There's only one thing in the world more dangerous than a megalodon on a rampage of destruction -- and that's a woman pilot pursuing that megalodon in a gigantic mechanical shark loaded with torpedoes. Seriously, this woman wipes out almost as many lives as the prehistoric monster shark. Fortunately, Mecha Shark is smart enough to operate on his own, without a bad human pilot, but will his oh-so-powerful computer system with the voice of Knight Rider be able to outsmart the king of the very kings of predators?

So, let me get this straight. The United Nations has secretly commissioned the construction of a high-tech mechanical mega shark (not to mention a much smaller prototype) just in case another megalodon turns up someday? Sure, it's happened twice already (see Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus and Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus), but the odds of it happening again have to be extremely remote. Of course, it does come in handy when megalodon No. 3 does turn up at the port of Alexandria, Egypt -- as long as it's not being controlled by Dr. Rosie Gray (Elisabeth Rohm), anyway. It makes for a classic The Asylum opening, as our sharp-toothed hero redesigns the Giza plateau with one simple flip. It's really not his fault, though. There he was, encased for millennia in a mound of ice, not hurting anyone, when some boat comes along, tears away his personal ice shelf, and totes it down to a drought-stricken Egypt. When you're suddenly awakened from that kind of epic sleep session, you're going to be cranky.

You're going to be hungry, too -- and then you're going to want to look for a mate. It's sort of unfortunate that our megalodon decides to head toward Australia rather than Japan, though -- as much as I love Japan, I wouldn't mind seeing a few of those Japanese whalers taught a hard lesson on natural selection.

Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark has just about everything you would expect from a classic Asylum monster epic -- ridiculous science; lots of explosions and underwater action; attacks by sea, by land, and by air; and heroic characters pulling off one ridiculous stunt after another. As a bonus, the film does not inflict any kind of love triangle or love reconciliation subplot on the audience for once (the heroes are already happily married).

Unfortunately, though, it gives Debbie Gibson (who, as we all know by now, is the world's leading expert on mega sharks) scant screen time with just a few cameo scenes. Am I wrong to expect at least one hot babe getting significant screen time in a film of this type? Wrong or not, there's very little eye candy to be found here.

Overall, though, I have to say that this is still a pretty good movie -- but it just never manages to get past third gear. It definitely falls short of the previous Mega Shark movies ... maybe women just shouldn't be allowed to drive sharks.