SYNOPSIS: An offshore oil platform drills through a layer of rock and unwittingly releases a super-sized prehistoric shark that starts terrorising the local beach. Marine biologist Catherine Carmichael is investigating the destruction of the oil rig, and upon learning of the super shark’s existence, must find a way to defeat it...
THOUGHT/ANALYSIS: Super Shark is a 2011 film. Let me start off by saying that I do not get the appeal of shark movies: the only one that can really be deemed critically ‘good’ is the first Jaws film, which although it is really a B-movie in character and story, is given the budget and direction of a blockbuster, which led to a big success/profit. Every other shark movie that followed (Including the Jaws sequels) offers nothing new or interesting, yet somehow a whole genre of thee movies has emerged which consists of the same story being told over and over again: there are only so many ways you can kill a shark, and only so many ways a shark can attack a boat or a lone surfer...yet even after forty years of this, it somehow just keeps going...
So what is Super Shark about? The film starts off on an oil rig where there is an attempt to break through some hard layer of rock on the ocean surface. When they do so they unexpectedly release a giant prehistoric shark that was dormant under the rock, which drags the whole oil rig under the ocean by biting a crane and pulling it down (yes, it looks as ridiculous as it sounds). Marine biologist Kat Carmichael is investigating the incident, and when she goes out to the site with Chuck, a local sailor, she finds there is no oil spill, which is odd considering the official cause of the accident was an explosion. She visits the only survivor in hospital, who claims it was a giant shark, but Kat has a hard time believing him until she actually sees the creature itself after it destroys a submarine and her and Chuck narrowly survive there own encounter. The story offers no surprises, and follows the same old shark film tropes: shark is released from some prehistoric stasis, shark starts eating people, locals try and fight back...all the usual stuff. It’s predictable, the dialogue is exactly what you’d expect with obvious foreshadowing, and the film overall plants itself right in the middle of the genre and is an exemplary example of it. The predictability only goes away when the film gets completely ridiculous, such as when the shark starts walking on land on its fins, or flying through the air to take down a fighter jet, and in the finale when it faces off against some sort of walking tank. At least these utterly bizarre scenes make the film more interesting...
The cast of characters are again the sort you would find in any other shark film. You have the scientist, the greedy CEO, the laid back sailor, the military types, the obnoxious DJ, the lifeguards....they’re all here. There are a lot of characters in this film, and quite a few don’t really serve any purpose. For example, the story of the lifeguards that the first half of the film focuses on a lot goes nowhere, and they all end up getting eaten within five minutes of each other half way through of the film. What was the point in their story? The only reason I can fathom is that they were needed for some obligatory swimsuit scenes, but other than that they serve no purpose. All of the acting is flat and lifeless, and there’s a few instances where the actors fumble their lines. Again, no surprises here.
Like most shark movies, there is not an awful lot of money being put into this. The sets are all cramped and just look like sets rather than anything else, and are accompanied by nonsensical lighting. The special effects look cheap, and the CGI on the shark is really bad, and when it eats people, it just seems like they disappear behind the shark as it supposedly gets them, and its teeth are always bloody on the top, rather than all over, which again makes no sense. The battle between the walking tank and super shark is the crescendo of ridiculous, as the two poorly animated CGI entities attempt to do battle. Overall, Super Shark is a stellar example of these shark films: it lacks any depth, is poorly executed and fails to offer anything original, but despite all of that, it is a very easy film to watch, and if you need to watch a film that is ‘so bad it’s good’, then this fits the bill rather well. You’ll recognise all the cheesy lines and atrocious acting right off the bat, and you can laugh or groan about all its flaws for just about the entirety of the film.