Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
IT'S THE GREAT GLASS ELEVATOR, CHARLIE, June 14, 2005
Quick... what's not in widescreen and has no special features? That's right - MEGALODON! SIXTY FEET OF PREHISTORIC TERROR - or so claims the box art. This film may be about a shark, but the production is all about FRANKENSTEIN. Seen JAWS? How about THE ABYSS, ALIEN, REPTILICUS, DEEP BLUE SEA, DEEP STAR SIX or LEVIATHAN? Then you've seen most, if not all, of MEGALODON. It's all here - the high tech multi-billion dollar drill site, a small, but the "best at what they do" crew, the ill timed major storm (snow and ice), an ill crewman, a lost world filled with lost fish stuffed with lost Magalodons, the standard crew roundtable scar sharing scene, a spunky blond girl reporter and her husky semi-comic cameraman. Tiny one man (one woman) subs, a helicopter crash, several "tragic" deaths all capped off with a whiz-bang explosion at the end which solves most (but not all) of the problems. MEGALODON takes no chances by leaving nothing to the imagination. It simply takes no risks - which is odd since it tries so hard to move in another direction all the time. There's a good story here blocked by a very large shark. The Magalodon doesn't come into view until halfway through the film and up until then you may find yourself wondering when they're just going to get on with it - but once the shark does arrive, does get into frame - you begin to realize that there was something more building here.
We've seen the destruction of the environment used time and again in these kinds of films - it's a backdrop. It's something for the creator and builder of the worlds biggest and deepest oil rig to ravage and lay waste to - but here, the head of the COLOSSUS is actually a pretty good guy trying to provide the world with the fuel it needs. When they stumble upon the lair of the Megalodon there is no talk of drilling for more oil - they all are taken by the wonder of finding a LOST WORLD. It almost seems as if the story might breakaway here and follow a different direction. But it never does - the shark swims in, knocks things about, knocks things over, breaks through things, and then gets blown to bits. We skip into a THREE MONTHS LATER, get our CODA, then our STINGER that there is not one... but two, perhaps more Megalodons now loose in the world's oceans. Nifty - but dull.
There a TON of unanswered questions, and by the end you know the movie has cheated you (can anyone explain why the earthquakes were needed in this film? Also, was the anchor cable drilled into the ocean floor ever going to break? - they cut back to it at least three times after each quake and I kept waiting for it to snap and the COLOSSUS to tip over - never did). MEGALODON is what it is - full screen, ready for cable, jammed with a few nifty ideas and stuffed with off kilter CGI (the subs looks fake - but look clean, while the Megalodon itself looks and acts almost exactly like a plastic tub toy shark) effects. Not the best, not the worst - not JAWS or any of the rest...it's MEGALODON, and it's available for sale or to rent.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Big Rig, Big Mistake, Big Shark, November 24, 2004
The Worlds biggest and safest oil rig is ready to drill on unstable ocean floor in the Arctic. Bad move. In a scene from Deep Star Six, the drilling opens up a huge cavern that is teeming with life that has gone extinct elsewhere 60-70 million years ago. One life form is a megalodon which leaves the rich feeding ground of the cave for the more barren waters of the Arctic (would you like a bridge with that?). Actually the first shark evidence, a shadow, does not appear until 47 minutes into the movie. The rig and the small cast are now at risk from a powerful predator.
Mistakes abound in this film in unexpected ways. I am used to these film getting the extinction dates wrong but this one got it right. However, it does play heck with a lot of other details. Imagine a body at 5,000 feet down that does not suffer from the pressure. Imagine and elevator and subs that travel the 5,000 feet from surface to ocean floor in a matter of minutes. Imagine a shark that has no internal organs (it is solid like a statue). Imagine planning rescue boats that have to be dropped bow first sixty feet to the water (and have wounded aboard). Watch visitors get invited to a dinner with no food and everyone leaves at the start.
The disk is very barren. Just play movie and a chapter selection. No trailers, commentary, behind the scenes (although it is credited in the credits), no nothing.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
MEGa Bummer! 2+ Year Wait Wasn't Worth It......., July 24, 2004
The trailer I viewed online for this movie made it look promising and after 2+ years of this movie sitting on the shelf, it was kind of a letdown and a waste of a $3.00 rental fee.
In all fairness, the original director (Tunnifcliffe) wanted his name removed from this film because it was heavily edited and changed from his original cut. I believe he wanted an R rating but they wanted PG-13. Who knows why though? It never got shown in theaters! The movie does have a few good points, but the bad points far outway them.
The acting and sets are pretty good for such a low budget film. Some of the CGI effects are pretty impressive but than there are some that weren't.
The rescue/life/drop boats briefly shown looked very cool and unfortunetly weren't explored as an option for a more exciting finale!
The bad points are numerous. Overly long beginning and end credits pad out the movies brief 90 minute running time. The shark doesn't appear until 52 minutes into the movie. The film wasn't the least bit exciting or suspenseful. NO extras or widescreen option on the DVD and the sound was poor especially on the actor's voices.
The so called CLIMAX was very brief and treaded very familiar terrority in regards to killing the shark. Nothing new here!
So out of all the low budget MEG shark movies currently out there on home video (Shark Attack 3:Megalodon, MEGALODON, Shark Hunter)it's certainley the best of the bunch, but that's not saying much. I'd give it MAYBE 2 to 2 1/2 stars out of 5. All of us shark movie fans need to keep out fingers crossed that the BIG BUDGET movie for Steve Alten's MEG book hits the big screen sometime soon!
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