For me, January 2020 is currently 0-2 so far.

The second movie I have seen in 2020 that was actually first released in 2020 (not counting 1917 or Just Mercy) was Underwater, a sci-fi/horror thriller film that takes place at the bottom of the ocean inside a subterranean laboratory.

At first, the crew believes that the lab is devastated by an earthquake, but, as it is crumbling around them, they realize that it is much more than an earthquake that they will need to survive.

While there is some tension involved, there are way more problems here than there are positives.

The biggest issue is that there were no characters with any depth to them (pardon the pun) at all.  The characters are as follows:  Kristen Stewart, the Captain, T.J. Miller, the black guy, the bearded guy and the other girl.  Their attempts at characterization included “you have a daughter” and the fact that bearded guy and other girl were a couple.  T.J. Miller carried around a stuffed animal and did his T.J. Miller shtick and that was about all.  Honestly, it became a joke to me as I was watching, using these names for the characters as they went along.

Kristen Stewart was fine and there was a spot near the end where she proved herself to be queen bad ass.  Stewart was easily the best part of the movie and she continues to distance herself from Bella Swan with every choice.

The setting was a total mystery because they spent almost zero time setting up the location.  I had no idea where we were at any point and it bugged me that this could have been a very frightening situation with a touch of world building.

Things were hard to see throughout and there were problems with the science of the whole thing.  The logic was way off (other girl apparently had never been in one of the diving suits despite working at the bottom of the ocean.  That seems as if it is a bit of a job requirement).

There were some interesting sequences of tension, but, since I did not know anything about any of these people (you’ve got a daughter!), I had a hard time caring at all.

I did think the ending was decent as they wisely focused on the main character, Kristen Stewart.  She was the one whom we had the most to connect to and she pulled off that epic bad ass moment just recently.

In the end, this is better than the last 2020 horror movie (The Grudge), but not by a ton.  Skip this and go see 1917.

1.75 stars