Director: Emile Edwin Smith
Year: 2016
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
On an Arctic research station, a team studying the melting ice finds that a group of prehistoric sharks has been awakened from the melting ice and try to find a way of stopping the creatures from escaping out into the deeper waters nearby.
Review:
This one was a rather enjoyable and entertaining creature feature. One of the better elements here is the fact that there's a really strong amount of action here that complies with the usual standard of these kinds of movies. With the impressive opening attack, pulling an entire sled-dog team into the water before getting the trainer, gives this a solid start, the researchers' first encounter with the sharks while off on their investigations is a genuinely thrilling series of events that plays off the fear of the unknown being pulled in without knowing what's going on and the fine attack on the lone worker out on the ice which all manage to give this one such a solid series of scenes that set-up the main section of the film's fun action scenes with the sharks' attack on the station itself.
From the first scenes of the sharks breaking through the ice to get to them as the different attempts to prevent them from getting to their escape vehicles, the manner in which they break the station away from the rest of the ice-pack around them and then their plan of sinking the station whole makes for a suitably enjoyable and entertaining series of scenes which gives this a wholly impressive action scene. Other big scenes afterward include the different manners of trying to break into the compartment where they're trapped inside holding the creature's back, and it keeps the film rolling along nicely into the finale where it's the exciting race out into the water to finally bring the station to the surface where it's a slew of fun yet highly logical methods of featuring those rescue attempts, and it's a nice series of action-packed scenes that really works quite well. With all this nice action featured, the sharks get a lot of screen time here in the latter half and they get better-looking as time goes on with a lot more sense of depth and realism to them when they're swimming around, though they look quite bad with the full-CGI shots here. Along with the nice gore here with the numerous kills, there's a lot of rather enjoyable elements here.
There are a few things wrong here, and the main one is the ever-present lousy CGI featured here, for while the sharks look good in spurts it's still quite obvious that throughout the main sections here there's some really bad work done to look quite badly and obvious which does hold this one back somewhat. The only other issue here is the fact that there's some rather lame work done here to set-up the history of the sharks appearing as there's not a whole lot definitive given that they're actually from a truly prehistoric age beyond a mere throwaway line here. While it's serviceable enough, there's still a lot to like here.
Overview: *** 1/2/5
While it manages to feature some enjoyable elements at times with a lot to really like, the fact that the flaws are traditionally part of these features is still present enough to knock it down. Really only give this a shot if you're a true aficionado of these efforts, while those that aren't as into these movies should avoid heartily.
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