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A French scientist, Sophia (Bérénice Bejo) and her team study mako sharks to observe the effects of ocean pollution, keeping tabs on one particular shark named Lilith by implanting a tracker. However, during one seemingly routine expedition, a group of sharks eat several members of Sophia's research team, including her husband, leaving her traumatised and reeling from the experience. Years later, Lilith's tracker indicates that she now resides in Paris's Seine River, with activists Mika (Lea Leviant) and Ben (Nagisa Morimoto) informing Sophia of the unexpected development. Paris is days away from hosting the World Triathlon Championships in the Seine, and the city's mayor (Anne Marivin) refuses to accept there is any significant cause for concern, let alone cancel the event. Teaming up with a local river commander, Adil (Nassim Lyes), Sophia finds herself in a tricky situation, with Mika and Ben hoping to safely return Lilith to the ocean while the police want to destroy the predator in the name of public safety.
With a relatively beefy 103-minute running time, Gens dedicates much of the relatively sedate first half to build up and anticipation, with characters mostly observing Lilith through her digital tracker as she moves through Paris waterways. But all hell breaks loose at the halfway mark, with an insane feeding frenzy paving the way for a fast-paced, carnage-filled second half. Insistence on realism frequently hampers contemporary shark movies, with low body counts (only one death occurs in 2022's The Reef: Stalked) and a refusal to cut loose, but Under Paris avoids these shortcomings. Gens does not wink at the audience, but he embraces the B-movie spirit of the material, delivering competent set pieces with plenty of bite and embracing the R rating with gusto. Big-budget shark movies are rare, but R-rated big-budget shark films are even rarer, with the two Meg movies to date suffering from PG-13 sanitisation. Fortunately, Gens does not hold back here; he unleashes Lilith and her countless babies as they chew their way through numerous victims, with attacks ranging from the more unnerving (sharks quickly pulling someone underwater in a pool of blood) to the ludicrous (jumping several feet into the air with a swimmer in their mouth). Under Paris is more of an action flick than a horror movie, with Gens favouring the schlocky over the scary, even depicting armed militia fighting sharks during the climax.
Gens pays homage to classic shark movies, with yellow net floats signifying Lilith's position in the water (reminiscent of the yellow barrels in Jaws) and two sharks ripping a victim apart, which evokes memories of Samuel L. Jackson's memorable death scene in Deep Blue Sea. Fortunately, Under Paris carries more visual chutzpah than standard-order direct-to-video shark movies, with slick, stylish cinematography, impressive scope, and surprisingly convincing digital effects. The sharks are not always photorealistic, with the computer-generated man-eaters occasionally looking goofy and cartoonish (especially during slow-motion shots as they leap out of the water), but the illusion is good enough for the most part, and it illustrates how much shark CGI has progressed since Deep Blue Sea in 1998. With cinematographer Nicolas Massart (Lupin) capturing the action using digital cameras instead of celluloid, Under Paris carries a hyperrealistic aesthetic, and your mileage may vary depending on your tolerance for slick contemporary visuals.
The characters in Under Paris are not immune from acts of stupidity, with one egregiously idiotic character causing her own demise by trusting Lilith in one of the movie's most memorable kill scenes. Additionally, the mayor refusing to cancel the triathlon (another ostensible Jaws homage, particularly with gunmen on boats nearby to protect the swimmers) also seems ridiculous, but the contrivances at least result in satisfying carnage. Under Paris does not feature any big stars by Hollywood standards, though the French-speaking actors are notable in their native country. Luckily, the performers are surprisingly strong here, with Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) and Nassim Lyes making the biggest impression as the two leads. Bejo brings believable gravitas and intensity to her role, ensuring she comes across as a properly fleshed-out character instead of a mere caricature.
Gens increasingly ups the ante during the intense lead-up to the climax, refusing to hold back as the sharks eat key characters and make a meal of the dozens of triathletes. Even though it appears that the situation cannot get worse, Gens pulls the carpet out from underneath us once again, leading to an unexpectedly cataclysmic ending that stands as one of the most memorable and dire in shark movie history. Despite its occasionally preachy messages about climate change, Under Paris is a dopey movie by design, asking viewers to accept silly moments and the central premise of these sharks wanting to attack humans, but that's par for the course in this subgenre. What matters is that, aside from the slow-going first half, the movie delivers satisfying shark action in spades. Like 2023's Godzilla: Minus One, Under Paris is a foreign production that effortlessly surpasses Hollywood's latest blockbuster output, showing how to do such a genre movie correctly.
7.1/10
