I hear the book is better.
The Meg (2018): 8 out of 10: is what happens when you blend a big-budget creature feature with a healthy dose of Jason Statham. The setup is straight from the “I wonder what is in the forbidden zone” playbook: a deep-sea research team uncovers something massive, ancient, and very much not extinct lurking in the unexplored depths of the ocean. Enter Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), a no-nonsense deep-sea rescue diver with a haunted past and abs for days, brought in to help when the mission starts circling the drain.
This isn’t your average shark flick. We’re not talking about a rogue great white picking off beachgoers. Which is a real shame because if The Meg needed anything it was beachgoers getting munched on camera.
Alas, with a megalodon is clocking in at over seventy feet. The Meg, to its credit, wastes little time getting its fin wet jumping between high-tech underwater bases, adrenaline fueled chase scenes, and some nice twists. It’s all played with a straight face, but there’s a wink baked in. The Meg knows exactly what kind of movie it is.
What keeps it all afloat is the cast’s commitment to the chaos. Statham growls his way through danger with stoic charm, while a colorful supporting crew adds some levity between the lunges and splashes. There’s a surprising amount of slick visuals here too. They are not shy with the shark.
At its core, The Meg is pure, shameless fun. It is a monster movie that trades in science babble and survival stunts with equal confidence. It’s not trying to be art, it’s trying to entertain. And on that front, it delivers the goods. You don’t come to this movie for nuance. You come for the giant shark. And trust me, you get plenty of shark.
The Good
The Good: As I say directly above, you get plenty of shark. I understand since Jaws does not show the shark until 1 hour and 21 minutes into the movie everyone says don’t show the shark. But Jaws is an art film starring Roy Schieder. This is a Chinese co-production creature feature starring Jason Statham. So you get plenty of shark. A really impressive amount.
You also get plenty of Statham. Jason Statham’s charm (and abs) are on full display in The Meg. The sets are excellent and the movie is not afraid to go on a bit of an adventure.
I enjoyed the underwater visuals, the high-tech research station (Mana One), and action set pieces like the deep-sea dive that starts the film. The CGI wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was very solid for a creature feature.
The Meg also provides some proper shock scenes where the shark comes out of nowhere. This is difficult to pull off when your co-star is seventy feet long. Yet The Meg manages this a few times in the first two-thirds of the film to great effect.
The Meg even manages to throw in a few nice environmental messages without beating one over the head with them. Showing the pollution from suntan lotion bottles in the beach scene was a good touch.
I have to confess I would have liked to see more shark vs boat scenes. (Always a favorite of mine in Godzilla films.) I liked the idea of the megalodon taking out a shark fin fishing vessel, but it would have been fun to see the actual attack, not just the aftermath.
Hell, even Sharknado showed the sharks taking out the shark fin fishing vessel… Okay, so The Meg might have accidentally borrowed that bit from Sharknado. On the plus side, at no point does the megalodon threaten a school bus on the 101 Freeway.
The Bad
The Bad: How big again is the Megalodon? This is the American Godzilla problem. During American Godzilla, the movie often has Godzilla play hide and seek. Godzilla in the American version is 229 feet high.At one point in the movie, they have him hiding in the East River. The main channel, from Upper New York Bay to the former Brooklyn Navy Yard, is 40 feet deep. From there, it’s 35 feet deep to the Throgs Neck. Godzilla is not hiding in the East River.
For most of the movie the Megalodon is in the open ocean so no issues. But for our ending, he visits Sanya Bay. Sanya Bay has an average depth of 16 meters. As I highlight in some screen shots below, it is unlikely a seventy-foot shark could silently swim below the Sanya Bay punters without them noticing.
More of an issue is that shark attack at the beach lacks any gravity whatsoever. Compare to say the shocking attack on the baby whale or a few of the attacks that reduced the number of cast members. The beach attacks are tepid at best. It was as if the filmmakers were worries about scaring away tourists for the upcoming National Day three-day weekend.
I honestly could not tell you if our shark killed anyone at the beach resort and I am simply surprised it didn’t accidentally beach itself.
While The Meg is analogous to Deep Blue Sea, it is not quite a copy. The Meg, to its credit, leaves the confines of the underwater base fairly quickly (Though it squanders some of that potential.)
Where the comparison is interesting is in casting. Thomas Jane is fine in Deep Blue Sea but he is no Jason Statham. I prefer Saffron Burrows’ flawed character over the more stoic and traditional Bingbing Li but they are basically a tie. Where Deep Blue Sea really beats out The Meg is the billionaire that is paying for all this role and the Black comic relief.
In the billionaire paying for all this category, Samuel L. Jackson beats Rainn Wilson like a redheaded stepchild. Not just does Mr. Jackson have one of the best scenes ever in the shark attack genre (Perhaps on film itself) but outside of that he is a force to be reckoned with. I know what Rainn Wilson was going for (Tech billionaire with tics) but honestly it does not work. Partially a script issue to be sure, but Rainn Wilson doesn’t help any.
Now when it comes to Black comic relief (How is this still a thing???) LL Cool J for team Deep Blue Sea is funny and honestly cool. Shakespearean actor Page Kennedy just isn’t funny. (though he does provide Rainn Wilson with his funniest bit). Again, more of a script issue, but once again, it is not a fair fight.
I want to emphasise while Page Kennedy is not great; it is not as if he is Morris Chestnut.
It is not all bad news for The Meg. Ruby Rose is fantastic in this and The Meg has been certified Michael Rapaport free. Still, overall Deep Blue Sea has better characters outside of the sharks themselves.
The Ugly
The Ugly: All throughout my viewing of The Meg, I was reminded of the audio book for 2016’s Fathomless by Greig Beck. Fathomless is a thrilling adventure revolving around the legendary Carcharodon Megalodon. It would make a fun film for a female lead. (Florence Pugh is still young enough to pull it off, Janelle Monáe or Pom Klementieff would work great as well.)
Where was i? Oh yes, the audiobook. Narrator Sean Mangan does not know how to say the word Megalodon. A word that appears in the novel 85 times. Despite at least four nationalities in the cast and some nonnative English speakers to boot, everyone in The Meg pronounces Megalodon correctly.
Originally when I saw Meg I would have put the obviously Chinese co-production and subsequent pandering as an ugly. I have very much softened to this over the last five years and I look at it now with nostalgia. Similar to the way I look at late eighties films, like Predator 2 with its predictive future urban hellscape. Or the way I now have a soft spot for erotic thrillers from the early nineties. Yes, even the ones with Billy Baldwin.
While not all Chinese coproductions were winners (cough Skyscraper cough) I kind of miss them now that they are gone for the foreseeable future.
In Conclusion
In Conclusion: I love Jason Statham movies. I love Shark Attack movies. One would have to work really hard to screw up a Jason Statham shark attack movie for this reviewer. The Meg, to its credit, knows the assignment and delivers the goods.
