Director: Kevin O'Neil
Year: 2015
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Hoping to secure a hanging debt, a fisherman finds his battle with the monstrous Sharktopus in jeopardy when the appearance of a part-man, part killer-whale, part-wolf hybrid appears in the area, leading to a massive territorial battle between them for superiority of the area.
Review:
On the whole, this one is quite an impressive and enjoyable entry in the rapidly evolving franchise. Much like the previous efforts, this one lives and dies with the cheese in here, which is found in the usual suspects throughout that range from the creature designs to the plot set-up and the action to the special effects and mostly everything else in here. A lot of these come off rather nicely because of the cheese, mainly the creature designs, as Sharktopus looks the best he's ever looked here with a rather cool-looking head-redesign and a more natural coloring job on his body. Meanwhile, the Whalewolf comes off even better as the four-legged, whale-bodied wolf-headed creature is one of the channel's absolute best designs, yet the infusion of the wolf into the creature allows it to be imbued with more life and character than almost any other creature they've ever showcased. With scenes of it attempting to be house-broken in the scientist lab, a rather amusing trait in wanting to play fetch with the severed limbs of it's kills and generally being treated like a dog throughout here there's some utterly hilarious moments found throughout here while also managing to build up enough sympathy for the creature that it's eventually turn is wholly justified and reasoned.
Likewise, the influx of the voodoo priest and his ability to gain control over the creatures is immensely cheesy but also manages to inject a fresh spin on the series without letting it get too wrapped up in the familiar, and makes for a novel idea in a series not really known for allowing that opportunity. In turn, that sets up the action along the way with this one getting a wide range of attacks, from the cheesy like the first fishing attempt to catch the creature or the attack at the marina where they manage to sever it's tentacle and enable the voodoo-possession to occur through that, while more serious scenes include the Whalewolf being stalked through the laboratory by the police detectives or the multitude of fights between them that occur here as they manage to battle a couple of times along the way and each one manages to get the upper hand in one of the battles before the final showdown which is the shortest battle yet remains no less exciting anyway. Even other action scenes, like the creatures' continued attacks on a reality show filming in the area or the escape chase from the scene, manage to get a lot to like here, and the finale in the shopping mall is pure hilarity that has to be seen to be believed and is truly uproarious. These manage to hold it up over its few minor issues.
Among its biggest issues is that the special effects here are obviously done in CG and look it every second they're on-camera, especially the Whalewolf, which is absolutely one-shot CGI that's never been officially rendered in a finished product. The creature continually looks like an unfinished creation that never interacts with anything around it, continually changes sizes and depth in its scenes, and is such an outlandish creation that it really highlights how bad it looks. That type of believability extends to the acting, which is over-the-top, wildly varying, and looks as natural as the concept of the creatures. There's Catherine Oxenberg as Dr. Elsa Reinhardt, who's somewhat cheesy, varying accent and preposterous motivations that make it hard to believe her as this type of person, although the cheesiness of her role might win some over. Akari Endo as Inspector Nita Morales is decent but tends to be overwhelmed by things when the action hits, so she is a bit weaker in the latter half. However, she's still good enough as the friendly-yet-determined officer at first, so it's not a big deal. Casper Van Dien as Ray Brady is a serviceable lead as the drunken fisherman who's trying to con his way through life and gets caught up here, which isn't all that much of a stretch for him in these kinds of roles. Overall, the acting isn't awful, but there's still a lot to like elsewhere here to really make this worthwhile.
Overview: *****/5
Clearly, the most fun in the franchise, there's so much fun throughout here that it really manages to make this one an enjoyable entry for those who appreciate this style. Give this one a look if you've gotten this far into the series or truly appreciate cheesy creature features, while those who don't go for that type of feature should heed extreme caution.
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