Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Jaws 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 15, 2016

There may have been fear about going back into the water after Steven Spielberg's Jaws scared the fun of the beach and the ocean's refreshing waves straight out of even the most levelheaded vacationers, but there had to be just as much trepidation about returning to the well for a sequel considering the fairly even distribution of pro's and con's that would come with such an endeavor. With Spielberg decided in the anti camp but the suits at Universal rightly knowing that, like any good scare, the Jaws audience would want more, production began on a sequel that would inevitably suffer through some delays, a change in director, and an unhappy lead actor. But by keeping up appearances, banking on the name, returning the legendary John Williams to score the film, and delivering a decent though certainly flawed film, Jaws 2 went on to be a massive hit for Universal and one of the most lucrative sequels in cinema history.

Oops.

Life seems to be going swimmingly well for the folks of Amity Island. A new Holiday Inn is opening, the sun is hot, the sand is warm, the water is cool, and there's a party every few feet. But Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider, reprising his role) cannot shake his fear of another shark attack. His worries turn to deep concern when a ship blows up off-shore and a killer whale's mauled corpse washes onto the beach. He's convinced a shark was involved in the latter at the least, and he sets watch to protect the locals and tourists from another round with a nearly unstoppable aquatic foe. However his alarms fall on deaf ears, and he doesn't help his case when he draws a gun and frightens beachgoers when he believes a shark to be in their midst. Will he be proven right at the cost of precious life, or will life go merrily on for Amity's unworried seafarers and beachgoers?

Jaws 2 is a decent movie, though it certainly doesn't exist in that Aliens or The Empire Strikes Back rarified air of sequels that fare better than the original. Far from it, in this case, but for a movie that cannot help but live under a much bigger shadow, that's far too long and slow for its own good, not to mention marred by a number of production problems, a hair above mediocrity is probably the best case scenario. Its greatest strength is simply regurgitating the core concept of the original. Jaws 2 doesn't try to out-flash or outclass Spielberg's film. It exists to fill a demand for more shark up on the screen. It doesn't have an interesting story to tell or deep theme to explore. It's about as straightforward an example of moviemaking as straightforward can be. Laud it for sticking to its guns and formula, but there's certainly room to criticize its specifics, too.

The movie's single biggest flaw is its (sometimes absurdly poor) pacing. There's far too much stage-setting and filler that interfere with nuts-and-bolts plot advancement and characterization. The movie lingers far too long on scenes that aren't necessarily inconsequential, but that fill a void that could have been accomplished, in many cases, it seems, in half the allotted time. The result is a movie that has its electric (literally, in one case) moments that really work and its dull stretches that might leave some hoping that the shark would do its thing with even less remorse and more ferocity than it already shows. Performances are fairly flat as well, and the movie's photography can't even hope to keep up to Spielberg's much more organically visionary presentation of the original.

Jaws 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jaws 2 swims onto Blu-ray with a fairly nice-looking 1080p transfer. It's rather handsome and filmic, retaining a pleasant and critical grain structure that's balanced and unobtrusive. Detailing is fairly strong. Rusted boat components, the rubbery textures on wet suits, sandy beaches, and general attire and skin details are revealing, and to a relatively high degree of intimacy. The movie is certainly a bit more flat than are many modern pictures, whether shot on film or digitally, but the textural integrity of the source appears largely intact. Colors are attractive, with splashes of cheerful greens and yellows at the Holiday Inn opening, multicolored parachutes, swimsuits, an orange fireball, and some blood all contrasting well against the watery surface and earthy sandy beaches. Underwater shots are a bit murky with little variation to the teal-colored water, but brighter swatches of natural greenery stand apart nicely enough. Flesh tones appear fine, a bit on the well-sunned side but understandably so. Compression artifacts are minimal and print wear is largely unnoticeable beyond some debris that hovers during the opening titles.

Jaws 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jaws 2 more nibbles on sound systems than it does bite a big chunk out of them. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack, unsurprisingly, lacks much in the way of punch or vigor. Music can be a bit tight in the middle, a tad muffled and not particularly engaging, but Williams' trademark theme -- duh-dum, duh-dum, duh-dum -- is at least impressively detailed and fairly deep, even without the added benefit of an LFE channel. Band music and crowd applause at the opening ceremony struggle to find much clarity. Splashes, crashes, and gunshots aren't too terribly enthusiastic or home to much vitality. Dialogue finds a natural center positioning and presents clearly and with no struggles in prioritization. The movie would certainly benefit from a more wide-open 5.1 track -- even if it's just to better define ocean atmospherics out on the water or din on the beach -- but the 2.0 track handles the necessities well enough.

Jaws 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Jaws 2 contains a lengthy making-of, a few featurettes, deleted scenes, storyboards, and trailers.

• Deleted Scenes (480i, 4:41 total runtime): Martin, Ellen, and Peterson; At Home with the Brodies; The Vote; and Underwater: The Shark Attacks the Helicopter Pilot.
• The Making of Jaws 2 (480i, 45:22): A lengthy reflection on the need to follow-up the original film with a sequel, Spielberg's distance from it, the positives and negatives of making a sequel to a blockbuster, assembling the idea, penning the script, building the shark and dead whale, crafting some of the film's more challenging action scenes, Jeannot Szwarc's direction, weather during the shoot and other filmmaking anecdotes, and more.
• Jaws 2: A Portrait by Actor Keith Gordon (480i, 8:18): The actor reflects on his career, landing the role in Jaws 2, the and the lengthy process of performing in the film, all wrapped around an interesting retelling of the movie's production history.
• John Wiliams: The Music of Jaws 2 (480i, 7:12): A look back at Williams' theme music and his expanded work for the sequel.
• The "French" Joke (480i, 1:18): Jeannot Szwarc briefly discusses his career and a humorous story of the film's title translated to French.
• Storyboards (1080p): Scene-specific storyboards play automatically and with no supportive sound elements. Included are The Water Skiing Attack (2:00), The Shark Attacks Doug's Boat (1:00), and Underwater Sequence: Concept (1:30). It is impossible to skip to the end or fast-forward the pieces.
• Theatrical Trailers (480i, 7:57 total runtime).

Jaws 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jaws 2 is hardly a bad sequel per se, but it's certainly not in the same ballpark as the original classic. Overly long and underperformed outweigh the pluses, namely a movie that doesn't stray from the basics, a few honest scares, and impressive up-close shark work. It makes for fair entertainment and a worthy entry into the man-eating shark genre, though not necessarily a worthy successor to one of cinema's all-time classics. Universal's Blu-ray is really quite good. Even if the 2.0 lossless audio is no great shakes, it more than suffices for the material at-hand. Video is borderline gorgeous and the supplements, while vintage, more than get the job done. Recommended.