The visual effects are beyond reproach, and Duffield stages a set piece — in which Jay accidentally (stupidly?) gets involved with the whale as it hunts its morning breakfast — with cruel, horrifying tenacity.

Austin Abrams ably carries the movie but unless this is your very specific thing, Whalefall is more like a "nice to see" than "must see".

The kid from Resident Evil gets swallowed by a whale and it’s slimy-scary good times in the belly of the beast until a soap opera plot drowns everything in tearjerking. Gross!

Flaws and all, in a perfect world, people would be going to see this in a theater instead of just another video game adaptation.