Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf

Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf (2015)

** (out of 4)

The drunken boat captain Ray (Casper Van Dien) is thrown into jail after a woman on his boat is killed by the sharktopus. While this is going on, mad scientist Dr. Reinhardt (Catherine Oxenberg) is experimenting with DNA, which leads to the whalewolf character. Soon more dead bodies are piling up while the two large monsters battle one another.

This is the third film in the SHARKTOPUS series and it's certainly the best. I think what makes this one work is that the film gives a lot of effort in trying to be funny and campy. The first two films in the series as well as many of these SyFy movies seem to think that if you purposely make a movie bad then it's going to be entertaining. That's not the case and that's why so many of them fail. This one here is obviously silly and over- the-top but the film doesn't play it dumb and instead comes up with a few clever jokes that actually work.

The highlight of the film is certainly the Oxenberg character as the actress is clearly having a blast playing the mad German scientist. Even funnier is a sequence where her big-breasted assistant runs around in slow motion with her things juggling. This here is pure Roger Corman sexism at its finest. Van Dien is good enough in his role and there's no doubt that he too appears to be having fun. Akari Endo is also good in her supporting role. As you'd expect, there's quite a bit of fake looking blood as various body parts are eaten by the two main characters.

SHARKTOPUS VS. WHALEWOLF is pretty good in its own way so if you're a fan of these types of movies then you're bound to get a few laughs out of it.

In the third entry of this awesome franchise, you have the Sharktopus fighting a "Whalewolf" and yes it's what it sounds like. Our lead is played by the legend Casper van Dien as the alcoholic Ray Brady. It's your typical nonsense chaos just like the first two movies except that this one felt even weirder. The first two movies seemed like their knew what they wanted and they went absolutely bananas with it and had their fun while this movie tries to introduce some voodoo stuff and also has way too much focus on the story and characters and I'm pretty sure no one who watches this is here for that. The people just want to see carnage and badly animated CGI mutants fighting each other and killing off people in a fun and absurd ways and I feel like this movie didn't deliver that as much as the first two. Yeah, the premise is fun but overall I did not enjoy this cinematic masterpiece as much as the first two movies and therefore somehow I am disappointed. [3,5/10]

The first Sharktopus was pretty bad but was an alright diversion. The second movie Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda was a big disappointment, being twice as stupid to the point it was too much and with none of the previous movie's fun. Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf is the best of the three to me, it isn't great and execution is patchy but generally there are things that it does better than the previous two.

Generally, Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf is the best-looking of the three. The scenery is lovely, and photography and editing are tighter than before. The score is the quirkiest, the most suspenseful and fitting of the series, while the movie clearly knows what it wants to be (which is campy fun) and doesn't overdo it to the point of being dull and who it's aiming at (which I didn't get so much with the previous two) and there are some clever jokes in the script. The final fight is pretty exciting if a bit short, and the Sharktopus is the best-designed and least-fake-looking of the series and is pretty cool and menacing in personality whereas it was just goofy in the previous two. Casper Van Dien clearly has fun and tries to inject some tragedy, while Akari Endo is winning too.

Catherine Oxenberg however is wildly over-the-top, the most over-the-top parts being embarrassing, and she is as believable as a German in the same way with Keanu Reeves as an Englishman in Dracula or Jon Voight as a Paraguayan in Anaconda (two of the worst accents ever attempted in film so that's indication of how badly overdone her attempt was). The characters have personality but not development with motivations and such being on the surface. The whalewolf was a missed opportunity, marginally better at least than the pteracuda but it's rendered cheaply, it's not much of a threat and is too underdeveloped to be able to root for it. While Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf works in the fun factor and is never dull, it fails as horror, the attacks are too random, too rushed and too goofy and it comes at the expense of tension and suspense, which is nowhere in sight (they are also predictable and not unlike anything seen in the previous Sharktopus movie and the Mega Shark franchise). Some of the dialogue is cheesy and inane, apart from some clever jokes, and while Sharktopus' death is cool Whalewolf's is anti-climactic.

Overall, Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf may not be great but it is the best of the Sharktopus movies. 5/10 Bethany Cox

No seriously? What do you expect from a movie with a title like that? Now I have not seen the previous entry into the Sharktopus ... universe I guess you can call it (there are apparantly another two of them prior to this one), so I can't say how this does compared to them.

What I can say, is that the CGI is as bad as one can imagine. Very obvious. So obvious though that the movie is winking almost all the way through it. Like when one character very late in the movie says upon seeing one of the creature eating another person, something along the lines of "that doesn't even look real". Yes the movie is aware of its flaws, the characters are too. Playing catch with a Whalewolf (great name btw)? I mean come on ... also the slapstick of the creature slapping Casper van Dien around? Or showing him on a map where he is, after he asks and wonders exactly that? That doesn't mean that all jokes work. Far from it. Some are just plain bad ... and almost hurt physically. But again, what to expect? Exactly! (although nudity would be something I reckon many did expect ... well you won't get that)

A funeral party gets eaten by Sharktopus. Drunken captain Ray Brady (Casper Van Dien) gets taken to jail. Dr. Elsa Reinhardt (Catherine Oxenberg) continues her anti-aging experiments. She mixes the genes of a killer whale and a wolf. The resulting Whalewolf starts causing chaos.

Who the hell dumps a whole coffin into the sea? Nobody. I get the attempt to camp it up. Instead of a coffin, they could wrap up a body and place a funny flag on top. Oxenberg with booby nurse is definitely going full camp and I appreciate that. I don't think Casper Van Dien is good although he tries after the voodoo. I am not sure about the voodoo. It has a bit of camp element, but not camp enough. It gets uncomfortable at times. This franchise needs to go full camp, but they don't always get there.