This past year was one filled with plenty of well hyped films. From Star Wars: The Force Awakens, to Suicide Squad, it has been an exciting year in the movie industry and many fan favorites have once again returned to the screen. Let’s take a look into one of the films released early this summer, The Shallows.

The trailer received a lot of mixed responses. Some people reacted by saying that the movie would be so intense and exciting, while others thought it would just be another shark-centered letdown.

I was excited for The Shallows, and had to find out for myself if it had lived up to the expectations I had set for it the moment I had seen the trailer. So I took the plunge, bought an overly-priced ticket and the most expensive popcorn and soda on the face of the planet, and braced myself for the action.

And after it was all over…

I felt like the movie was extremely good and was very impressed with it. I most definitely didn’t feel like I wasted my time. From the action, to the plot, to the deep symbolism throughout the film, it contained many more elements then just a one-hour-plus shark attack, despite the entirety of the film being set at sea and in the present moment.

Another huge concern people had when the film was first presented was how well actor Blake Lively was going to pull off a 1-man-show. Few actors are capable of pulling off such a tremendous accomplishment, and many thought Lively’s inexperience would prove to be the downfall of the film. Lively has little experience as a main actor in a film, and has never done a 1-man-show before in her career. I wasn’t so much concerned, as curious to see how she would do. Being the only actor on screen throughout the entirety of the production can be both stressful and overwhelming. The backbone of the entire film was reliant on her performance alone, which in my opinion, turned out to be exceptional. You could see her pain from her injured leg, worry, panic, and other emotions. It was a great display of acting.

The symbolism was very strong in the film. In the beginning of the film, main character Nancy (Blake Lively) speaks to her sister and father on the phone while she is on the beach of the island she ventured to to surf. After they speak, the viewer can infer that Nancy’s mom had passed away. When trapped on a small rock by the shark, and her leg injured from the initial attack of the great white, a bird with a broken wing is trapped on the rock with her, unable to fly away. Nancy fixes the bird’s wing so it can fly again, yet the bird stays on the rock. The bird eventually goes away, but at the end of the movie, after Nancy’s intense defeat of the massive great white, the bird appears when Nancy swims to shore and is lying down, nearly unconcious from the loss of blood and effort she had to put in to survive. The camera angle pins to Nancy’s point of view, and right as the bird appears, she sees her mother standing over her. The bird was like her mom watching over her, and this excellent show of symbolism immediately set the film apart in my eyes.

The Shallows is perfect for anyone searching for an action packed-shark attack thriller, and also for people looking for films with deeper meaning that the viewers need to recognize on their own. If you are a film fanatic, this is a must see.