Brilliant build up to a very disappointing conclusion

Rating: 10/10 (24 January 2013)

I remember watching parts of Jaws when I was much younger and finding some scenes scary. For a long time, I've been wanting to watch the full movie and now that I have, I can tell you one thing. This movie hasn't aged that well.
When you look at other timeless classics such as Star Wars, Spielberg's Indiana Jones, Alien, E.T and so on, they certainly have aged very well and still are certainly watchable and can either be feared or called "epic" Unfortunately, the same cannot go for Jaws, at least in my belief.
As I was watching this movie, I was so impressed with the first half of the movie, the build up where a few people get killed and they attempt to close all beaches that I couldn't wait for the final part of the movie. The first half contained everything a movie needs; great buildup to a movie. Remember, the Empire Strikes Back. We watched 90 minutes of build up before the Luke vs Vader duel. Remember Helm's Deep from Lord of the Rings? We had a lot of build up to the final battle. Same went for Return of the King; the first half of the movie was all build up to the epic conclusion. The problem with Jaws for me is that the first half gets me so excited to see how everything will conclude that once it did, it was thoroughly disappointing.
What I meant with "It hasn't aged well" is that by now, the shark really looks pretty bad and unrealistic. However, we can appreciate all the trouble Spielberg went to get the shark to come onto the big screen back in '75. Also, the acting is good and the story is good but another little issue is that John Williams' soundtrack to the movie doesn't add much tone anymore.
Maybe I over hyped the movie but the ending seemed so sudden. When Hooper finally goes underwater to see the shark, there was only 10 minutes of the movie left. Also, back then, this movie may have been an absolute masterpiece and true horror but now, the story of a shark killing people is kind of stupid. That isn't to necessarily say I found it stupid. I didn't. But its another example of why this movie hasn't aged all that well. Whilst Hooper and Brody are good characters, Quint isn't necessarily the same.
Jaws may be regarded as a cult classic but whilst this movie is great in its first half the final half of the movie to me is a massive let down and extremely slow. Disappointing movie unfortunately for me.