Critical Dissonance: Strangely enough. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave the movie 78%. The audience? 33%. Granted, both thought the film was So Bad, It's Good; it's just that the critics gave Fresh reviews for that reason and the audience Rotten reviews.
First Installment Wins: The sheer wackiness of the idea made the original movie a cheesy-fun romp that was just Crazy Enough to Work. The sequels, while not any worse in production quality, keep going sillier and more over-the-top to the point that it feels like they're overselling the wackiness of their central premise well after the novelty had already worn off.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: For some reason the films seem oddly popular in Japan, where various media have referenced the "sharks in tornadoes" somehow, for example Overlord presents a spell called "Shark Cyclone" or the Godzilla spinoff series Godziban featuring a giant shark riding a waterspout in its fourth season.
He's Just Hiding: Some say this about Baz, who gets sucked up in a tornado, but his body is never shown afterward. Jossed by the sequel. And possibly un-Jossed by the final film, where the timeline has been changed by the Time Crash at the end, but Baz still doesn't turn up despite everyone else who had died previously, including George, turning up for the ending.
Memetic Badass: Fin. Not even Chuck Norris can dive straight into a shark's mouth and hack his way out with a fucking chainsaw, while rescuing a girl. If anybody's got a fair claim as Burt Gummer's successor to the "Supreme Crazy-Prepared Badass Who Battles Ridiculous Monsters" title, it's him.
The film got more attention on social media than it did on air. It did get more ratings on its second showing thanks to the media attention, though, and eventually got so much attention that several movie theaters aired it during midnight matinees.
The social media got to the point where it was distributed on DVD and Blu-Ray in the UK and the rest of Europe, despite never being shown on TV in those regions. Hell, it was in many retailers' 'Top 10' big releases due to the interest in it.
April herself is pretty useless, save for maybe one occasion where she throws Fin a chainsaw, and always seems to be more comfortable bitching about what's going on around her than actually helping. The sequels address this and make her more useful.
Also her new boyfriend, who is a complete Jerkass and does nothing to help anyone, thankfully he doesn't last very long. Even April appears to feel this way as she stops badmouthing Fin the moment he does.
So Bad, It's Good: While critics liked it, it was hated by audiences due to forgettable acting, terrible plot, and of course, ugly CGI that make sharks look fake. The film's creators have pretty much admitted this. Considering the film's premise, they couldn't have had much choice in the matter and it was probably for the best they just ran with it.
One drinking game for the movie has you take a sip any time a shark's head moves independently of the rest of its body, when the camera switches from HD to grainy stock footage, or any other time that the special effects are hilariously terrible.
Many shots are a variation of Hollywood Darkness, where an overcast day is simulated by shooting on a clear sunny day with a grey filter. Shots of the heroes in the rain are freely mixed with shots where everything is completely dry.
Whenever it cuts to the inside of the car, unless there is a shark currently coming through the window, the outside of the car is a glowing white void, clearly visible through the windows, clashing with the storm heavily.
Strangled by the Red String: After a few minutes of no chemistry, Nova and Matt get together and between her whining and him rescuing everybody, Fin and April get back together.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While April isn't as hateable as her doucheyboyfriend, it's hard to like her during the beginning of the film. Her animosty towards Fin comes across as shallow and petty. He was considerate enough to see if she and their daughter were safe and how does she respond, she tells him and his friends to go away and when Finn sees some kids trapped in a school bus, he wants to help them out but April berates him for it by whining about how he cares more about other people than his own family. She does get better though.
Wangst: Averted, actually. Nova has a small scar from a shark attack and what first seems to be an irrational hate of sharks because of it. But then her lone survivor back story comes to light, and you realize the physical scar is nothing compared to the emotional one.
The Woobie: Even though her backstory ends up Narmy due to invoking Jaws, you still can't help but pity Nova when hearing it.
, especially the original version of the song? It's a surprisingly catchy song for a surprisingly So Bad, It's Good movie, perfectly conveying film series' fast-paced and irreverant personality. Even 10 years and 5 sequels later, it's still one of the most iconic pieces of music associated with sharks and B movies.