Director: Danny Lerner
Year: 2005
Country: USA/Bulgaria
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Working on the ocean bottom, researchers for a military project at the Oshona Station are suddenly attacked by a ravenous group of sharks and find that a strange crystal found in the area is the cause, forcing a rescue mission to get them out when the number of sharks proves too much.
Review:
This was a highly enjoyable killer shark entry. One of the best parts is that there's a lot of action here that manages to make for some exciting scenes. That there are major attacks barely ten minutes in, including the shark's stalking them underwater out in the open or through the nearby coral which is pretty suspenseful with the sharks storming out to chomp on their victims. The big scenes, though, are the two incredibly well-done attacks on the mini-sub and the station itself as both are interesting and quite exciting, making for enjoyable scenes full of great shark action that serve the movie well as highlights in a large pool of them. With the massive attack on the beach swarming up and grabbing everyone they can and several other ambushes that feature the sharks attacking random civilians and victims also included, there’s a lot to like here.
Also quite good are the other big action scenes reserved for its final half, which is just non-stop action. The sequence of the sinking submarine, though not directly related to shark attacks, serves well to get some rather tense scenes into the mix while setting into motion all the fun to come along later. From all the gun-play brought into all the excellent stalking done, which does get rather creepy at times, to the nearly flawless brawl that takes place seemingly everywhere and throws everything into it, it's a ton of fun and manages to make the film exciting at the very end. The last plus here is the fact that it features a rather nice, gory body count. Granted, most of them are not much more than merely seeing the sharks bite into something vaguely human-looking before seeing a large blood-cloud forming out of its mouth, but it's still the point of getting them on-screen, which is where this one works. These here are the film's good points.
There wasn't a whole lot really wrong with this one. One of the biggest issues with the film is that there's very little to be threatened about from these sharks. Despite displaying the false characteristic of constantly growling whenever they’re shown swimming along individually or as a group, the constant use of stock footage that has already been used in over twenty different films is something to get over. Granted they’re mixed somewhat nicely into the action, the fact remains that all of these movies feature the same footage over and over so it gets repetitive and fast. That it's also mixed somewhat ineffectively with the completely false-looking heads for the attacks is something else entirely. They’re so haphazardly edited around and feature such obvious jarring editing tricks to hide this fact that there are issues with the sharks.
There's also a big problem here with the second half, which has two really big flaws to it. The first one, and the bigger of the two, is that the sharks take a back-seat in these scenes to its action-movie pedigree. Concerned as it is with these admittedly fun moments, the fact that it abandons the sharks is where it falters, since there's no mention of them at all, shuttered off to deal with a secondary plot-point that wasn't even built up properly at the time. There's also the fact that the ending, which deals with an alien appearance that is just so ridiculous that there's very little else to say about it. These are the film's troubled areas.
Overview: ***.5/5
With some good parts mixed in somewhat nicely and a couple flaws spread around at points, it's not the best entry but still decent enough to be of some enjoyment in the genre. Give it a shot if you're into these kinds of films or are a fan of the Sci-Fi Channel's films, while those who have a prejudice against them won't be swayed with this one and should heed caution.
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