The Movie
Ah, the Internet, that wonderful global neighborhood that accurately identifies the entertainment that audiences truly desire. Remember Snakes on a Plane, which garnered so much pre-release buzz that exterminators had to check the worldwide web for hidden beehives? And how the filmmakers added fan-submitted lines of dialogue to the final film? That movie should have been bigger than Avatar, but wasn't. Catchy title, though.
Which leads us of course to Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus: Unlike, say, Avatar, you know what the story is about just from the name on the poster. Thanks to some very savvy marketing folk, the trailer for SvO somehow wound up among Yahoo! Movies Top 10 most-viewed trailers of 2009. It was Number Eight actually, just ahead of Up and, y'know... Avatar.
And while those five words were enough to excite many potential viewers, others were expecting an effort that would seem more at home as a made-for-SyFy movie-of-the-week, and it's this latter camp I'm siding with. The story is paper-thin--illegal government testing accidentally releases two prehistoric beasts trapped in the ice for 18 million years, immediately alive and healthy of course--and science people set about stopping the ensuing worldwide threat. We don't have to wait long for the title characters to appear, thankfully, although they don't really battle each other much and when they do, well, a couple of plastic toys in the pool this summer might provide bigger thrills. Then of course there's the "acting," the please-shove-needles-in-my-ears dialogue, and the not-so-special effects...
The Picture
...that range from not-good to not-bad, although this is where most of the ringing and video noise appear. (The director also uses an interesting trick for certain difficult shots: the camera goes all shaky and out-of-focus, as when Mega Shark jumps out of the ocean and grabs an airliner in flight. Because Mega Shark can do that.) The Shark and the Octopus are given a surprisingly competent 1.78:1 AVC high-definition master, originally shot as 1080i digital video, with better-than-expected results, despite some flicker and haze in dark and/or soft backgrounds, and a slight shift in quality when we cut to stock footage.
The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 configuration is unusual certainly but well-intentioned. The audio is clean and the dialogue is mostly intelligible, although some clipping occurs when co-star Lorenzo Lamas goes on one of his shouted rants. Bass is remarkably full considering the lack of a dedicated LFE channel, adding welcome emphasis to the bigger-than-life action, as when Giant Octopus' enormous tentacle swats a fighter jet out of the sky. (Because Giant Octopus can do that.)
The Extras
Remember that wildly popular trailer I mentioned? It's even touted on a sticker on the Blu-ray wrapper but, alas, it is not included here. Nothing is.
Final Thoughts
Never before have this many tons of cheese been served without a cracker in sight. (Unless you count the racist government agent annoyingly embodied by Lamas.) At least devotees of such low-budget (heck, the Blu-ray list price is only twelve bucks!) sci-fi thrillers might revel in the delicious camp of this seafood extravaganza.
Product Details
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