Nerds That Geek Movie Review – ‘Jaws: The Revenge’

Written by John 'Left Shark' Betancourt

At some point or another in our lives we have either yearned for or committed revenge. Someone hurt us or went out of their way to wrong us and it seemed the only recourse was to even up the score or hope that karma or fate would step in and handle it for us. 

The desire to enact revenge is a powerful one and even in nature science has observed it in the animal kingdom, but for the most part, the act of vendetta is reserved primarily to humanity. But what if the creatures we share the earth with sought out such malevolence? What would our world be like? It's a question that is explored in the final film in the Jaws franchise, Jaws: The Revenge. 

Tragedy has struck the Brody family. Having lost their father Martin years ago, Sean Brody thought it would be good to carry on in his father's footsteps as a member of the Amity Island Police. But one night on a routine run in the harbor, Sean dies in horrible fashion.  His mother Ellen believes that a descendant of the shark that came to Amity so many years ago was responsible, but her ideas are dismissed, and her son Mike brings her to the Caribbean for the holidays in an effort to help her heal. But Ellen's paranoia is warranted. Sean did indeed die at the maw of a great white and it has followed the Brody family to the tropics to settle the score.  

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​Released in 1987, Jaws: The Revenge is truly the worst film in the franchise and one that managed to put an end to motion pictures about killer great whites on the big screen for many years to come. While it has some awesome kills here and there from the shark, for the most part the film sadly does not deliver. This go round there is nothing cerebral to be found at all, and while the shark returns to its eating machine ways, this one stays pretty close to monster movie fare as the shark makes plenty of appearances, always reminding us he's here to feast as he enacts his revenge. 

But what makes Jaws: The Revenge tough to watch are the production values. The fourth wall is often broken in this motion picture since well...there are plenty of moments when you see the mechanics that run the shark and well...for the odd decisions in the finale of the film. I'll put it to you this way, the shark roars. Not to mention depending on which version you watch, the ending either involves a moment when the shark explodes for no reason, and yes you can tell it's a clay shark being blown up by an M-80, or the beast's death throes manage to tear apart a boat. 

Either way, it's heartbreaking since one would think having Michael Caine in the cast would have elevated this film to new heights but in the end the franchise simply goes out with a whimper. Either way, this one is worth seeing for the movie mistakes, to remind us of how awesome the first film was and to say goodbye to a once proud franchise.

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