“Empire Of The Sharks” scores an early win with a mention of ‘trained ninja sharks’, a formidable weapon on a post-apocalyptic, flooded ecosystem. A biosphere covered entirely in water. An oceanic globe. An aquatic planet. Hmm. If only there was an easy way of saying it…

On a future earth where 98% of the surface is underwater, a Warlord who controls an army of sharks meets his match when he captures the daughter of a mysterious ‘shark caller’ who must learn to marshal a supernatural ability if she is to free her people from the Warlord’s dominion.

The villain of the piece is the Warlord Yin Fen. For a while, you might think his first name is actually Warlord given he’s nearly always mentioned by his full title. Then again, he deserves that respect because befitting his warlord status, he has a Saturday morning cartoon villain’s lair, with a tank for his trained sharks which opens out to the ocean through a shark’s head shaped door (surely a priority piece of construction in a resource-scarce world, especially as it could only really be appreciated by someone who was in close proximity to the underwater door. Then again, design aesthetic is an important and undervalued part of villainy, so kudos to you Warlord Yin Fen!

By the standards of the genre, “Empire Of The Sharks” is actually not half bad. In some ways, it’s a slightly slicker reimagining of “Planet Of The Sharks”, with the added benefit of the mystical ‘shark callers’. It’s an Asylum production, so of course, its reach exceeds its grasp but it’s a halfway decent sharky mish-mash of “Battle Beyond The Stars” and “Waterworld” with decent if unspectacular special effects and a likeable cast.

4/10