I didn't know much about the plot before I saw this movie. I figured that it probably wouldn't be to bad and since it has some known faces I expected at least a decent story. I was wrong. The story and the movie are bad and the acting is nothing special. The one redeeming feature is the beautiful scenery of Cape Town and it's surrounding areas. Having been in that part of South Africa it was nice to see them again.

The story could have made sense but by the end there are too many plot holes and things that don't make sense. A marine biologist (played by Halle Berry) who has spent 10 years studying sharks and swimming with them is involved in a shark attack at the start of the movie. Her friend is killed and as a result she has withdrawn from the shark diving world and and takes tourists on boat rides and shows them seals and penguins. She is in financial dire straits and her estranged husband (Oliver Martinez) proposes a deal for them to take out a rich tourist and his son to swim with sharks. He offers them 100 000 euros (in local currency over 1 Million Rand) for this. Berry's character reluctantly accepts the offer since she is tricked into believing that someone paying that kind of money will be happy with the promise of being taken out to sea and maybe seeing sharks. She promises she will show them seals, and if sharks happen to be present then great. The tourist promises to stay in the shark diving cage until Berry calls him out when it is safe if they do dive with sharks.

When they are out in the ocean they go near Seal Island which is world renowned for having an area around the island known as the kill zone where most shark attacks on seals happen. To make matters worse it is the middle of mating season. So yes, they are taking tourists out to swim in the kill zone in the middle of shark mating season. At first the rich tourist is told to stay in the shark diving cage but he disregards the instructions and goes out within a few minutes of the dive. This annoys Berry' and she wants to call the whole thing off. Instead she gets into an argument with her husband and changes her mind and decides to take them further out to sea in storm like weather where they can see some really big sharks of up to 20 feet. I am not making this up, she literally changes her mind after a shouting argument with her husband and makes a great decision of taking out a small ship into the middle if the ocean in rough conditions with relatively inexperienced and annoying divers. On top of this, they had steering problems with the boat but the assistant fixed it so they go on anyway. When they get there she goads the tourist into diving without the cage, even though he changed his mind by then. So all of a sudden from being indecisive Berry is almost pushing the man to go into the open water without the protection of a cage. At one point I literally expected them to start riding the sharks rodeo style or jump down their throats (which in fact would have been more preferable). As is to be expected the storm tips the boat over and some of the characters are attacked and killed by sharks.

There are also minor annoyances in the movie that make it even worse. The tourist lights up a cigarette when he gets on the boat but Berry tells him there is no smoking on her boat. She however doesn't have a problem with him drinking beer even though he is going to go diving with sharks. I guess tipsy or drunk tourists are better for shark diving than those nasty smokers. She also does nothing when her husband light up. She also doesn't take any air cylinders on board because sharks don't like bubbles apparently. They don't much like idiotic plot lines either and in that aspect they are very similar to us movie watchers.

The acting: Berry tries to carry off a look of indecisiveness and vulnerability but she looks prissy and as if she stepped off of a modeling catwalk. Her husband tries to be caring and helpful but looks dodgy with ulterior motives. Their assistant is supposed to be the comic relief but he is more or less annoying especially when playing a game on his iPad (in the game he is the shark getting points for eating surfers). The rich tourist is a just annoying and not likable at all, and his son is irrelevant and there to fill the boat and some screen time.

I lived in Cape Town, and know people who dived with sharks and who are certified divers and they would never go out in middle of shark mating season, in bad weather with inexperienced divers and then almost force them out of the cage. They especially wouldn't do that when the Great White Shark is the shark they are after. So it is just nonsense, because no one in their right mind would behave the way they do. There is also a scene at the beginning where poachers are shown diving for abalone near the kill zone of seal island in the dark. I mean are they insane, why not attach some nice juicy steaks to their dive suits whilst they are at it.

Overall this movie attempts to be a character driven movie with sub-plots and stories. It fails abysmally in this since by the end of the movie you care more about the sharks then the people. Give this a miss, you might as well watch the discovery channel for shots of beautiful scenery and sharks.