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Jaws 2 Blu-ray delivers great video and decent audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
Another giant Great White Shark terrorizes beach goers in this sequel to Steven Spielberg's summer blockbuster.
For more about Jaws 2 and the Jaws 2 Blu-ray release, see Jaws 2 Blu-ray Review published by Martin Liebman on December 15, 2016 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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For the week that ended on July 8th, Lionsgate Home Entertainment's John Wick: Chapter 4 reclaimed the top spot on the Blu-ray-only chart, while Universal Pictures Home Entertainment's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which was the week's top disc seller, came in second ...
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will celebrate the 45th anniversary of Jeannot Szwarc's Jaws 2 (1978) with a brand new 4K Blu-ray edition of the film, which is scheduled to arrive on the market on July 4th.
The UK branch of Universal Studios will add numerous new titles to its Blu-ray catalog. Amongst them are Jaws 2, Jaws 3, Jaws: The Revenge, and Xanadu. All releases will be available for purchase on July 11.
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