Kristen Stewart’s thrilling Underwater performance delivers — but leaves audiences in too deep

More than a decade after finding fame in Twilight, Kristen Stewart is back on screens with lean, mean marine thriller Underwater. The flick is visually vivid — but does the star’s performance sink or swim?

Kristen Stewart has once again returned to screens as indefatigable engineer Norah in Underwater. Picture: Twentieth Century Fox

Sometimes all it takes for a movie to hit you like a tonne of bricks is for one striking location to do all the heavy lifting necessary.

So it proves to be for the lean, mean marine thriller Underwater, which unfolds in a setting so exotically remote (and relentlessly claustrophobic) that it dominates the entire picture.

The liquefied locale you will be looking at is the famed Mariana Trench, a true geographic wonder of the world where the ocean floor plunges deeper than anywhere else on the planet.

Kristen Stewart’s performance in Underwater is carried out against an unforgettable deep sea back drop. Picture: Twentieth Century Fox

It is here, in the wake of a devastating undersea explosion, that the surviving crew members of a nuclear-powered drilling station must embark on a risky flight to safety.

If the group’s plight is not desperate enough from the outset, the growing possibility they may not be as alone down there as they first thought gradually sends tension levels soaring.

Performances are moderately effective across the board, save for a committed anchoring display from Kristen Stewart as the team’s indefatigable engineer Norah.

The star has once again returned to screens - this time as indefatigable engineer Norah. Picture: Twentieth Century Fox

In terms of workplace temperament, social skills and sheer determination to live, Stewart’s Norah owes some considerable debtsto Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley from the days of Alien.

In terms of overall tone and execution, Underwater director William Eubank also cheekily lifts a little material here and there from an Alien flick or two.

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UNDERWATER (M)

Director: William Eubank (The Signal)

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, T.J. Miller, Jessica Henwick.

Rating : *** (out of five stars)

Taking a dive to beat an all-time low