I'd like to offer some observations about Super Shark that hopefully give people a better appreciation of its merits by taking into consideration the circumstances associated with making this kind of movie.
Even though the main audience-appeal of the film intended by the people who created it might be the shark itself and the attractive girls in their bathing suits, there is nevertheless a genuinely important message the author is trying to get across. The greed of the oil company to get more oil to sell by drilling through rock and pumping dangerous chemicals into the water, with all the horrible consequences, is a sobering and timely issue.
These things really happen, real people suffer and die from them, and the damage they do to the ecosystem is serious enough that it's worthwhile for us to be reminded of it. There are political implications too. Just consider that at the close of the film, the oil man, now free to continue his greedy plans, quotes Sarah Palin saying 'drill, baby, dill.'
And to further compound the issue, even though the oil company is ultimately responsible for all the people the shark kills, they manage to successfully bribe the whistle-blower marine biologist to get her to drop her investigation. The fact that she's on a personal vendetta after the death of her brother and was let go by the bureau she worked for is a further complication similar to Bruce Wayne in the Batman movies becoming a vigilante after the death of his parents. If the audience can separate the real situation from the distraction of the girls in their bathing suits, they will see that there's actually something relevant and worthwhile going on here.
The constraints that come from the relatively low budget available for a made-for-TV film of this kind are unavoidable, and rather than condemn the people who actually created the film under these poor conditions, it would be worth it to commend them for how well they rolled up their sleeves and got to work to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation.
Since one of the major selling points of the film is the computer-generated visual effects, I think they deserve some comment as well. If you try to consider for a moment how a giant prehistoric shark would actually move on land, it pays to realize that since its musculature was designed to move freely in the water, all its movements on land would be awkward and unnatural. If you've seen footage of penguins swimming with so much speed, and graceful agility under water compared to the almost comical movements they make on land, you'll realize that the way the shark is depicted is actually excellent.
Also, there's a good chance that a tremendous amount of the things happening on the screen look so good the audience just takes for granted that they're real and never considers how skillfully they were created digitally. All the water splashes, water spray around the shark's fin, the v-shaped waves expanding out from the shark as he approaches and retreats, the complex curved shapes of light clinging to the body of the shark and submarine under the water, etc., are masterfully rendered by the FX team here.
Consider everything that happens to the oil rig, submarine, boats and planes that has to give the impression of tremendous weight and massive size. There are dozens of big budget movies that show in the theaters that don't achieve these things as well. Consider the solidity and reflectivity of the textures for the shark's skin and the hull of the tank. Taking into account the budget and time restrictions for this kind of film, the FX work is actually remarkably good. The ultimate compliment for CG work is when it doesn't get noticed at all. If you stop to think for a moment how many images in the film went by unquestioned as simply real, you'll have a better appreciation for what you're watching.
To sum up, I would encourage the audience to keep in mind that it's part of the nature of this kind of movie that the producers can't get the results they would get with a hundred-million-dollar budget and the amount of time that's spent on the huge blockbusters, but the result of their efforts is as good as it can be under these conditions, and a lot of the work here, in terms of both concept and execution, shows the same level of talent and dedication you get in the very best work on the big screen.
Even though the main audience-appeal of the film intended by the people who created it might be the shark itself and the attractive girls in their bathing suits, there is nevertheless a genuinely important message the author is trying to get across. The greed of the oil company to get more oil to sell by drilling through rock and pumping dangerous chemicals into the water, with all the horrible consequences, is a sobering and timely issue.
These things really happen, real people suffer and die from them, and the damage they do to the ecosystem is serious enough that it's worthwhile for us to be reminded of it. There are political implications too. Just consider that at the close of the film, the oil man, now free to continue his greedy plans, quotes Sarah Palin saying 'drill, baby, dill.'
And to further compound the issue, even though the oil company is ultimately responsible for all the people the shark kills, they manage to successfully bribe the whistle-blower marine biologist to get her to drop her investigation. The fact that she's on a personal vendetta after the death of her brother and was let go by the bureau she worked for is a further complication similar to Bruce Wayne in the Batman movies becoming a vigilante after the death of his parents. If the audience can separate the real situation from the distraction of the girls in their bathing suits, they will see that there's actually something relevant and worthwhile going on here.
The constraints that come from the relatively low budget available for a made-for-TV film of this kind are unavoidable, and rather than condemn the people who actually created the film under these poor conditions, it would be worth it to commend them for how well they rolled up their sleeves and got to work to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation.
Since one of the major selling points of the film is the computer-generated visual effects, I think they deserve some comment as well. If you try to consider for a moment how a giant prehistoric shark would actually move on land, it pays to realize that since its musculature was designed to move freely in the water, all its movements on land would be awkward and unnatural. If you've seen footage of penguins swimming with so much speed, and graceful agility under water compared to the almost comical movements they make on land, you'll realize that the way the shark is depicted is actually excellent.
Also, there's a good chance that a tremendous amount of the things happening on the screen look so good the audience just takes for granted that they're real and never considers how skillfully they were created digitally. All the water splashes, water spray around the shark's fin, the v-shaped waves expanding out from the shark as he approaches and retreats, the complex curved shapes of light clinging to the body of the shark and submarine under the water, etc., are masterfully rendered by the FX team here.
Consider everything that happens to the oil rig, submarine, boats and planes that has to give the impression of tremendous weight and massive size. There are dozens of big budget movies that show in the theaters that don't achieve these things as well. Consider the solidity and reflectivity of the textures for the shark's skin and the hull of the tank. Taking into account the budget and time restrictions for this kind of film, the FX work is actually remarkably good. The ultimate compliment for CG work is when it doesn't get noticed at all. If you stop to think for a moment how many images in the film went by unquestioned as simply real, you'll have a better appreciation for what you're watching.
To sum up, I would encourage the audience to keep in mind that it's part of the nature of this kind of movie that the producers can't get the results they would get with a hundred-million-dollar budget and the amount of time that's spent on the huge blockbusters, but the result of their efforts is as good as it can be under these conditions, and a lot of the work here, in terms of both concept and execution, shows the same level of talent and dedication you get in the very best work on the big screen.