Sharknado proves more comedic than scary

I have been told on occasion that I can be too critical of films; I watch them very closely and oftentimes turn up more criticisms than a film necessarily needs. After all, the purpose of film is to entertain; so long as that goal is achieved what does it matter how flawed a film is? At these times, I watch Sharknado.

Sharknado is a survival horror B-movie directed by Anthony Ferrante, a little-known director whose filmography primarily consists of direct-to-tv SyFy channel original films. Most of his work such as The Disasterous Boo and his butchered re-imagining of The Headless Horseman have all been critically panned. His films have been criticized for having poor acting, poor writing, awful effects and bad cinematography. Sharknado, sadly, is no exception to this precedent.

What is an exception to the precedent is the reception the film received. Upon its release the film received both public and critical applause. The film owes a good deal of its attention to its presence in social media; it is one of the most shared and retweeted films of all time, a record which I’m sure played no small part in the film’s public and critical reception.

Released on Syfy channel this past July, the very title of the film should be sufficient to tell audiences exactly what to expect. The film opens on a tornado swirling about in the ocean just off the Los Angeles coast. This tornado manages to lift what seems to be millions of sharks out of the water carrying them off into the swirling vortex. Once the last shark flies into the air. the tornado conveniently begins heading straight for the city; once there the sharks within begin flying out of the tornado, eating everything in their path. Bartender Fin (Ian Ziering) heads out with several of his friends to rescue his family from the sharknado.

Now, the plot of the film clearly has several problems. I’m no marine biologist, but even so, the film made me raise my eyebrows with some of its leaps in logic. But with this kind of film scientific plausibility clearly was not the aim, so that can only be a minor criticism at best. However the film has plenty of other more poignant issues.

For a direct-to-television B-movie, the film has a surprisingly strong lineup of actors. Cassie Scerbo (Make it or Break it) plays Nova, an ambiguous love interest for Fin and later, a love interest for his son. Tara Reid (The Big Lebowski, American Pie) plays Fin’s estranged ex-wife. John Heard (Home Alone, Big) even plays a small role in the film.

The acting cast clearly has strong credentials, very atypical of B-movies, which frequently use less-known or unknown actors. Despite their credentials and history their performances in Sharknado are horrific to say the least. Reid, despite her history of well-performed roles, gives one of the flattest performances I have ever seen.

On the rare occasion that emotion does creep into her voice, it is typically the wrong one, sounding distressed when she ought to be thrilled or excited when she ought to be bored. Her chemistry with Ziering is non-existent; audiences will not be fooled for a second into believing that these characters were ever married. The rest of the cast has similar issues: their lines come across flat, their performances are bland and it is incredibly difficult to care about any of these characters.

While the cast is atypical, possessing good actors who sadly give bad performances does not fare well for the movie.  Sharknado, as one may expect, has some of the worst CGI I personally have ever seen. The sharks look fake, are frequently the wrong size and have that plastic, computer generated shine that makes them stick out against the “gritty” environment. The backgrounds are all greenscreened, and it shows; oftentimes, the backgrounds look similar to those in 1960’s Adam West Batman shorts.

The charaacters don’t look to be moving, and the backgrounds look like they are generated by an old film projector. The gore (and, with sharks this hungry, there is plenty) looks less realistic than any I have seen. When the sharks, created with modern CGI, look worse than Jaws ever did, the film is clearly doing something wrong.

Why, then, is this film so popular? Sharknado is something of an anomaly; it is a failed horror project that the public managed to claim for themselves. From my viewpoint, the film has been taken in as a sort of ironic action comedy. Its bad acting and poor effects don’t matter, as they serve to make the film extremely enjoyable, even if in just a comedic sense.

When Fin manages to shoot a several-ton great white shark out of the air with a handgun, I freely admit I burst out laughing; I chuckled at the ridiculous notion of sharks eating their way through the metal bearings on a Ferris Wheel. The final resolution of the film is so absurd that only the most humorless individuals won’t at least crack a smile. The film is by no means good, but rather, it is so bad that it is nearly impossible to not enjoy, even if ironically.

Sharknado is by no means a good film. It’s called Sharknado, after all; bearing that in mind, it gives audiences exactly what they might expect from a film with that title. Bad acting, bad effects and implausibility as far as the eye can see.

As a survival horror, the film fails in every category. It is those failures, however, that make it such an enjoyable watch. I cannot give it a good score; the film is inherently poorly-made, after all, and is the sort of film one wants to come around only occasionally. However, its low score is given with love and a strong recommendation for the uninitiated to seek out this anomaly of a film.

Overall Score: 2/5 stars