Megalodon (2002) (V)

User Rating:

2.2/10   

Director:

Pat Corbitt

Writers (WGA):

Gary J. Tunnicliffe (written by) &
Stanley Isaacs (written by)

Release Date:

February 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Horror

Tagline:

Sixty Feet of Prehistoric Terror

Plot:

A deep-sea drilling operation goes horribly wrong, releasing the deadliest ocean predator that has ever roamed the seas since prehistoric times-Carcharodon Megalodon...sixty feet of prehistoric terror.

Plot Keywords:

Shark | Megalodon | Shark Attack | Cryptozoology | Giant Animal

Cast

Leighanne Littrell	...	Christen Giddings
Robin Sachs	...	Peter Brazier
Al Sapienza	...	Ross Elliot
Mark Sheppard	...	Mitchell Parks (as Mark A. Sheppard)
Jennifer Sommerfield	...	Amanda 'Maz' Zablenko
Evan Mirand	...	R.P. McGinnis
Steve Scionti	...	David Collen
Fred Belford	...	Jake Thompson
Gary J. Tunnicliffe	...	Grady Harper
Yasmine Delawari	...	Maria Barrera
Stanley Isaacs	...	Robert Armstromg
Will Borders	...	Pilot
John Michael Maurer	...	Bodyguard
McCready Baker	...	Brazier's Assistant
Brian Littrell	...	Rig Worker

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some adventure violence and peril.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:PG-13

Company:

100% Entertainment

Well, I appreciate the effort

It's easy to pick on MEGALODON and call it a bad movie. It's not original, it lacks a bit suspense every now and then, the acting is just average and you can tell that the budget was low, to name only a few things. But if you manage to look beyond its mediocrity, you can see that the film-makers really tried to make it as decent as possible. And you can only appreciate that. Now , if it wasn't for CGI-technology, this movie simply would not have been made. Only the actors and a few sets were real, the rest all CGI. It looks real good most of the time(the helicopter in the beginning and the sailboat at the end,...) but sometimes it fails desperately (that same helicopter crashing on the platform).

You already know that this movie is about a prehistoric mega-shark rising from the depths and terrorizing the crew of an oil-rig. And with it's title being MEGALODON, I thought the mega-shark was considerably lame. There's only one fairly decent attack-scene when he bursts through the ice. Decent in terms of that he finally does something. The rest of its screen time you see him swimming around bumping into things. Well at least they didn't make him roar or something. And the explosion at the end was ridiculous: They just disappeared!? But still, this movie never becomes really boring, 'cause the CGI frequently provides nice images to look at, with the 'cave-exploring'-sequence being a good example (nice glowing flubbery creatures). There are a few other shots worth mentioning. They're pretty pointless, but stylish. It was when they showed that smaller dinosaur-fish with the sharp teeth. The creature-designer actually made a real good-looking sculpture (no CGI) for this one.

I admit, to some MEGALODON may not live up to its humble 4-star-rating, but I think you should at least appreciate the effort the film-makers made for trying to make it work. And even if it can't compete with most of the underwater-creature-flicks, it still is way better than that Casper Van Dien SHARK ATTACK-tripe.