between Brody and one of his colleagues. Unfortunately, this is par for the course whenever a piece of work is adapted into a new medium, be it film, cartoon, etc. The shark, when on screen, still works really well in creating dread and suspense. Much like the original "Alien" film, "Jaws" is more about the scare of a looming monster than a monster constantly stomping around. The film is a classic for quite justifiable reasons. In an ironic way, this works against every other film on the list. Those are the breaks.

How does it get bad from here? Stay tuned…