It has lost something...

Rating: 9/10 (11 February 2004)

"Jaws" has lost something over the years, particularly in the last 4 or 5 years (or so it seems). I used to count this among my all time favorite movies, even quite recently.
Today I watched the movie again after awhile (9 months or so?) and it's starting to look very dated and somewhat silly to me. The first part of the film (before the shark hunt) is really rather dull and uninspired, if you think about it... nothing very interesting happens, a few shark attacks and some resort town politics. The scenes in the boat before the finale (particularly Robert Shaw's famous speech about the Indianapolis) are as inspired as ever, but then things get very silly and unrealistic. The shark chases the boat, purposely attacking? A shark intelligent enough to desire revenge...? Please -- give me a break.
Overall the movie is still fun, but either I've changed recently or the years are just increasingly unkind to this film. It no longer looks like an inspired work of genius to me, just a decent and rather cheesy mid 70's action/adventure flick. I wouldn't expect today's audiences to get terribly excited, and am curious what the reaction would be if "Jaws" were released today with nothing much changed but the special effects. I suspect it wouldn't get a tenth as much attention as it has.