Megalodon 18 Metros de terror

Usually shark movies are fairly horrible, much like most zombie movies. And "Megalodon" is not really an exception from the standards of shark movies. It has everything you expect it would; fake shark and bad CGI effects. Check and check.

The story in "Megalodon" is about an oil drilling company which has built a massive rig which will revolutionize the oil drilling business. Being capable of drilling at depths which are previously unreachable, then they invoke the anger of environmentalists. Whilst drilling at over 5000 feet, they find a massive subterranean underwater cave which has a myriad of previously undiscovered aquatic creatures. But living in the cave is a massive Carcharodon megalodon.

While the story is straight forward and fairly generic for a movie of this genre, then the movie actually turned out to be semi-alright, in terms of being watchable and providing some entertainment for the audience. However, it just was bludgeoned to death by horrible CGI effects and fairly bad acting.

The concept idea for the drilling rig was quite good, and they managed to show it in a fairly adequate manner, although the CGI effects could have been better. And the combination of CGI effects and real props did work out well enough in favor of the movie.

While on the topic of effects, then I will admit that the luminescent aquatic creature designs were really impressive and looked really good on the screen. So thumbs up to the CGI special effects team on this achievement.

"Megalodon" has no one familiar on the cast list, and I can't really claim that people were doing great jobs with their given roles and characters. Now, whether this was the fault of the restrictive script or the talents (or lack thereof) of the actors, I do not know.

"Megalodon" is not an impressive movie in any way, and it is the type of movie that you watch once and laugh about it, then never put it back in your movie player again. For a shark movie, then this movie was lacking action, shark attacks and the sense of fear, that we saw in "Jaws", for example.

This better-than-average effort reminds me of those old 50s style B movie sci-fi monster flicks because there's a well-developed and interesting story with good acting, that has a gradual build to the eventual release and attack of the Megalodon. Not boring in the least while it builds to the climax, except perhaps for those viewers whose attention span is short or who have been weened on horror flicks that are long on mayhem and short on plot. I consider this a valiant effort, with it's only weakness being the limited, but well-done, CGI effects. Overall, it has the look of a larger budget and the cast of unknowns took their work seriously.

Megadolon is more a mediocre movie than a terrible one. It is also at least better than the Shark Attack movies(then again almost anything is), now those are examples of terrible movies. There are things to like, the acting is decent especially from Mark Sheppard, there are some nice underwater sequences, there is one cool attack scene and much of the CGI is not bad(the helicopter crash agreed was an exception), not great but could have been worse. Also the movie doesn't fall into the dull category, the pace is quite brisk and there are glimpses of great entertainment. Megadolon is let down by a number of things. The standard of the CGI was better than expected, but there could have been much less of it at the same time. The editing has times where it's hurried and others where it's sloppy, the dialogue at best is a load of exposition and cornball and the characters are shallow and development is next to nil. The story is not badly paced, but it is very predictable and the suspense and horror is severely lacking(they're exchanged with unintentional comedy, some of which is funny but others are frustrating), and the repetitive attack scenes and anticlimactic and quite ridiculous ending hinder it further. The shark is a very mixed bag design wise, there are times where it has a very menacing great white shark look but there are other times where it is like an over-sized plastic toy you'd find in the bathroom(coming from someone who used to have one, it could sing too!). The lack of personality is a big problem, there was definitely a big effort to make it authentic but generally it needed to be more fearsome and have more variety in movement and how it reacted to things. Overall, mediocre but did have its merits. 4/10 Bethany Cox

If you plan to watch this movie hoping to see another good action-thriller movie, with bad shark attacking movie, just forget this one: bad acting, bad story, awful FX. It has nothing but a good name. I was hoping to see another Deep Blue Sea-like movie, only with greater shark and better feeling. Well I'm very disappointed. I tried to watch the entire movie, but after 15 minutes I've started to fast-forward the movie and watch only the key scenes. Moreover the famous Megalodon, is poorly designed and animated. The outdoor scenes seems to be computer-rendered and the overall feeling of the movie compares with the HBO made movies. Bottom line: if you want to see a shark movie watch again Deep Blue Sea - You'll be more satisfied.

An underwater explosion occurs and a drilling system collapses uncovering a section of the ocean that contains prehistoric species, allowing the Carcharodon Megalodon to surface.

Like Shark Hunter (2001) Megalodon borrows elements from Steven Altens MEG novel. With recycled special effects shots and suffering from pacing issues, Megalodon tries it's best to be entertaining and with a welcomed serious in tone. Under Pat Corbitt's direction some of the low budget special effects are well-done, including some make-up effects however there's an abundance of unnecessary bad shots (the snowstorm to name one) which bring the film down, Megalodon may have benefited from much more being left on the cutting room floor.

Robin Sachs (Babylon 5) gives a good performance and notable talents are both Sheppard (Battlestar Galactica) and an unrecognisable Al Sapienza although limited by the script.

Lacking any real tension it's too ambitious for its own good, less may have been more. Not as rounded than Shark Hunter but just as flawed - still it's worth watching if you're a Megalodon fan.