When Jaws hit the big screen, things changed. Prior to that, the summer was considered the dumping ground for bad movies, a rest stop before the endless tours of the drive-in circuit. Jaws blew everything out of the water. So, with the receipts in a sequel made sense.
Two divers are swimming off the coast of Amity Island when they stumble across the wrecked remains of the Orca. Something else is there too. One of the helpless swimmers manages to snap some shots of the thing before they both get devoured.
Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) is overseeing a ceremony celebrating the development of the Amity Shores condos. Owner and Selectman Lee Peterson (Joseph Mascolo) is on hand, as well as Chief of Police Brody (Roy Scheider). He's mostly there because of his wife, Ellen (Lorraine Gary) who happens to be Peterson's personal assistant.
From there we meet a bunch of new characters, all them teens. The main ones are Larry Vaughn, Jr. (David Elliot) and Mike Brody (Mike Gruner). The boys, including their pals, and the gals all decide that what they really need to do is some boating.
While this fascinating turn of events unfolds, a water skier and her mother are out enjoying the water when a fin appears behind the girl. Down she goes and when dear old ma tries to shoot the emerging great white with a flare gun all she succeeds in doing is blowing herself up and giving the shark a nasty scar.
It isn't long before the mother's fried corpse is found and Brody tries to summon Matt Hooper back to Amity (as Richard Dreyfus was busy, this goes nowhere). When he can't, Brody brings this to the attention of the town council. They refuse to do anything and when Brody empties his gun into what turns out to be a school of fish he gets fired.
None of this is going to stop the aforementioned kids from having some fun on the water though, but the shark quickly attacks one of the boats and eats one of the kids. When Deputy Hendricks (Jeffery Hendricks) finds the girl in a state of shock, words gets to Brody. What can he do against a twenty ton eating machine?
Turns out much of what he did last time. Jaws 2 isn't a terrible film but almost every story beat is lifted from the first film. The teens are so generic and bland it's hard to remember what they're called, not that is makes any difference to the story. So few of them die it's a wonder they were even included.
Another issue is the shark. Jaws kept it smart and had the monster be hidden for most of the film. Here? I swear every scene is a loving full frame close up. Pity it's cheaper than the first model. One shot even lets us look right down the gullet and see the gear moving. They also felt the need to give the shark a Phantom of the Opera-like scarring, because I guess a regular great white wasn't scary enough?
The actors, especially the leads, hold the film together so credit where credit is due.
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