Director: Mark Polonia
Year: 2024
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Shark
Plot:
Arriving at an archeological dig in Egypt, a scientist finds the team there has uncovered the remains of a prehistoric mummified shark revered by the ancient Egyptians as a God, and when the team starts to disappear, finds that their presence has roused the creature, forcing them to stop it.
Review:
Overall, there’s a lot to like with this one. Among its better features is the appropriately cheesy kind of setup that makes for a great combination of genre influences, making for a solid mummy and shark film. The initial setup, offering a chance of getting her out to the secret facility, making use of her analytical skills to study what's been uncovered, and the need to ensure their safety by keeping out the raiders who are trying to stop them from stealing the contents within the site, is a pretty decent enough take on everything. This works nicely to give this a fun bit of connection to the mummy within
That allows for a series of immensely fun and silly attacks to come about from this one as it goes about unleashing the puppet shark on the intruding team. The puppet shark, wrapped in loose cloth strips to approximate the mummy concept, comes across with some fun sequences featuring the initial attack on the guard, a series of chases through the temple as the escape attempt goes off, and a series of encounters between the Air Force and the rampaging shark, hoping to stop it. This leads to some enjoyable moments of the creature chasing them through the jungle, chomping on survivors in the jungle that has a cheesy quality and gives this some likable factors.
There are some big issues here that hold this one back. One of the main themes here is the film glossing over the idea of the sharks from outer space as a reason for where the sharks come from. The story of this one gives off several different reasons for the creatures appearing in our world to help the ancient society, yet it seems to overplay the least likely setup in favor of introducing the second one, which makes less sense. By switching between the sharks being aliens or interdimensional beings, this is way too much going on for this kind of film, and really should’ve settled on a singular explanation.
The other factor with this one is the overall cheapness of the film, which runs quite frequently in this one. The main issue is the CGI, getting to see the various inserts in the transitions away from the previous location, or the bits of stock footage used to make the military intervention feel grander. As well, the puppetry is immensely obvious with how it’s superimposed onto everything, which gives off the kind of cheap feel associated with these kinds of films. Much like the obvious cheapskate idea of going to an island to get away from Egypt, these manage to be enough to hold it down.
Overview: ***/5
An effectively cheesy and enjoyable genre effort, there’s a lot to enjoy here that manages to hold this one up against some generally expected and not-that-surprising flaws. Those with an interest in this style of genre fare, appreciate cheesy shark movies, or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there should outright avoid.
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