Thanks for the memories!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Purely Joyful Movie!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Right from the start this starts off bad - despite being set in the ocean (sort of Waterworld meets Mad Max) it was obviously filmed on a beach, probably the same set used for the equally atrocious Planet of the Sharks. With the exception of Ashley de Lange, who plays a Carrie-like shark caller, all of the cast, along with the script writer, deserve to be thrown in the ocean & fed to the sharks. The bad acting is painful to watch. Poor CGI. And sharks do not growl!!! Very bad film.

Who, but SyFy, would offer us this? Not that they don't come up with a really good movie once in awhile. Sharks seem to always grab attention in creature features. This one is set in a futuristic world where most of the earth is covered by water. The humans are forced to pay tribute to a warlord that rules with threat and raw power of an army of super intelligent sharks. Those non compliant humans are caged and kept as food for the scissor tooth army. Mark Atkins is credited writer and director. The cast features: John Savage, Thandi Sebe, Jack Armstrong, Camilla Waldman, Jonathan Pienaar, Ashley de Lange and Taurig Jenkins.

First of all I must say that I was lured in given the title of the movie, as I am a fan of the creature feature genre. And yes, there is just something fascinating and interesting about sharks in particular. But the title alone for the movie had B-movie screaming all over it, and when the SyFy name appeared, I must admit to a 'oh, one of those types of movies!' thought crossing my mind.But still, I decided to sit down to watch the movie, because it is sharks after all. And who knows, SyFy have been known to make a great movie every now and then. They are rarely, but they do exist.As for the acting in the movie, well I was familiar only with John Savage, and he is always fun to watch in movies. It was really hard to take Jonathan Pienaar serious in this movie given his body gestures and way of acting, whether it was called for in the script or it was his style, I have no idea, but it sure was annoying."Empire of the Sharks" falls prey to the usual SyFy level of special effects and CGI. So don't get your hopes up. The effects and visuals are there and they function well enough for their purposes, but they are not impressive eye candies to behold. And the fact that the sharks were growling menacingly as they were swimming about was just ridiculous.There was something in the movie that was taken directly out of "Conan". It was the scene where chained people were working some kind of milling wheel. A subtle homage or just a random coincidence? Who knows...I suppose that "Empire of the Sharks" can best be classified as "Water World" meets "Jaws".The storyline in the movie was easy to follow and required no complex thinking from the audience; so it is essentially just to lean back and watch the movie here. However, the concept of an army of sharks controlled by someone wearing a pair of gloves was somewhat difficult to accepts as a serious idea.For a shark movie then "Empire of the Sharks" was not overly impressive or particularly enjoyable. It is just another movies in an endless line of less than mediocre shark movies that clutter the genre.

In a post-apocalyptic future, a group of humans growing tired of their subservience to a warlord who controls a group of man-eating sharks sets out to stop him when they realize he's taken hostage a member of their colony that can also control the sharks.This here wasn't all that bad of a post-apocalyptic shark film. One of the better elements here is the fact that this one goes for the more traditional route of the creature feature genre. The setting of the future with the floating fortresses and the future technology present give this a great build that's part of the storyline here revolving around the search for water controlled by the warlord. This gives the film a kind of starting point that provides the film with the kind of action that works well here, from the opening scenes of the raid on the village giving this one a great burst with their abduction tactics as well as the use of the sharks, the aborted rescue attempt that forces the retreat back into the submarine where they get chased away and the later scenes of them inside the compound trying to figure out the different powers she possesses by having her interrupt their treatments manages to provide this one with the kind of stylistic scenes usually featured here. The attempt to breach the fortress is a lot of fun with the layered attack featuring plenty of different modes of attack giving this one a great build as the different parts being exercised throughout here allow for a great sequence, and when placed with the fantastic finale where they manage to put their plan into action to finally save them is a spectacular finish here that melds the post- apocalyptic action with the sharks into a rather big finale. Continually featuring the sharks or the attempts to rescue the group means this one moves along really nicely and gives this a lot to really like that holds this up over its minor flaws. The main issue to be had here is the fact that there's just so little traditional shark action here with the post-apocalyptic setting that it might potentially turn off more looking for traditional fare. Giving this that setting provides this one with the rather different tone than most others and sets up the different kinds of scenarios that really don't provide the kind of typical virtues here that gives this a different feel. Likewise, the film has way too much lame CGI that provides rather comical scenes here with the sharks under orders from both parties that fill up the screen and really highlight the low-budget with their obvious usage. Still, this one has a lot to really like.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.