The basic premise of Deep Blue Sea is that genetic engineering has been misused to enhance the brain size of Mako sharks in order to increase the amount of brain fluid they will produce to make a substance that will help cure Alzheimer’s and other degenerative brain diseases in humans. Of course, things always go wrong when "brilliant" scientists attempt to outsmart nature through genetic engineering. As a side effect in this case, the sharks get smarter. They have the hunting and blood lust of Jaws with the ability to figure out the structural weaknesses of the deep-sea lab, where they relentlessly hunt the staff with the intent to feed and then escape into the open sea.

This is a second recent release in which Samuel Jackson depicts a man with exceptional intelligence and acuity. (See our review of Red Violin where he appears as an appraiser and authenticator of rare instruments.) In this case, he is a billionaire investor and CEO with a strong moral and adventurous streak. While our world continues to be troubled with racial prejudice, this kind of casting of a powerful African-American actor shows us how remarkably far we have come. Interestingly enough, the female scientist, and not the male capitalist, ends up being the greedy, obsessed person who causes the disaster.

Along the similar casting lines, LL Cool J plays another, more stereotypical black character. As a preacher turned chef, probably because of his tendency toward drink and sin, he lives with a refreshing wit and genuine faith. As the only person in the whole group without an obvious ulterior motive, he is the one we can truly depend on.

The dramatic tension and the scary thrills are enhanced by the spatial limitations of a small complex that is being flooded. In fact, the sharks caused the helicopter crash that started the collapse of the structures. With hallways and rooms filling with water, sharks might appear from any direction at any moment, and the special effects ensure that we tremble with anticipation.

Well, it definitely worked for Anna-Maria. She was on the edge of her seat, adrenaline pumping. She thought the movie both scary and exciting, and she suspended her disbelief of the technical implausibilities of the story.

Craig, on the other hand, was distracted by the dialog, which, in much of the movie, commented on what we have just seen on the screen. It is full of "Oh, my god, what have we done" obviousness. Also, he knows that sharks, for all their supposed ferocity, are sensitive to physical blows. Their internal organs cannot take ramming. In simple terms, they bruise easily, often fatally. In Deep Blue Sea, sharks smash through heavy steel doors.

For the sake of the theme, Craig was willing to accept that genetic manipulation can dramatically enhance the shark’s brain size in two generations, but not that a shark is no longer a shark. Animals do not break steel bulkhead doors by ramming them with their noses. Even if the sharks were geniuses, the implementation of their "eat the folks and escape" plan is not credible without them having more facts and knowledge of the engineering and design of the building complex. Being smart does not make one an engineer without education and learning. Movies can cheat, even quite a bit, to create the powerful context for their emotional impact, but this one just went too far.

This disregard for the realities of even these super smart creatures distracted from Craig’s emotional involvement and decreased the clarity of the warning against genetic manipulation.

Both of us share the concern, experienced viscerally in the movie, that we as a species may very well be sewing the seeds of our own destruction when we genetically alter the very nature of biological organisms. Thus, we are disposed toward accepting the underlying message of the film. But for one of us, at least, it did not work as a dramatic story.