Mega Shark vs Mecha Shark has a licence Teal’c kill

Previously, on “Mega Shark vs…”, our fishy anti-hero and his reptilian rival were poached to death by an underwater volcano, and it would appear that was indeed that. But fear not, a drought in the Mediterranean has prompted an entrepreneur to tow an iceberg to the afflicted area but – wouldn’t you know it – the iceberg contained yet another frozen megalodon. Thanks to the balmy Mediterranean climate, the iceberg soon cracks and releases the meg who immediately causes chaos by decapitating the Sphinx, a profound loss for ancient antiquity and quite the feat for an ocean-bound shark some 130 miles away. To combat this new threat, the government builds a robot duplicate, Mecha Shark, and programmes it to hunt and kill the meg.

Starring Christopher “Stargate: SG-1” Judge and Elisabeth “Heroes” Röhm, this third instalment of the “Mega Shark” franchise surprises by being a marked improvement on the preceding instalments. Most noticeably the direction and performances, anchored by the sci-fi franchise veterans, are better than they have been, with Judge and Röhm developing a winning chemistry. The Asylum team make the most of their meagre resources and while the special effects are far from impressive, they at least have a modicum of presence and physicality. It’s also got a neat line in self-aware self-deprecating humour, celebrating and acknowledge the series’ silliness.

The film’s other saving grace is the vocal performance of Paul Anderson as Nero, the AI who runs first the mini-shark sub and then the Mecha Shark. Anderson brings his best K.I.T.T. impression to bear, making up for the basic effects work by imbuing the mecha shark with an abundance of personality.

Action packed and with a more coherent story than the others, even though there are slightly more twists and turns than the film needs, it even features a literally phoned-in cameo from Debbie Gibson as her character from the first movie. Undemanding and brainless, it’s still not a great movie but it’s the best of the series so far and more fun than it has any right to be. If only they’d quit while they were ahead weren’t so far behind.