The Meg dives into the depths of the Pacific Ocean to wade alongside a team of researchers employed at an underwater facility as they discover an untouched area beneath the Mariana Trench and seek to explore all the unknown sea-life it has to offer. Much to their simultaneous delight and dismay, the scientists find a 75-foot-long prehistoric shark known as the Megalodon. The enormous sea creature was thought to be extinct, but it has survived all these years underneath a rift in the Mariana Trench and has a hankering for human flesh...
Helmed by Jon Turteltaub, a director best known for the two National Treasure installments, The Meg features a script written by brothers Jon and Erich Hoeber along with Dean Georgaris and is based on Steve Alien's best-selling novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror. With this year's summer moviegoing season coming to a close, it only seems right to conclude with a cheesy shark movie, and that's precisely what The Meg is. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm sure the absurd advertisements have suggested as much to you, but I was surprised that The Meg was not nearly as braindead of a blockbuster as I expected it to be. Since the release of Jaws in 1975, there has been slew of shark-themed entertainment, but none of those dorsal fins have lived up to the terror of Spielberg's classic shark flick... None of this shark-related media was meant to surpass Jaws though, but rather, they were made to capitalize on it.
The Meg is just the latest in a tidal wave of aquatic offerings to be made in the wake of Jaws' success. A few weeks ago when I reviewed Skyscraper, I addressed its startling similarities to beloved action classics and alluded to the idea I might do something similar upon reviewing The Meg. Well, Jaws was clearly influential in the making of The Meg because a poster paying tribute to Spielberg's toothy blockbuster was released and I observed plenty of Jaws homages while watching the movie. However, in direct contrast to Skyscraper, The Meg never tries to BE Jaws. It respectfully honors the iconic film, but doesn't dare to rip it off. It's well aware that it couldn't possibly be as significant of a pop-culture touchstone and knows that it's little more than a schlocky shark flick.
Where Jaws was afraid to show the titular creature, The Meg takes a different approach and is actually quite proud of its immense monstrosity. The toothy star is front-and-center amidst all the action because the shark special effects aren't half-bad. While certainly not awards-worthy, they're convincing enough for The Meg's purposes. It looks like a giant shark and that's what matters. However, I will say I was underwhelmed by the carnage on display. For a movie about a enormous shark, the Meg's kill-count is surprisingly low and the gore feels toothless due to the PG-13 rating.
Otherwise, I wish The Meg had been even more absurdly over-the-top with a stronger commitment to the silliness. The film was at its best when it showed a degree of self-awareness after all (the closing title card is brilliant by the way). While understanding of its own absurdity, The Meg takes itself far too seriously and tries to be two things at once, resulting in a tonally-conflicted identity crisis. As a B-movie, The Meg isn't ridiculous enough. Whenever casting the spotlight on the characters, it's simply too shallow to garner any sympathy for the Meg's victims.
Upon reviewing this film, I had two alternatives, but was unsure as to what would be the best approach. On one hand, I could savagely devour The Meg from an objective standpoint and unfairly compare it to Jaws. My other option being for my brain to abandon ship and all thought processes as well. That way I could at least admit to being entertained from time-to-time. Ultimately, I chose to swim to the middle of those extreme whirlpools and acknowledge that audiences are meant to chomp down on their popcorn while watching The Meg. In fact, that's pretty much its sole purpose.
From a filmmaking standpoint, The Meg is woefully generic and could have used a little more bite to differentiate itself from the shark-programming found on the Syfy channel. The plot's predictable, the characters are expendable, one-dimensional stereotypes, the acting is fairly awful across the board, the rapid jump-cut editing is a joke, Harry Gregson-Williams' score is sadly by-the-numbers, and the set-pieces are ludicrous, but also lacking in creativity. Every once in a while though, something stupid happens to provoke cheers and laughter from the audience. Whether that sounds enticing or not is up to you to decide, but I suspect that Sharknado fans will be very pleased come the third act.
To further elaborate on my gripes, I get that audiences didn't come to see The Meg for high-caliber acting or revolutionary writing, but there was absolutely no chemistry between any of the actors and that was excruciating to watch at times. Jason Statham plays the same character which you've already seen Jason Statham headlining other blockbusters as. Bingbing Li is the wistful love interest who's also capable, but sometimes a damsel in destress, and I must say that her scenes with Statham were dreadful to watch... Running down the rest of the supporting cast, Cliff Curtis is a supportive friend, Winston Chao is a mentor and father figure, Page Kennedy is related to the role of "the black guy who's just there to make quips," Ruby Rose is the tough hacker chick and you know she's tough because she has a bunch of tattoos and her name's Jaxx, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson plays the sentimental team member, Masi Oka pops in for maybe five minutes, and Jessica McNamee plays Jonas Taylor's ex-wife and hardly has any other defining traits or personality attributes. Of course, with that longwinded blanket statement comes a few exceptions though...
Jason Statham is hardly a "great" actor, but he's absolutely ideal for a film like this. His line delivery is spoken with a grizzled seriousness for him to maintain his prowess as a stoic action-hero and come across as cool whenever he gets to ride a giant shark and plunge his harpoon into it. If not for his stoicism, that sort of thing might not work as well.
Meanwhile, Shuya Sophia Cai functions as an effective source of cuteness and comedic relief. You may ask yourself why a little girl is present in these dangerous scenarios like I did, but The Meg doesn't really bother with a worthwhile explanation. It would greatly prefer you to indulge in the adorableness, as that's a major source of the film's charm.
Elsewhere, The Office's Rainn Wilson is one of the few members of the ensemble who gets what sort of film he's in, and acts accordingly. Wilson's eccentric billionaire is a jerk, and he hams it up to an over-exaggerated extent so that you'l rightfully root for the shark to take him out because that's what kind of film this is. For those wondering, his Dwight personality doesn't seep into the character so it's not like watching The Office At Sea or anything like that.
The Meg was poised to end this season of summer blockbusters with a huge splash, but the shlocky shark flick is held back from its cheesy B-movie destiny due to a reluctance to embrace its inherent ridiculousness and the restrained violence accompanying its PG-13 rating. To get through this, you're gonna need a bigger popcorn bucket.
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