[HorrorScience] Jaws 3, The Big Shark – Jaws 3D (1983)

Like every summer, the beaches are packed with people willing to take a dip without taking into account the dangers of the sea. Although it is also true that since it was released Shark More than one will rush out of the water when remembering a scene from the film or its unforgettable soundtrack.

Last year Shark He turned 40 and at Combogamer we decided to dedicate him a special item, shortly after it was commented Shark 2 in this same section and now that the beaches are filled with people again, it is time to talk about JAWS 3D, also known as Shark 3 either The big shark.

This movie is barely related to the previous ones, it doesn't take place on Amity Island and Police Chief Brody doesn't appear, so it can be perfectly understood without having seen them, although honestly, I don't see any reason to do that.

Sea World, a huge, trendy water park is going to open its doors shortly, everything is ready for the opening and nothing should go wrong.

Mike Brody (son of Martin Brody, star of Shark 1 and 2) is one of the park workers and has the great responsibility of making sure everything works correctly. His partner Kathryn is in charge of the aquatic acts for the dolphins, who have been acting strangely lately. To make matters worse, one of Brody's workers who had to fix a fence connecting the park to the sea has disappeared, although due to his history as a womanizer and alcoholic, no one pays attention to the matter.

The park opens with resounding success, even celebrities like Philip FitzRoyce (a kind of oceanographer with the air of a television star) are invited, who seems to be friends with Calvin Bouchard, the head of the entire Sea World project.

Since he is nowhere to be found, Mike and Kathryn decide to look for the missing worker but instead they encounter a great white shark. Given the possibility of earning money, decides to capture the white shark and keep it in captivity as another attraction in the park. Despite achieving his goal, the desire to expose him to the public before his full recovery after being captured, causes the animal's death in person.

Shortly after finds the body of the missing worker, apparently he was the victim of a shark, but due to his injuries it is impossible that the captured white shark was responsible, since it was not big enough to cause those injuries to a person. That discovery will be followed by the appearance of a much larger shark, which will be the real threat to Sea World and all its visitors.

The first film of Shark It's better than many people remember, the second one is just a proper sequel, but this one is so unnecessary that it's hard to believe they dared to film a fourth part (which I'll talk about in the future).

I admit that I like the idea of ​​the theme park, because it gives a lot of possibilities to introduce new elements (something they do half-heartedly) and the fact of using Brody's children as main characters is a good idea, but it ends up being little more than a wink, since the son who has a phobia of water after the events of Shark 2, (which is the one that could remind us most of Martin Brody), does nothing interesting, all the prominence falls on his brother, who despite being a main character, does not contribute anything that reminds us of the previous films. In other words, They could change the name of the two characters and it wouldn't affect the movie in any way.

It is quite strange that even though the film has quite a few main characters with defined and varied roles, none of them turn out to be overly interesting or charismatic. The curious thing is that I don't think they are terribly wasted either, each of them has their scenes, but none of them manages to shine too much.

Another element that is interesting to me is that the movie fools around with the idea of ​​the two dolphins fighting the shark to help the protagonists. I don't dislike the concept, but for some reason I think they didn't dare to carry it out, since the dolphins bother the shark in a scene that lasts just a minute. Perhaps they realized that a confrontation would be ridiculous, but at the same time it could cause the public to fear for the lives of the friendly mammals (something that was not going to happen with the human characters). In any case, if they had wanted to provoke a confrontation between species, perhaps they should have used an orca (curiously at the beginning of the film Kathryn appears with one of them) although given the laughable appearance of the shark, perhaps it would have been a disastrous decision.

Many people believe that the shark in the first film looked fake, and while it is true that it was not something exceptionally realistic, I doubt that it could have been done better in 1975. The funny thing is that That aspect has gotten worse in each sequel , I don't know if this is due to budget cuts or lack of competent personnel, but it is more than evident that the shark looks more fake in the new films than in the first. The giant shark in this film looks like a totally inanimate doll devoid of life. In fact, even its attacks require the collaboration of the victims, since the poor creature barely opens and closes its mouth.

This film (as well as others like Friday the 13th Part 3) got carried away by the 3D trend and I don't blame them, watching a movie Shark in 3D sounds like something exciting. However, in practice, that decision harmed the film even more because not only do we have a multitude of unnecessary elements “floating in front of us” but also, The scenes designed to show off in 3D look truly shameful. al verlas en 2D. Quiero creer que la gente que vio la película en 3D en el cine pudo disfrutar de esos elementos y seguramente mejoraron la experiencia de la película, pero a día de hoy, todas esas escenas solo logran dar pena de manera notable.

Summing up, Tiburón 3 tiene buenas ideas, pero no las lleva bien a cabo. No es especialmente entretenida, los ataques del tiburón no son espectaculares y la innovación del 3D le ha hecho más daño que otra cosa. Me pregunto si esas buenas ideas habrían dado su fruto en caso de caer en manos de un equipo que se hubiese tomado la película tan en serio como los que rodaron la primera.

Puede ser interesante para una tarde de verano, pero no da para mucho más.

Curiosities about the film:

• Roy Scheider (Martin Brody) fue rotundo a la hora de negar su participación en este proyecto diciendo que “Ni Mefistófeles lograría conseguir que participase en él”.
• En España esta película fue llamada El Gran Tiburón, debido a que anteriormente se había estrenado una película Italiana (L’ Ultimo Squalo) bajo el engañoso título de Tiburón 3 con intención de engañar a la gente y ganar así más dinero (táctica habitual de Jose Frade Producciones).
• Aunque el título original sea Jaws 3D también es posible encontrar esta película bajo el nombre Jaws III, que sería el nombre de la versión pensada para ver en 2 dimensiones.