Seems like I was probably the only person in the world who wasn’t excited about The Meg in an ironic way. The reason for that is because anytime a new shark movie is about to come out, there’s no way nothing is ever gonna come close to a masterpiece like Jaws 43 years ago. But since we all love our shark entertainment, why not see Jason Statham fight over a huge stark? You know what I mean?
What’s the Story: When a massive prehistoric 75-foot-long Megalodon, that we believed to extinct, comes about rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Statham) and a crew of a huge marine biology research facility are out to face this killer creature from attacking the rest of the ocean.
Bringing the work of Steve Alten’s 1997 novel of the same name look a long time to finally be brought on the big screen. Eli Roth was originally attached but he wanted this to a hard R and left, and with different directors attached to this, Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) finally got this B-movie off the ground. There was nothing about the trailer that looked entertaining, but does $178 million sci-fi thriller look like another guilty pleasure. I honestly don’t know since it’s hard trying to think if this was good or bad.
Statham is probably the one thing that I was actually looking forward to because whenever he’s in a role that’s basically just himself, I’m usually pleased with his performances. His character, Jonas, the really the only one who’s backstory kind of has a purpose when everybody believed he was crazy when he first saw the shark after he left some of his men in danger after an operation.
It’s always a good idea to not show the shark right away since we want to be left in suspense, though it did take too long to get to the shark stuff that we’ve been waiting for. But people are paying to see The Meg get some sweet action featuring the Megalodon, and they will get there wish. The CGI for the shark wasn’t too bad. Some of the action was thrilling, while anything shoot underwater was hard to see.
Sometimes with the tone it was trying to set, that’s where it was difficult to figure out what The Meg was going for. It wants to be taken seriously and wants to be this dumb, fun movie that’s supposed to be a summer popcorn flick. That’s not to say that this should’ve been a dark story, no. Also, any time it wanted to be emotional, doesn’t work at all, especially this crying scene. But it kind of goes through an identity crisis from my perspective.
None of the humor really doesn’t anything all that funny when it’s unnecessary there. Rainn Wilson plays the smug billionaire who owns the facility and he has a lot scenes where he’s cracking jokes, but he knew what kind of movie he’s in. However, there was one moment that actually got me to chuckle. So, I gave the movie a point for that.
But there isn’t any character that I gave an ounce about if they were about to be eaten since the character development wasn’t there. With the exception of Statham and Li BingBing’s characters, who had some decent chemistry, nobody else was good enough to latch on to. Forgettable is more like. Personally, I feel bad about Ruby Rose when she’s just there to look pretty and not given much to do here.
And this should’ve been a rated R instead of PG-13. It would have resulted in more blood, a bit more cheesiness scenes, and going all out to make this even more enjoyable. Usually, it’s a bad sign when it can’t show people being eaten alive.
Honestly, The Meg is what I expected. It’s Statham vs. a prehistoric shark, I’m not expecting Shakespeare. A movie like this would’ve worked back in the ‘90s and people probably will enjoy this even now. Went into this not expecting a lot but hoping to be entertained. But I probably won’t check it out again when it’s on TV any time soon.
The Meg doesn’t lend itself to being anything but a cheesy monster flick that’s hard not knowing if it has an identity crisis that ends up becoming a mixed bag.
Grade: C+
DC's Take 