Shark Hunter

Having switched over to late night Sky Movies, I thought this was just going to be another rubbishy clone movie that I could switch my brain off to, then it turned out to be the completely opposite. The tense bits were tense, the special effects were very good for a "hmm, never saw 'that' one at the movies" movie, and the acting was OK. My only complaints with it were plot wise, the crew seemed to very quickly jump into plan to capture a giant monster that none of them believed existed in the first place, and the investigation of the research centre to which they were sent to 'investigate', encompassed nothing more than cursory glance and the extraction of a Shark tooth from the side of a wall. The ending was also a bit, well... unsatisfactory. Other than that, it held my attention and is a very worthy "Aaah, giant Shark" movie.

People, seriously, you can't go watching a direct-to-video movie like this expecting material worthy of an Oscar, okay? You just can't come on here, slap it with a 2/10 rating just saying it was the worst movie ever. You don't go looking for plot holes in a virtually plot less movie. You just don't go complaining about under-developed characters or implausible events in a movie like this. This movie is about a Megalodon, which is a giant prehistoric monster-shark. So lighten up, folks. If you don't know what to expect from a movie like this, than you clearly haven't seen enough of them yet. So lower your standards and try to see it for what it really is. SHARK HUNTER (which is a very awful title in general and even a rather inappropriate one for this movie in particular) is in the same league as many of those recent underwater CGI sci-fi/horror/action quickies we've come to know recently (DEEP SHOCK, MEGALODON, OCTOPUS…). And it's even a bit in the same vein as those lovable 80's gems, like LEVIATHAN and DEEPSTAR SIX (albeit not on par with those), with the only difference that instead of some unknown mutating monster, it now features a… Megalodon.

The set-up to the story is negligible. They use the opening-sequence to provide Antonio Sabato Jr.'s character traumatic background (yes, the dude's clearly still active in motion pictures): He saw his parents attacked and killed by a Megalodon (anyone seen the recent KRAKEN: TENTACLES OF THE DEEP? – they did the exact same thing in that one too). Then we learn that Antonio designed and built a complete submarine, but isn't allowed to play with it anymore by his superiors. He sobs and nags about it until an underwater research facility is destroyed by our over-sized granddaddy shark. So Antonio finally gets his chance to go underwater sailing again. And thus we quickly get to what this movie is all about: A crew, trapped in the claustrophobic setting of a submarine, which priority quickly shifts from capturing the Megalodon to eventually trying to kill it. Now let's rate it for what it is, because it is that and nothing more.

The crew constantly battling the shark and the shark constantly damaging the sub (and even infiltrating it in one scene) are mildly entertaining events as far as that goes. The Megalodon vs. the mini-sub was fun too (although scenes like these are always inevitable in flicks of this kind). The underwater CGI (both of the machines and the Megalodon) were surprisingly good (they wisely decided to use a lot of shadows to hide all too obvious CGI). A tad bit better even than what you'd expect from a movie like this. They apparently used their little budget to the fullest and hired capable set designers to built the convincing, nice-looking interior sets of the submarine (although I admit, it looks pretty small inside if you compare all that to the exterior CGI shots of the sub). The acting even wasn't too bad, and Grand L. Bush (as Harrington) quickly became my favorite crew-member. Not only did he come across as the most talented actor of the whole cast, he also has the best lines of the movie. My summary-line of this comment is one of them (nice nod to Spielberg's JAWS, of course) but he's got more to say. The "Bambi vs. Godzilla" line and calling the Megalodon "a goddamn train with teeth" was funny, and you should see him during that whole "Stay out of my torpedo room"-conversation with Antonio (especially the look on his face when he says "Big f***ing deal."). That man really should move on to do bigger pictures.

But what really made sitting through this movie all worthwhile was… the ending. You've seen this type of movies a zillion times before and you just know how it's going to end, right? Well think again, because what happens near the end earns this movie a whole big extra point. I for one sure didn't see this one coming.

Low budget movie about a giant shark. It really seems that Spielberg's JAWS (1975) made quite an impression on the world. SHARK HUNTER is just another film from an entire genre in the shadow of JAWS. Antonio Sabato Jr. stars as some sort of marine biologist hell bent on proving that his parents were killed by a prehistoric megalodon shark. Next thing you know he's at the bottom of the ocean with an experimental navy sub (crew included) fighting the twenty ton shark. Blah blah blah and loopholes so big, the shark could swim through them. However, no one is watching this type of movie for the story line...or even the acting. You are watching it for the killer shark.

Every scene of this film with the sixty-foot long shark is computer-generated and it looks like the movie's budget went into these effects. And it surprisingly pays off. They did a pretty damn good job. The CG shots look better than the majority of scenes with CG sharks in Renny Harlin's DEEP BLUE SEA (1999).

The only disappointment for me in this film were the shark attacks. The shark is so big that it can easily swallow a mini-sub (as shown in the movie). My point is that the shark is to big to attack people.

The highlight of SHARK HUNTER, for me, was the ending. It took me by surprise...really unexpected.

In conclusion, this is a really bad movie. However, if you love killer shark movies and have seen JAWS one too many times, this one's for you.

Luckily, I saw this movie on the Sci-Fi channel and didn't waste money renting it. Yes, it was pretty bad.

Lets begin: Antonio Sabato Jr. plays Dr. Spencer Northcut, a professor and quite possibly the only human on the planet who can design every facet of a deep sea research submarine (subtle sarcasm there, folks), who's family was attacked by a shark called a Megaladon that became extinct over 40 million years ago. The problem is that Dr. Northcut cannot seem to get a berth on the very sub that he created, maybe because of his obsession to get even with the monster shark that took his parents from him, or maybe because he's just not qualified for a position on the sub (did you ever think about THAT, Northcut?), and he spends the first fifteen minutes of the movie pouting about it. Then, as if a sign from above, a research facility is destroyed and it's Northcut to the rescue. Why he would suddenly become qualified to help investigate the destroyed facility is beyond me but he finally gets a berth on "his sub". As the story rolls along we also find out that Northcut is a qualified diver, paleontologist, submarine commander, mini-sub driver and martyr extraordinaire. Wow, can this guy do it all or what?

The other characters were almost as bad, not to mention most of the acting. Whomever casted Heather Marie Marsden (in a laughable performance) should seriously think about another career and the diction coach should have been fired. I don't have a problem with foreign actors but if they're going to use American slang at least do it properly. Example: One of the guys in the research facility tells another guy, "I sick of your stupid-ass games" but the way he said it, it sounded like, "I'm sick of your stupid ASS games." I've been trying to figure out what those are ever since. The only character I liked was Harrington, a no-nonsense mini-sub driver that thinks Northcut is an unqualified nut that could endanger the entire crew. Grand L. Bush's portrayal of Harrington was the most realistic of all the characters and the only one who questions Northcut's qualifications...finally.

The animation was also atrocious. Whose idea was it to make the shark look like it was snarling? I almost expected to hear it growling! And don't forget to check out the radar display. At one point there is a large, green shape of a shark coming across the screen! If anyone has ever seen an actual radar screen (and I use one on my boat) they'll know that images are just big blots of color and not distinguishable from one another: could be land, could be a boat or it could be a channel marker. Radar's do not decipher what's in front of you, so the image of a shark floating by was pretty funny indeed!

If I have to describe this movie in one word it would be "Pffflllttt" (big fat raspberry).

Compared to other shark/creature movies I've seen over the past few weeks, Shark Hunter is surprisingly not bad. It is nothing great though, with an awful script which is full of stilted and cheesy lines, parts where editing lacks focus, sluggish pacing, a hammy performance from Antonio Sabbato and a story which while good in concept and having some decent moments is overly-silly. However, the underwater sequences are surprisingly well-shot with CGI that is not as cheap as it could have been, scenes that actually do have more suspense and tension and less predictability such as the ending the shark is adequately menacing(already an improvement on the sharks from the SyFy creature movies and the last two Jaws sequels) and Grand L.Bush is decent and likable.

Overall, not a great movie, but watchable especially compared to what it could have been. 5/10 Bethany Cox