Note: This review contains spoilers related
to Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! (2015) and Sharknado: The 4th Awakens (2016).
In 2016, SYFY aired the fourth installment
of the Sharknado film series by The Asylum. We somehow did not review the movie
during that year, so we decided to review it close to the airing of the grand
finale of the series, The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time, in order to finally
fill in the unsightly gap in our Sharknado reviews.
Five years have passed since the ending
of Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! (2015) and the world has been Sharknado-free thanks
to technology developed by Astro-X’s Astro Pods, developed by tech mogul Aston
Reynolds (Tommy Davidson); Astro-X had also developed a new type of shuttle
that recovered Fin’s father, Col. Gilbert Shepherd (David Hasselhoff), from the
moon. Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering) has also moved into a farm in Kansas, “April’s
Acres”, where he lives with his mother Raye (Cheryl Tiegs) and son Gil (Christopher
and Nicholas Shone). During the opening night of a shark-themed hotel in Las
Vegas, which inexplicably houses a giant tank of sharks, a new Sharknado forms
within the city, but the Astro Pods can’t stop it, since it wasn’t created from
water. With the world once more in danger from the Sharknado phenomenon, Fin must
once again step up to save the world.
The plot which follows is so ridiculous
that I genuinely facepalmed a few times. Not only can a Sharknado now
spontaneously occur without a body of water, but it can absorb the elements to
become a new type of -nado. One chain of -nado transformations is a Bouldernado,
which turns into an Oilnado, which then catches fire and becomes a Firenado.
This Firenado is then extinguished (by exploding fire extinguishers, naturally)
and touches some power lines to become a Lightningnado; we were disappointed
they didn’t instead call it a Shocknado, but that might’ve been too clever for
the writers. The ultimate of these transformations is a Nuclearnado/Nukenado,
which contains so much concentrated radiation that the main cast should’ve
honestly died from coming into contact with it.
While Fin is out fighting the -nados, the
movie goes through two sub-plots. The first involves the revelation that April
Wexler (Tara Reid) had not only survived the ending of the previous movie, but
had also been turned into a cyborg by her father, Wilford (Gary Busey), in
order to keep her alive. This sub-plot is the closest the movie gets to having
familial conflict, but the context in which it's presented means it’s hard to
take at all seriously. The other involves Aston and Col. Gilbert working on potential
solutions for fighting the -nados, which includes introducing new isotopes to
the Astro Pods (sure) and the construction of a wearable mech suit. This
sub-plot, though heavily involved in the story, relies on the audience taking
everything the characters say at face value.
In general, however, Sharknado 4 relies
on breaking conventional logic just so the story can continue, which includes Gil
surviving a Nukenado by hiding in a regular wooden barrel. The plot is also
littered with convenience and contrivance, especially the final scene, in which
it’s revealed that not only did Fin’s immediate family survive the events of
the movie despite almost all of them being eaten by sharks, but all of the
sharks involved within a chain of sharks being consumed by ever larger sharks (matryoshka
sharks, if you will), culminating in a random blue whale, happened to all be
the same sharks that consumed the Shepard family.
As is natural for the Sharknado series,
there are plenty of pop culture references peppered in. However, the references
in this movie feel incredibly forced and a lot of movie quotes often feel
completely out of place, as they are completely removed from any context in
which they would work. Some of the more obvious references include those related
to then-relevant Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), such as a
Star Wars-esque opening title crawl and a chainsaw weapon modeled after Kylo
Ren’s lightsaber, not to mention April being able to wield an actual
lightsaber. One other notable reference is several related to The Wizard of Oz
(1939), if only because of how long and dragged out it is. At this point, the
movie even has the gall to point out how ridiculous it is:
Fin: “Follow the road! Follow the yellow brick road! I can’t
believe I just said that.”
This, of course, does not excuse the
fact they still went for it.
Apart from the incredibly bad special
effects, and not in the fun way, there are plenty of celebrity cameos. However,
these cameos are generally of a decidedly lower tier than its predecessors. Some
of these include David Hasselhoff, Gary Busey, Carrot Top, Gilbert Gottfried,
Steve Guttenberg, Vince Neil, Corey Taylor, Dr. Drew Pinsky and Adrian Zmed,
although we also see the return of Al Roker and the inexplicable addition of
Chippendales strippers (notable by virtue of their prominence in the first
act). Many of the celebrities are also either crushed or eaten by sharks, including
Carrot Top (probably his best act in years). I’ll also mention here that the
movie can be very brazen and in-your-face with its product placement, most
notably Xfinity, since they reference it by name, show off a voice-controlled
remote feature and almost literally rub the logo in your face.
Before I end, I'll note that if there are any fans of Lavalantula (2015), this film seems to make a reference to it that implies it's within the same universe as Sharknado.
Sharknado: The 4th Awakens marks a clear
turning point in the Sharknado franchise. The story and plot are too ridiculous
for their own good, the special effects are laughably bad and the references
and product placement are too forced and unnatural. It may be better than its
successor, Sharknado 5: Global Swarming (2017), but that doesn’t take away from
the fact that a franchise entirely about sharks had somehow managed to jump the
shark.
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