Yesterday, I watched the latest SyFy shark movie premiere — Planet of the Sharks!

As if there was any doubt, Planet of the Sharks is an Asylum movie.  And let’s give the Asylum some credit.  They know how to title their movies.  When I saw that this movie was called Planet of the Sharks, I immediately thought of Planet of the Apes.  I went into this movie expecting that it would feature speaking sharks and maybe a stranded astronaut shouting out, “Take your damn fins off of me, you damn dirty sharks!”

Well, needless to say, that doesn’t happen in Planet of the Sharks.  The sharks don’t speak, though they have apparently figured out how to leap out of the water and fly through the air.  And though there are a few stranded people, none of them are astronauts.  In fact, the only thing that Planet of the Sharks has in common with Planet of the Apes is a shot of the Statue of the Liberty.

But that’s okay!  What’s important is that seeing a title like Planet of the Sharks got me excited.  I was really looking forward to watching the movie and that enthusiasm carried me over some potentially rough moments.  It’s a brilliant title and The Asylum deserves all the credit in the world for coming up with it.

As for the film itself, it takes place in the future.  Apparently, humanity never did anything about all of that climate chance because the entire world has been flooded.  The Statue of Liberty is now underwater!  The few humans that are still alive live in crude floating cities, places that have names like Junk City and Sanctuary.

Speaking of Junk City, when the film begins, it’s in the process of being destroyed by a group of sharks.  That’s right — in a world where there’s too much water, the entire world becomes a shark feeding ground.  Add to that, it appears that all the plankton have died off.  The sharks have no choice but to eat human beings.

(And, quite frankly, it’s hard to blame the sharks.  When the people of Sanctuary gather to slaughter a group of sharks, they do it with so much savagery that you can’t help but sympathize with the sharks.  Importantly, it should be noted that this seemed to be what the movie was going for.)

Fortunately, there is hope!  A group of scientists think that if they can power up a transmitter and send a rocket into space, they’ll be able to change weather patterns.  (Or something like that.  To be honest, I had a hard time following their plan but what’s important is that it’s what they need to do to lower the sea levels and save the world.)  But in order to launch the rocket and power up the transmitter and do everything else, they’re going to have to avoid being eaten by rampaging sharks…

Planet of the Sharks was a little bit talky for an Asylum film.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.  The film deserves some credit for trying to explain the science behind what was going on and for attempting to give the characters some sort of motivation beyond “Let’s blow up a bunch of sharks.”  Those looking for nonstop action may be a little bit disappointed.

But, no matter!  I liked Planet of the Sharks.  I appreciated the fact that it tried to make its dystopian future plausible and you could tell that the filmmakers had actually given some thought to the story.  It was actually kind of interesting to see the savage and sometimes odd culture that had risen up to replace the old world.  (The floating town of Sanctuary was especially memorable and disturbing.)

So, no, Planet of the Sharks did not feature talking sharks.  But it was still an enjoyable SyFy film.