Director: Philip J. Roth
Year: 2003
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Sent to the bottom of the sea to inspect a secret base, a scientist and his research team observing marine life his father built are unaware that a swarm of genetically mutated sharks are in the area and forcing them to battle off the creatures and the increasingly-hostile escorts around them.
Review:
There's not a whole lot here that actually works. The main feature to this one is the fact that this does have the rather creative use of the plot to have the sharks being contained on the ship at the beginning and go on the rampage at the end. Rather than spend half the movie trying to track them down to prevent the massacre they are bound to do, this one keeps them out of the water for a large portion, making the few moments when they do attack all the more potent. The opening attack is pretty brutal and manages to get some nice scenes from it, while a later attack on the mini-sub is one of it's best scenes as there's a certain degree of suspense as to whether the attack is enough to enable an escape.
The other enjoyable aspect here is that when it manages to mix together the Action film with traditional Horror aesthetics, there's a lot of viciousness employed. That comes about as there's a few decent action scenes in here that aren't that bad. Most of the shootouts aren't that bad, and have some degree of watchability to them, from the escape attempt to get free of their capture to the series of shootouts in the lab where they use the inclusion of the sharks to get to upper hand which is a really great idea that gets some good mileage out of. The big shootout in the lab is really fun, and it does get some great stunts in it as well as setting the stage for a decent finale. Otherwise, this one isn't all that spectacular.
There's a couple of problems with this one. None are bigger than the fact that the sharks are so barely in this that it's almost a real question why they're involved. They are the subject of the film, yet they are rarely on-screen. Beyond the opening attack, the next time a shark is seen on-screen isn’t until the forty-minute mark. This leaves such a large chunk of the film without the titular creatures and being forced to spend the rest of the time with the scientific expedition and their journey for most of the film. While it's not that bad, this negates having the film be about genetically-enhanced killer sharks. The point of including them in the film then not featuring them at all for most of the film is a big flaw.
Another rather big flaw is the fact that the sharks get to do very little of the action. They get one main scene at the end, and that is pretty much a part of a whole grouping of scenes, and this leaves such few opportunities for them to actually become threats. Not having the title creature be a threat is a really big concern. Another rather big flaw is the confused ending. The film just ends and wraps up all of it's story lines at once, making it seem rushed and confusing. There's a few rather obvious plot holes in here, and there's some big problems with the believability of the sharks involved here, but those are the big problems.
Overview: **/5
With some big flaws in here and only a few good points, this one is a really hard sell. There's a few things to get out of this one, but there's much better shark pictures out there, and that is one of the big flaws to the film anyway which leaves this one is really only for the real shark-movie fans, while others can watch others and skip this one.
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