Among the recent batch of wannabe B-Movies from SyFy, my favorite has to be by far the bullet proof, tentacle-walking SHARKTOPUS! Yep, the title is equally as bad as the script. The premise is that a half-shark, half-octopus creature created for the military, terrorizes vacationers in Mexico while the scientist who created it tries to capture/kill it. If you haven’t seen the flick I suggest you stop reading if you mind spoilers, otherwise read on.
It surprises me that along with all the bad actors, Eric Roberts gets thrown into the mix. Probably just fill a contract obligation and to have a known name in what is otherwise a movie that belongs in the $1.99 pile at Blockbuster. He plays the part of Dr. Nathan Sands the man responsible for Sharktopus.
Scavanging the IMDb Shakrtopus forums one particular posts grabs my attention.
DiceyDice wrote:
In the scene where the two painters are on the scaffold discussing ways to die and then Sharktopus attacks them, the one painter screams, “Not like this!” Why would he say that? Getting killed by a sharktopus is obviously the most epic way to die ever.
I have to agree that if you’re going to die, what better way than to meet your maker than courtesy of a one-of-a-kind hybrid creature.
So I’m not going too much in-depth here about the movie as I’m assuming that you’ve already seen it and will know what I’m talking about. I didn’t necessarily mind the cheesy and clichéd dialogue or the predictability of the movie. You can only do so much with a tiny budget. But I was really disappointed in the ending as the hero and heroine get within range of the wireless signal emitted by the controlling device of Shakrtopus to access the self-destruct sequence effectively killing it off by blowing it to pieces, leaving absolutely no room for a sequel. Unless Sharktopus had to ability to reproduce asexually like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and left a baby Sharktopus somewhere, this is highly unlikely since there was no mention of splicing frog DNA into Sharktopus. But it could have gotten its groove on with out in the open sea.
A better ending would been one where Sharktopus didn’t get blown up into a chunky chum soup. Picture it now, as the heroine enters the third incorrect password attempt to access the self-destruct sequence. Sharktopus’ login locks up denying access for 15 minutes or all together — sure you say that in a highly volatile entity such as Sharktopus, it probably wouldn’t have been a good idea to have that kind of login deterrent in place. The system locks up and now there is no way of activating the self-destruct sequence. They’re screwed, both die and Sharktopus lives on to terrorize beach goers once again.
I’m hopeful that SyFy will find a way to bring Sharktopus back either by clones or offspring. Its just too good of a name to let die. What do you think about Sharktopus? Love it, hate it? Post your comments below.
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