Don't go in the water

Rating: 5/10 (14 April 2007)

I actually saw JAWS on the big screen. I was too young to see it when it was originally released in 1975 so I had to wait 2 years before catching it during a second run in a dingy theater. I was 9 years old and it only cost 50 cents to see it! Those were the days. Anyway, I enjoyed JAWS back then for what it was but nothing more. In fact, even at 9, JAWS didn't even terrify me. It's a crowd pleaser for sure but I just don't see the big hoopla this film generated back then and still today.
The big problem with JAWS is the "terror" aspect of the story: the killer shark can only kill people if they're in the ocean. So the solution is easy enough: don't go in the water. That's it. No more terror. This obvious fact always seems to go over the head of everyone. It's not like you step out of your house and bam! a shark attacks you out of nowhere. The shark lives in a specific area where no one lives in. People swim in for fun or maybe fish in for work but a body of water like the sea is not terrifying to someone who lives on solid ground (unless they can't swim...arf). I figured this one out when I was 9 years old. In order to generate a story or terror, the characters in the film put themselves deliberately in harm's way. Because of this, it's very difficult for me to empathize with their plight. As opposed to something like HALLOWEEN, THE BIRDS or even in a faraway science-fiction world like ALIEN, were the characters are in constant danger since the killer lurks around every corner of their lives, not just in one specific area that is easy to avoid. I immediately respond to these kind of stories because the threat is more credible to the on-screen characters' lives. Not in JAWS. The threat of a killer shark was an artificial plot-point made only worse by the characters' actions.
In other words, I'll always be more scared of a psycho with a chainsaw like in the (original) Texas Chainsaw Massacre than a great white shark in JAWS. Because of this obvious weakness in the film's story-line, and in the light of its ranking among critics and fans alike, JAWS is certainly the most overrated film of all time.