Writers: Gary J. Tunnicliffe, Stanley Isaacs
Wow! I think this has to be one of the best megalodon movies made in 2002, topped only by Shark Attack 3! So, what is it that makes it so good? Well, nothing, actually. In fact, it's rather horrible :-(
The story somewhat deviates from the usual "Oh, no, the sea is infested with sharks, but we have a Very Important Competition That Will Bring Us A Lot Of Money to hold, so do we close the beach and lose money or pretend that nothing's happening and risk everyone's lives until some hero appears and saves everyone's asses?" cliché established in Spielberg's Jaws and repeated to death ever since. Here we have a rather claustrophobic setting of a huge sci-fi looking (but only from the outside) drilling platform deep in the ocean. That platform is situated in some kind of geologically sensitive area, which is of course the recipe for disaster. It doesn't take long for things to go wrong - some underground cave or something is unblocked, releasing a huge megalodon - sixty feet of prehistoric terror!!!1 Are you on the edge of your seat already?
If I saw such a huge prehistoric shark, I imagine I would be rather scared. Fortunately, the directors of this movie wisely decide to never let us truly experience that hugeness - the fake CGI shark is mostly shot completely alone in the water, without any solid objects in the background to allow for the comparison. That way, we are able to survive watching this film without dying of fear. Boredom, on the other hand, was a bit harder to repel...
Somehow, this movie is missing everything that makes for an enjoying shark experience. The setting itself effectively rules out beaches and topless beauties lying in the sun. The fact that the antagonist is a prehistoric shark that's supposed to be dead for millions of years (or something like that) makes impossible the traditional use of stock footage of real sharks. And the lack of money makes the existing CGI shark horribly unimpressive. Add to that the lack of horrifying death scenes and you have a movie that's best to avoid, unless you are a true megalodon fan. But even in that case, you're better off watching Shark Attack 3. The only good thing in the whole movie is the final scene - our heroine is on her boat and below her suddenly flows a huge terrifying shadow of sixty feet of prehistoric terror!!!1 This is a very nice short scene that slightly improves the bad taste left in your brain after watching (or preferably sleeping through) the rest of the movie.
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