5-Headed Shark Attack

"It wasn't a shark. But it was - "
"It was shaped like a starfish."
"It had four heads."

Well, after a 2-Headed Shark Attack and a 3-Headed Shark Attack, it's only natural that they'd make a... 5-Headed Shark Attack? No, that isn't a typo.

This was a far more pleasant experience that revitalized my liking of the franchise. Once again, we have a cheesy, silly, shark attack movie with a ridiculous premise that is treated with the fun and joy that it deserves. I mean, the fifth head replaces the shark's tail. The tail! And we get shots of it swimming like that with the head swishing back and forth! How can you not smile when you see that?

Although, the movie's title did lie to me initially. At first, it is only a 4-Headed Shark. The tail morphs from a normal tail to a full head, complete with jaws and eyes and teeth midway through. No explanation is ever given for why. Do I care? No. Because then we would have been deprived of the head-tail.

Should I mention that the shark roars? And growls? Nearly constantly? Because it does like it's some kind of a dinosaur.

We also get to see a lot of the shark. More than just shots of it swimming too. There's plenty of leaping and devouring people, devouring people underwater, devouring CGI animals, getting crushed by helicopters...

It's a very busy shark. There isn't anything too egregious either with regards to the depth of the water and the size of the shark. It's a marked improvement in basically every possible area.

The characters are also much better across the board, and include a very hate-able human antagonist in the form of Thaddeus Marshall, the owner of the aquarium that most of the characters work at.

Should the head of an aquarium know better than to try the trap and display a Great White shark, given that any captive Great Whites consistently die within weeks? Yes. Probably. But to be fair, it was also very inconsistent over whether anyone wanted to capture or kill the shark.

The acting was fairly strong for a SyFy movie, as was the script. It was a little rough during the initial scenes and character introductions, but once we got out on the boats, things got better. There were reasonable emotional reactions to events and people dying too! Characters actually remember the fact that their friends were eaten right in front of them and react accordingly! That's incredibly rare!

Everything did start to drag about 2/3 of the way through. There were a lot of repetitive conversations and not a lot that was actually happening. That's also when I started to notice some reused CGI. The boat propeller was the most obvious one. This was also when some characters did a complete 180 when it came to their personality.

I'm not upset with there being actual character development. The issue was that it was less character growth and more character replacement. It was wildly unearned to the fact where I thought that I had somehow missed a scene explaining it.

But if that's my biggest complaint, then this movie is doing pretty well. I had been dreading watching this a little bit, fearing that it would be just as bad as 3-Headed Shark Attack, but it was a ton of fun. A very solid, very fun, ridiculous monster shark movie.

Random Thoughts

Umm... Cerberus famously has three heads. Not two.

Also, Red is not wearing a hammerhead shark tooth as a necklace. That's the completely wrong shape.

"Tourons." Moron tourists?

I do appreciate how consistently the series pushes a conservation message.

For the first time, there is no nudity. I know. I'm surprised too.

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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally watches far too many shark movies.

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