What can you ask from a movie titled ‘Piranha 3D’? With such low expectations that come with that title, this one delivers. There are extreme amounts of gore and nudity with a good story and above-average acting. Unfortunately, ‘Piranha’ could have been even better with a little less humor.
Piranha stars Steve McQueen’s grandson Steven McQueen as Jake, a college student home for spring break in the fictional Lake Victoria, Arizona. Jake is tasked by his mom—ably portrayed by Elisabeth Shue—to babysit his little brother and sister instead of partying on the lake. Of course he shirks his family duties for a boat ride with Derrick –played to slimy perfection by Jerry O’Connell–the creator/director/cameraman of a video series properly titled ‘Wild, Wild Girls’. Meanwhile, the floating city that is spring break is getting into full swing wholly unaware of the pre-historic Piranha’s that were released into the lake by an earthquake…
‘Piranha’ is no mere rip-off of ‘Jaws’ : it is pure homage. Richard Dreyfuss even appears—rather briefly– as his character Matt from Jaws. And if you were wondering, they do manage to fit in the Jaws/Vertigo zoom shot. When the filmmakers really try, ‘Piranha’ is suspenseful and actually a good quality film. There are quite a few tense sequences and genuine scares—not to mention moments our gross-out shock and yes that is a good thing. But then they undercut their achievements with stupid jokes and tired visual gags—I’m looking at you floating penis.
Director Alexandre Aja used the post-production conversion process for 3D and, unlike ‘Clash of the Titans,’ the 3D works well here. The computer effects of the attacking piranhas aren’t that good but where the film excels is the depiction of the carnage left by their attack. On a personal note, I consider myself to have an extremely strong stomach for horror movies. I am also extremely fascinated with special effects and make-up. Nothing ever really bothers me in horror movies—yes I know this may be a problem—but ‘Piranha 3D’ got to me. I was actually queasy due to some of the magnificent and frightening death scenes. Eventually it started to resemble the opening scene of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ instead of ‘Jaws’.
“Piranha 3D”
3 and a half stars out of 5
The main problem with ‘Piranha’ as well as many other horror movies is that they are too moralistic while being immoral. Most of the movie consists of dangling naked people in front of our faces and then punishing them for the same behavior that we are supposed to revel in. From the character description you can probably pick out who lives and dies based on their ‘role’. All of the characters who drink and are not virgins are mercilessly slaughtered while the virgins and children are spared. The most frightening part was when a sympathetic character–who lets say is a little loose–is killed by the Piranhas. If ‘Piranha’ wanted to be truly scary, no one would be safe.
But on the other hand, the horror that is inflicted upon the less savory characters is so extreme that I did not revel in their deaths as the film intended. I actually had sympathy for them! Possibly Aja is commenting on horror movies and the way they treat their characters but if he was doing this –spoiler alert!–he probably would have allowed one of them to survive.
Why should you see ‘Piranha 3D’? While there are definitely problems with the movie –including a couple of downright stupid scenes– the majority of the film is fun and suspenseful. If you have a strong stomach and a sense of humor ‘Piranha 3D’ might just brighten your day. Since the 3D really doesn’t add a whole lot, I would suggest waiting for the DVD or Blu-ray release.
