Sharktopus Contra Whalewolf

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

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.

Well there is no denying the amount of hot women in this movie, but the rest from acting to scrip to the even worst play station1 special effects kind of ruin the rest.

I kept it going for 40 minutes then turned it off.

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]

For once, a SyFy original that's funny on purpose.

If we're lucky, one out of every 200 SyFy originals is decent entertainment because the people behind it knew what they were doing with direction, music, editing, and above all, the script. Sadly, most SyFy orgs feel like a near death experience.

Sharktopus vs Whalewolf is just as stupid a premise as any other SyFy flick, and the film makers embrace this, turning it into one of the funnier films. And yes, it's meant to be funny. Catherine Oxenberg is obviously having a blast as the hammy Kraut. Casper Van Dien (whose beard is somehow 30 years older than the rest of him) is the Errol Flynn type (the alcoholic Flynn, that is). Akari Endo, for whom this is not her first SyFy rodeo gets to shine as the take-charge badge on the beach.

The effects are slightly more polished in the CGI department, but it's still CGI and the Whalewolf looks more like a monster puppy than a man eater, but that's part of the charm.

Highly recommended but don't come into this expecting bad SyFy or even so-bad-it's good. Get ready to chortle!