Thanks to "Jaws" (Steven Spielberg, 1975), the great white shark has become a man-eating monster, and movies about it have become a genre of its own. Off hand, we recall "Deep Blue Sea" (1999), "Open Water" (2003) and the best of the recent ones "The Shallows" (2016) (MY REVIEW). I guess there will always be an ongoing fascination about this giant fish with sharp teeth which humans fear with a passion, even if their reputation as killers is not exactly deserved.
The Meg is a megalodon, a prehistoric giant shark previously believed to be extinct until it attacked an underwater research facility led by Chinese scientists Dr. Minway Zhang and his daughter Suyin. They call on Jonas Taylor for his expertise in responding to deep-water diving emergencies as a rescuer. The humans are determined to kill the monster that caused the death of many of their friends.
This man vs. nature adventure contained a lot of familiar stock characters used in such films. There has to be one alpha male fearless guy who had limitless skills to do absolutely anything. There is one brave and dedicated female scientist, which may later be romantically linked with the hero. There is one annoying billionaire financier who only sees the inflow of cash in his investments.
Jason Statham is his usual action hero self in his other films. He was given a sense of humor here, sort of like a younger leaner Bruce Willis. He was not afraid to make difficult, potentially unpopular decisions, always with the greater good in mind. Despite his brusque exterior, he seemed to be good with kids, because cute little Meiying was actually encouraging him to take romantic interest in her mother Suyin.
Because of the big market for adventure films in China, we had been seeing a lot of Chinese actors and characters in these types of films. Usually these are minor supporting characters on the side that barely influence the outcome of the film. However, that norm changes with a remarkably high Chinese presence here in "The Meg".
Chinese actress Li Bingbing was actually in the lead role opposite action star Jason Statham. As oceanographer Suyin Zhan, Li was front and center of all the action, and not just as a damsel in distress (although Statham did have to save her life more than once). She even had scenes with her father Dr. Zhang (Winston Chao) and little daughter Meiying (Shuya Sophia Cai) where they spoke in Mandarin (with subtitles).
The crowded beach resort which the Meg attacked just so happened to be Sanya Bay, located in Hainan island in China. So throughout this major scene, we hear Mandarin spoken by the millennial beach-goers, with their colorful inner-tubes, rafts, Zorb-balls, banana-boats, jetskis, what have you. There was even a wedding party onboard a yacht from the bride's pampered puppy jumped into the water to test the Meg.
You know how films like this go. Director Jon Turteltaub ("Cool Runnings," "While You Were Sleeping," "National Treasure") followed the giant monster movie formula to the letter. A group of humans interferes with the limits of nature and releases a new monster. Monster kills off crew members one by one and also threatens the general public, until the heroes figure out how to beat it, and you know they will eventually. That was how it was in "King Kong," "Godzilla," "Jurassic Park," "Pacific Rim," "Rampage" and that is still how it is now in "The Meg." 6/10.
For the kind of movie this was, I thought it was great. And I must say, that was a brutal way to kill off the shark. When the torpedoes came in, I worried someone was gonna say "Smile, you son of a bitch!" and make the entire death scene a giant Jaws reference. But no, they made it epic and creative. It’s not an academy award winning movie but like xfire said, it’s still a fun time and everything you’d expect
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