Director: Glenn Campbell, Tammy Klein
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Undergoing a trip to the Moon, a spaceship attempting to find a way of colonizing the surface instead finds the area home to a race of deformed shark hybrids created by a Russian experiment from the 1980s and several survivors trying to prevent the sharks from returning and overtaking Earth.
Review:
There's quite a lot to like with this goofy cheesefest. Among its better aspects is the rather fun series of storylines present that bring this one together quite nicely. The initial setup of the ship going through the bungled mission to the Moon and getting stranded with no communication serves this nicely, providing a way of logically keeping them on the moon without any kind of help that also offers up a fantastic way of introducing the group to the survivors of the Russian expedition that trapped the sharks on the Moon back in the 80s. Their own backstory about being trapped on the planet with the creatures during their own failed experiment to create a master race of hybrids that could live on various planets but got stranded with the survivors. This type of intergalactic war makes for a highly enjoyable time here that mixes together cheesy action with a sci-fi bent involving the conflict going on with the mutated species.
This serves the film incredibly well with the action here moving away from the expected creature attacks into a different kind of genre outing. As is to be expected considering this is built more around an intergalactic way going on between the two humanoid species, the use of close-quarters combat weaponry utilizing spears, spikes, and harpoons to take them out in close-quarter fights not only on the surface of the moon but inside the command center they created as well as the ship during the thrilling finale where the creatures swarm the escaping ship trying to get back to Earth. As it forsakes the kind of expected action here, there's not much in the way of gore beyond a few aftermath shots of the victims who fall in combat but it's more than made up for with the design of the sharks which utilizes a distinctive series of traits and visual cues to determine individuality amongst them. As each of the sharks look quite easily identifiable not just amongst each other but also knowing what species they're based on, it's quite clever and adds a lot to the film overall.
There's not a whole lot to bring this down but it does have some minor drawbacks. Among the biggest issues here is the series of contrivances brought about to keep the finale going on much longer than necessary. With three or four different means of ending this one coming together in terms of how they're going to stop the sharks from getting back to Earth, that there's quite a lot of activity going on that could've been handled in different measures. Rather than engaging in fights or generally unnecessary reveals, this could've been ended way sooner without going through an overlong series of scenes that don't need to be there. As well, there's the expected cheesiness here that comes from the heavily-utilized CGI which carries on from everything like background plates of them running outside on the moon's surface to the creatures themselves and the environment of their civilization. This is expected and doesn't really hold it back too much although it is still quite prominent throughout here which can be a problem for some.
Overview: ****/5
A highly effective and generally enjoyable cheesy shark movie, there’s not much to be said other than taking a look at the title and letting that determine where this falls on your radar. Those who are fine with the cheesiness present with this one or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here while most others that aren’t as tolerant of this style should heed caution if not outright avoid.
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