On the off chance that you weren't aware, these movies are kind of silly. The film makers know that the premise is ridiculous and just go all out with it. More often than not, it makes for an entertaining time.

The second one was a bit of a dud, but than the third took it to new levels of ridiculous, restoring the good "Sharknado" name once again.

In true "sequel escalation" fashion, the movies have gotten more over the top. The third movie ended with a confrontation in space. Don't ask how the sharks got up there, they just did because it's funny.

Given the title of this one, a lot of people were under the impression that the heroes would be fighting sharks in space here. It seemed odd given that it had already been done, but at the same time, you could find ways to change it up.

Sadly, at no point do they ever do this. It seems the "Star Wars" connection ends at the pun title. The movie does make several references to "Star Wars", but there isn't much beyond that.

The movie actually is pretty heavy on movie quotes and pop culture references. Some of them work, some don't. I think that this was probably one of those instances where less is more. I did get a kick out of the line saying that it wouldn't be Texas without a chainsaw massacre, that was actually kind of clever.

One good thing about this movie is that it wastes no time. Some of the earlier entries have a bit of a slow start. Here, the titular storm strikes within the opening minutes and things only get more ridiculous from there.

That being said, maybe it got too ridiculous? I know that this is one of those movies where you're supposed to turn your brain off and just bask in the over the top nature of what's happening, but it gets to the point where the movie doesn't even bother keeping it's own narrative straight.

Characters are literally all over the map. Being goofy is one thing, but at least a little effort in consistency would be nice.

Even the hook that this storm is different from others, rendering their anti-sharknado technology useless is contradicted later on in the film when other storms arise that fall well within their technology's parameters.

The only real consistent thing here is the fact that Fin's five year old kid is annoying. He's not quite as bad as the kid from "The Babadook" (he doesn't have enough screen time even if surpassing him was the intention) but he does spend a majority of his screen time just yelling and it gets old quick.

As has been the case with the sequels, this movie is heavy on celebrity cameos. It's not quite as bad as the second film, but it really is something of a distraction.

Even appearances that had potential don't live up. Hasselhoff got a much stronger showing last time than he did here and Gary Busey isn't really given anything to do. I don't know how you waste Busey, but this movie did it.

The movie does change things up a bit by having the tornado pick up things other than sharks. Along the way, the storm gathers rocks, fire (which I believe was already done in earlier movies), lightning, and even becomes radioactive by the movie's climax.

The names are kind of lame, but it helps add a little variety to the movie's action sequences, which continue to be charmingly ridiculous.

Don't worry, you still get to see sharks get sliced with chainsaws, shot out of the air, and even get punched a few times. These sequences really are where the movie shines.
I was surprised to see this end with another cliffhanger. The last one worked, where it seemed like a character was going to die. This movie even holds that suspense by not revealing her fate until well into the film's second act. Technically, her fate is spoiled by the opening credits, but even those don't roll until about 20 minutes into the film.

Here, it seems that a character believed to be dead has come back. It's sort of an inverse of the last ending and it doesn't work as well.

Overall, this movie does have its benefits. It's certainly goofy and if that's all you're looking for, this has that in spades. While I'd still rank it as better than the second, I think that the franchise is starting to become a little long in the tooth.

The fact that the franchise has gone on this long is impressive in its own way, given the wafer thin premise. Still, it seems like things are getting to the point where maybe the franchise should be put to bed. "Sharknado: Revenge of the Fifth" (note: that's not the actual title as far as I know) may prove me wrong, but we'll see.