Shark Hunter (2001)

 

What's that? Another bargain bin shark adventure? Why, yes please!

Can't help it: sharks are kind of my thing. Robots, too. But this one just has a single shark, even if it's a big girl. How do I know it's a girl? Because female sharks are bigger than the males and the CG model doesn't have claspers. Not that the makers probably considered this, but still. 

FYI: claspers are two modified fins on sharks' bellies that the males use as a sort of penis. It's how you can easily tell males and females apart. 

Anyway...

This film opens with some grainy home video footage of a family getting ready to leave on vacation, I guess. Cue the reusing of several shots, and we're not even two minutes in. They are then relaxing on a boat, but something big with a fin hits the boat and the only survivor is the child. 

Fast forward to several years later and the boy from the opening is now professor Spencer Northcutt, who has designed a state-of-the-art submarine he desperately wants to get on board of, in order to hunt down the megalodon that killed his parents. Of course, no one believes him, but when an underwater drilling/research station is destroyed by something, he is brought on board to help investigate. 

It very soon transpires that there is indeed a megalodon and now it's a bit of a cat-and-mouse game between the submarine and the shark. The question is: who will come out on top at the end? 

To claim this is a good film, would be fisting the truth with a blunt instrument. (Probably a trombone.) The sets look cheap (which they probably were), the acting is passable to downright bad, the plot makes little sense and the editing is not even pedestrian. More like slow and dull. Except for Antonio Sabato Jr and Grand Bush, all the other actors here are either bloody awful or as bland as you can get. They clearly used a couple of B-stock European actors here and they mesh as well with the American cast as tortoise with a flock of geese. In the air. 

The sole redeeming feature this one has, is the CG shark. For all its faults and misses, this film manages to make the beastie look ancient and menacing. A bit like a gnarly version of a sand tigershark, and it works. But that is indeed the only redeeming quality of this one. You won't even care that everyone dies in the end.

Yes, spoiler. Sorry but not really. Practically all the characters were arsehats to begin with. 

It's a tough watch, so only for those adamant to watch every shark flick there is. Everyone else can ignore it.