"Shark Swarm" is a fine, if unspectacular killer shark miniseries.
**SPOILERS**
Due to a fishing shortage, Hamilton Lux, (Armand Assante) grows frustrated with top fisher Kane Markus, (John Enos III) who is having a personal feud with Daniel Wilder, (John Schneider) an independent fisher in town. When his younger brother Phillip, (Roark Critchlow) is sent to town through a University experiment, he comes in right during the middle of a large property dispute in town, and they both refuse to sell. As he starts his experiments, he finds that the local water supply has been corrupted by toxic waste from a local construction company, which has turned a group of sharks into vicious killers that are targeting the local population. Along with his friend Clint Duran, (Brent King) and wife Brooke, (Daryl Hannah) they take to the seas to stops the sharks from their rampage.
The Good News: As far as killer shark films go, this one isn't completely terrible. One of the most important things about it is that, like all good creature features, it makes them into a credible force to be reckoned with. This here is one in two ways, both of which are perfect at that point. The first is that the film has a great body count, with about a dozen kills in it. That's a welcome addition to any shark film, where the fact that it takes out a rather sizable amount of the cast with some good points to it. Though most are pulled underwater, it has enough in here to make it count, and by featuring as much as it does, it makes for some really great moves on the sharks. The other big factor toward them is that they're depicted as a threat al the way through, using the same kind of attack patterns and not really changing at all during them. That there's a frequent amount of attacks is really great, giving it a lot of action that certainly works. The extended sequence with the henchmen works to introduce the sharks taking them out one at a time, and the inclusion of a cage helps matters a lot, the assaults on the separate teams of divers are rather fun, and the triple assault on the three beaches at the end derives some great parts to it. The last part that works is the important way it handles the sharks at the end. Rather than kill them for being vicious, this one has them driven away and saved, keeping them alive at the end. That's a great improvement over others out there, and is a part of the film's good parts.
The Bad News: This one had a couple of flaws to it that hold it down. The biggest one here is that the film is really way too long. There's no reason this one couldn't have been two hours long, but since it tacks on a good half-hour more, there's a lot of rather dull scenes that really hurt this one. The inane subplot in this one about the building developments around the town really should've been scaled back considerably, as this one takes it over-the-edge and just goes on and on in here with absolutely no real interest to the rest of the film. It just eats up absolutely a ton of time on a story that has nothing to make it interesting at all. All it does is just irritate by going so long on such a dull and incredibly boring part of the film by making it go on for so long. That it takes up so much time in the running time also affects the action scenes in here, as although there's a lot in here which do work well, the fact that they're so short is where the time comes up. They're really quick and over a lot sooner than they should've been, and it reduces the epic feeling it was going for significantly by doing this. The last flaw in here is the terrible CGI for the sharks. They abandon the few relatively decent-looking real sharks in here to go for a constant series of incredibly badly done and fake-looking CGI sharks, which has nothing to do at all with being realistic, is easily spotted in the sequences for doing so and just makes the film look even cheaper. These here are the film's flaws.
The Final Verdict: Though there's some good points to this one, the sheer fact that it's so long to really make most of those stick around. If the length can be tolerated, then this one isn't all that bad to give a chance on, or for the more tolerant creature feature fans, though the length is going to be a turn-off for some.
Rated R: Violence and Language
**SPOILERS**
Due to a fishing shortage, Hamilton Lux, (Armand Assante) grows frustrated with top fisher Kane Markus, (John Enos III) who is having a personal feud with Daniel Wilder, (John Schneider) an independent fisher in town. When his younger brother Phillip, (Roark Critchlow) is sent to town through a University experiment, he comes in right during the middle of a large property dispute in town, and they both refuse to sell. As he starts his experiments, he finds that the local water supply has been corrupted by toxic waste from a local construction company, which has turned a group of sharks into vicious killers that are targeting the local population. Along with his friend Clint Duran, (Brent King) and wife Brooke, (Daryl Hannah) they take to the seas to stops the sharks from their rampage.
The Good News: As far as killer shark films go, this one isn't completely terrible. One of the most important things about it is that, like all good creature features, it makes them into a credible force to be reckoned with. This here is one in two ways, both of which are perfect at that point. The first is that the film has a great body count, with about a dozen kills in it. That's a welcome addition to any shark film, where the fact that it takes out a rather sizable amount of the cast with some good points to it. Though most are pulled underwater, it has enough in here to make it count, and by featuring as much as it does, it makes for some really great moves on the sharks. The other big factor toward them is that they're depicted as a threat al the way through, using the same kind of attack patterns and not really changing at all during them. That there's a frequent amount of attacks is really great, giving it a lot of action that certainly works. The extended sequence with the henchmen works to introduce the sharks taking them out one at a time, and the inclusion of a cage helps matters a lot, the assaults on the separate teams of divers are rather fun, and the triple assault on the three beaches at the end derives some great parts to it. The last part that works is the important way it handles the sharks at the end. Rather than kill them for being vicious, this one has them driven away and saved, keeping them alive at the end. That's a great improvement over others out there, and is a part of the film's good parts.
The Bad News: This one had a couple of flaws to it that hold it down. The biggest one here is that the film is really way too long. There's no reason this one couldn't have been two hours long, but since it tacks on a good half-hour more, there's a lot of rather dull scenes that really hurt this one. The inane subplot in this one about the building developments around the town really should've been scaled back considerably, as this one takes it over-the-edge and just goes on and on in here with absolutely no real interest to the rest of the film. It just eats up absolutely a ton of time on a story that has nothing to make it interesting at all. All it does is just irritate by going so long on such a dull and incredibly boring part of the film by making it go on for so long. That it takes up so much time in the running time also affects the action scenes in here, as although there's a lot in here which do work well, the fact that they're so short is where the time comes up. They're really quick and over a lot sooner than they should've been, and it reduces the epic feeling it was going for significantly by doing this. The last flaw in here is the terrible CGI for the sharks. They abandon the few relatively decent-looking real sharks in here to go for a constant series of incredibly badly done and fake-looking CGI sharks, which has nothing to do at all with being realistic, is easily spotted in the sequences for doing so and just makes the film look even cheaper. These here are the film's flaws.
The Final Verdict: Though there's some good points to this one, the sheer fact that it's so long to really make most of those stick around. If the length can be tolerated, then this one isn't all that bad to give a chance on, or for the more tolerant creature feature fans, though the length is going to be a turn-off for some.
Rated R: Violence and Language