Jaws 2 (1978)

When two divers disappear off of the coast, the pictures from their underwater camera reveal police chief Martin Brody's greatest fear: another Great White shark has begun prowling the waters around Amity Island! JAWS 2 suffered countless problems in production, which caused for the removal of the original director (John D. Hancock) in place of longtime television director Jeannot Szwarc. The resulting film serves as a continuation of the events that occurred four years earlier, bringing back many familiar faces including Roy Scheider and Lorraine Gary as Martin and Ellen Brody, as well as Murray Hamilton and other returning members of Amity's city council. We are also introduced to the town's teens, whose day sailing adventures set the menu for the new shark. The once stern Chief Brody is reduced to a delusional mess when faced with another summer of blood, let alone the disbelieving council members that want to avoid another public humiliation. Unlike in the original, the shark emerges quite early on in this sequel, which relies on the viciousness of the attacks to earn its scares rather than the implied terror of the first. In doing so, the tension and suspense have both been dramatically reduced. John Williams plays a slight variation on his earlier themes, injecting them with a frenetic energy and creating a sense of immediacy in each strike. Outside of the slower pacing, the major flaw with this first sequel is that it attempts to mirror the structure of the original, but with less interesting characters found in the teenagers and a far less epic finale. Where Szwarc does succeed is in establish a sense of continuity in the similar look and feel of the film, while bringing back much of the same humor and heart in the script. As sequels go, it is a valid followup, but one that lacks bite.

Rating: 7/10.