[5] Before the film was released, Margaret Lyons of Entertainment Weekly said that this, along with Sharktopus, were destined to be classics of the "awesomely awful made-for-TV movie genre".

[6] The film opens with a baby pliosaur swimming away from a broken chunk of Arctic glacier that calved due to global warming.

Three years later, it is a ferocious predatory adult and kills tourists and locals offshore from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

[2] Referring to "fun films, laced with implausible plots, brilliant poster art and laughable dialogue [that] demanded that you show up ready to suspend disbelief, prepare for a scare and always left the audience entertained", she wrote that some aspects are "hilariously over the top.

"[2] On the negative side, Dread Central was condemnatory of the "rubbery" monster, "exceptionally chintzy" effects, and "some of the worst acting ever seen in a Syfy original movie", concluding that users who did not regularly watch "schlocky shark flicks" would probably enjoy laughing at "this silly offering in which half the cast sound like they were voiced over by George Lopez".