DVD review (region 1 & 2)
Directed by Jack Perez
Starring Lorenzo Lamas, Deborah Gibson, Vic Chao
Release date Out now (region 1); 10 August (region 2)

A locked-in-battle giant prehistoric shark and giant prehistoric octopus are awakened from a 10-million-year slumber after the military illegally drop a sonic device off the coast of Alaska. Although scientist Emma MacNeil (Deborah Gibson) initially wants to observe and protect the colossal creatures, the death and destruction that follow their every move leaves her with no choice but to orchestrate the ultimate face off…

Thanks to YouTube, there’s probably not a film fan in Britain who hasn’t heard of this impossibly high concept chomp romp, starring Debbie ‘Electric Youth’ Gibson. The last time we checked, in fact, the trailer had more than 1.5 million hits – and that was just from one posting.

So does Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus live up to the hype? Of course it doesn’t. For starters, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen all the best bits. The shark gobbling the plane, the octopus swiping the helicopter… anyone believing that’s just a taster for what’s to come will be sorely disappointed.

The prehistoric predators actually get very little screen time, with Gibson and her fellow scientists hogging much of the story. They’re decent enough actors (for this type of movie anyway), but the film’s called Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus for cripes’ sake! What we want is an underwater version of the WWE’s Royal Rumble. Instead we get Gibson and Vic Chao (Dr Shimada) snogging over a test tube.

The wooden but wily Lorenzo Lamas does his best to liven up proceedings as a shouty, obnoxious government type, and the aforementioned plane and helicopter scenes are just awesome, but you still can’t help feeling short-changed by the lack of creature-on-creature action, especially when the long-awaited face off turns out to be the same CGI shot used over and over again.

My advice? Watch Shark Attack 3 instead. That’s not very good either, but it does have one of the funniest propositions in film history! Kate Lloyd

VERDICT: 4/10
More meagre than mega!