Have made no secret in the past of intensely disliking, and even outright hating a lot, a vast majority of SyFy's output, even when taking it for what it is or at least trying to be (which it rarely succeeds at doing). There is always curiosity as to whether they are capable of making something good and something compulsive about their output's badness. SyFy do oddly enough have a small group of watchable films and the occasional (big emphasis on that word) above average one, unfortunately outweighed by the lacklustre at best and often dreadful films they churn out.
There are far worse SyFy films than 'Toxic Shark' and certainly far worse shark attack films. 'Toxic Shark' is one of those lacklustre and far from good efforts of theirs (wouldn't say that it is one of their best even), but it is not a dreadful or unwatchable one, actually showing a little effort and some mild fun which does already put it above their usual standard.
Good things are outweighed by the bad things, but that there are any at all is nice to see. The opening sequence is pretty fun, and does indicate at least a guilty pleasure film, and there are a few witty lines too (already making it better than the usual terrible writing in a SyFy film). Plus the scenery is nice.
Mostly the script is poor, mostly very banal, overly cheesy and without much natural flow, and the characters are not very interesting or rootable ones (a mix of bland and annoying or even both). Having said that, the acting (though far from exceptional) is better than that in most of SyFy's output, doing an ok job with what they have and not being as amateurish as feared.
Visually on the other hand, only the scenery passes muster. 'Toxic Shark' does look both drab and garish and that it was made in haste and with minimal budget is obvious. The shark effects are not as bad as in a lot of other shark attack films, but they are still cheap, looking goofy and incomplete. It does hurt the impact of the attack scenes, which have no tension, suspense or menace at all (the unintentional humour being tiresome and predictable by now), and the shark, which is too goofy to be scary and too bland to be fun. The overused gratuity of the content is another factor.
As said already, the writing is mostly poor and the characters, despite the actors' best efforts, don't make much impression. The story is too thin, not much of one at all actually and with such a deja vu feeling throughout, and silly, also dull at times due to some extraneous padding and lack of emotional investment. Personally thought the zombie subplot didn't fit that well and was particularly silly.
Overall, one can do with far worse but still pretty lacklustre. 4/10 Bethany Cox
