Dark Tide - DVD

Film: Kate (Halle Berry) is South Africa's leading shark expert. The footage she captures with her camera crew and her completely unbiased approach to the animals have earned her a reputation as the shark whisperer. But her career comes to an abrupt end when a loyal friend and colleague of Kate's is killed by a shark during a dive in the Western Cape. A year after the fatal accident, Kate is at her professional lowest point. Her boat, her last source of income, is due to be repossessed by the bank in a matter of days. But then Kate's ex-boyfriend Jeff (Olivier Martinez), of all people, comes to the rescue: the heavily wealthy businessman Brady (Ralph Brown), accompanied by his son Luke (Luke Tyler), wants to experience the ultimate thrill and go shark diving. Although Kate hasn't been in the water for a year and has serious misgivings, she agrees in order to save her boat. And she quickly discovers that all her doubts were completely justified...

Dark Tide director John Stockwell knows his way around the ocean as a filming location, having previously made films like Into the Blue with Jessica Alba and Blue Crush solidly crafted and visually appealing. As a rule, the visuals of the film played a much more important role than the dramaturgy. And Dark Tide is no different. The well-filmed underwater shots, the dreamlike surroundings and last but not least the attractive Halle Berry make the film visually a real treat. Admittedly, Berry is not put on stage as shamelessly sexy as Jessica Alba in Into the Blue, whose skimpy bikini panties set the morality guards off in the US and even necessitated digital post-production. But it becomes clear again and again that Halle Berry's acting talent is not in the foreground.

But this is not tragic in view of the somewhat poor script. The very clichéd dialogues and not exactly original conflicts that are set up between Kate and Jeff or between Kate and Brady don't make high acting necessary. But that's not really the problem with the film, which isn't trying to be anything more than a nifty sea adventure anyway. What Dark Tide struggles with the most is the story's lack of suspense, which especially makes up the second third. After a successful beginning, far too much dialogue follows, with the father-son conflict between Brady and Luke in particular being unnecessarily rolled out. The whole thing is only interrupted by one genuine moment of suspense, but this takes place almost entirely in the dark and is thus barely enjoyable.

Only when Kate decides to show Brady in Shark Alley how dangerous swimming with sharks can be does the action really pick up again. The last twenty minutes are then really fun again and also deliver some good show value. It's a pity that Stockwell didn't set this pace earlier, because then Dark Tide would have been much more entertaining despite all the dramaturgical weaknesses. Thus, the whole thing has become a nice, but in parts also a bit tedious adventure drama, which tries to make up for the weak dramaturgy with beautiful pictures. If that is enough for you, you will have a lot of fun diving with Halle Berry.

Picture + Sound: In itself, the picture of the DVD with its good coloring and decent sharpness can capture the beautiful shots above and under water very well. Unfortunately, there are a few scenes that are simply too dark mixed, so that the action here can be followed only with difficulty. For this, there are small point deductions in the otherwise very positive overall impression. The sound has a few good surround effects to offer, but is otherwise rather dominated by dialogue and ambient noise.

Extras: Bonus material has the DVD unfortunately not to offer.

Conclusion: Dark Tide is more drama than thriller, although that is rather secondary anyway, as the film stands out less for its dramaturgy than for its appealing visuals. While director John Stockwell tends to go for clichés in terms of content, the underwater shots, effects and picturesque seascape are very appealingly captured. While this isn't enough to carry a nearly two hour long film, it ultimately saves the shallow story from absolute irrelevance. The DVD presents the film in good technical realization, which only shows weaknesses in the night scenes. Those who hope for bonus material will be bitterly disappointed. Therefore: Fans of Halle Berry and of visually nice sea adventures can access confidently. Who expects contentwise finesse and the completely large tension, however, is served less well.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp