Driven by an earnest performance by country musician Trace Adkins as a fisherman who looks to avenge his daughter’s death at the teeth of a great white, “Maneater” (2022) thinks it’s better than it is. It’s also better than I thought it would be. Ultimately, it lands somewhere in the middle, with respectable amounts of bikini-clad women and practical gore effects, decent CGI, and fair attempts at characterization.
The shark, the hunter and the pretty girl
Writer-director Justin Lee holds on to a serious tone throughout the 87 minutes, but “Maneater” is cursed by too-slow pacing combined with a seeming lack of interest in building suspense via that pacing. Before it settles down, “Maneater” starts with a blitz of kills. Before the opening credits, the titular great white chows down on an ocean diver. Ten minutes in, and there have been four victims.
Is this shark trying to compete with John Wick in kill count? Actually, the shark is more of a serial killer – murdering for pleasure rather than hunting for food. This is interesting food for thought. If the human race is capable of producing people so psychologically damaged that they become serial killers, why can’t other members of the animal kingdom?
“Maneater” (2022)
Writer: Justin Lee
Director: Justin Lee
Stars: Trace Adkins, Nicky Whelan, Shane West
But when “Maneater” leisurely builds up its main characters – a group of five adult friends being taken to the remotest part of the island chain – there’s little sense that the shark is going to attack them.
Joining Adkins – who I can imagine being quite good if given a deeper character — in making “Maneater” watchable as a character piece is pretty Nicky Whelan as Jessie. More unbelievable than the serial-killer shark is that some off-screen dude dumped Jessie, who now becomes a fantasy figure only found in movies: a young-looking 40, single, good-natured, no kids, burgeoning career in the medical field.
Good cast doesn’t have enough to chew on
Shane West hasn’t compiled the resume he should’ve, but he’s good as the male lead in this group of friends who joins Jessie on what would’ve been her honeymoon, to help her move forward. Kelly Lynn Reiter tries to play the wacky girl, but she isn’t given substantial material.
Ed Morrone tries to do something interesting with Captain Wally, who takes the group to a remote part of the island-and-reef chain, but the script isn’t quite there. I think the first act was reworked a few times, as Wally and his wife introduce themselves to the vacationers two or three separate times.
Joining the better-than-the-material cast, Jeff Fahey plays a community college teacher who provides (intended-to-be) foreboding lessons about how science knows very little about great whites.
None of the build-up lands in memorable ways, but the film thinks it does. “Maneater” for some reason thinks it has invented a shark-hunting hero we’ll salivate over as future films are announced. It ends with an epilog more self-important than the Avengers Initiative forming at the end of “Iron Man.”
The actors elevate the script, yet the script and uneven pacing sink “Maneater.” It wants to stand out with its serial-killer-shark idea and its notion of making Adkins into a great white great white hunter. Lee’s ambition is respectable in an era with several intentionally dumb shark movies. But the filmmaking isn’t of high enough quality to achieve it.