THE MEG: Silly, Dumb and Just Bad (Which Makes it Great!)

Genre: Action, Horror, Science Fiction
Produced by: Colin Wilson, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Belle Avery
Directed by: Jon Turteltaub
Written by: Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber
Production Company: Warner Bros. Pictures
Starring: Jason Statham, Li Bing Bing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, Cliff Curtis
Runtime: 112 minutes

SYNOPSIS: 

An expedition team vanishes without a trace during a routine underwater mission, leaving the rest of the crew in the marine facility with no choice but to recruit reluctant former rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) to help find them. This rescue mission would soon bring Taylor face-to-face with his arch-nemesis of giant, prehistoric proportion: the seventy foot-long Megalodon. 

REVIEW: 

The Meg is based on the popular Meg novel series written by Steve Alten that began in 1997. But really, who cares? There is certainly some rabid Steve Alten fans out there who have been eagerly waiting for a Meg motion picture adaptation for years, but with no disrespect to those fans, more people are interested in The Meg because they just want to see Jason Statham fight a seventy-foot long shark. This sounds like the dumbest attempt by Hollywood at creatively tinkering about with the man v. nature premise or the shark movie convention, yet that is part of its unique charm. Its sure-footed commitment on camp makes The Meg such a light, entertaining thrill ride. 

Let’s face it, though, this is by no means a great movie. It ticks all the boxes for the archetypal B-movie: emotionally undemanding characters, bad acting, cringey dialogue, laughable attempts at drama and over-the-top, unintentionally hilarious action sequences. It is like waking up in some odd alternate reality where a major Hollywood studio, Warner Brothers in this case, funds cult directors like Ed Wood or Tommy Wiseau a 150 million dollar budget to make a Jaws (1975) knock-off and deliver The Meg. In a way, the film’s true skipper Jon Turteltaub handles the big budget production with the same B-movie style as the aforementioned names, purposely so.  It embraces its silly premise in a more deadpan manner. Characters here act on a heightened level, hilariously, like the shark actions are end-of-the-world material, but there are the occasional bursts of self-aware humor that suggest that these characters know that they are in a dumb shark movie. How can someone take a film where Jason Statham, with such a self-serious face and tone, delivers a line as stupid as “it’s the Megalodon” seriously? The Meg requires its audience not to care about characters or any thematic depth, unwind, clap and then cheer every time the humans are being ripped apart by the sharks. 

Every character here is basically of the disposable kind. Their job desks and occasional quirks are the closest the film goes in terms of character depth. Even to a certain extent, the supporting characters almost have little to no contribution to the action sequences. Save for Jason Statham or maybe his romantic interest/ scientist Suyin (Li Bing Bing), almost everyone here spend the entire movie just sitting behind monitors, telling the action hero what to do and where to go while during the big shark sequences, Mr. Statham is forced happily to bear all the brunt of the action. 

Yeah, Jason Statham is virtually a superhero in this film. There is one point early on where the screenplay tries to humanize Statham’s character, and makes him this washed-up, drunk sailor/Captain Ahab-type hermit who is still haunted by a past sea-related accident. That compelling element of his character is quickly brushed aside to irrelevance in split second, as Statham continuously defies logic in the subsequent man v. shark sequences. Throughout the film, he’s being chased around by a shark to the point of him being an inch away from his flesh being torn. There is even one point when his mini-sub has been eviscerated and in reality, it would be impossible for a normal human to escape. Yet our superhero Mr. Statham survives these life-or-death moments with ease, without a single scratch or even having to take a deep breath. Apparently, fighting a seventy-foot long shark seems to feel like dessert for this British action star, which is a pretty stupid and nonsensical revelation to comprehend, yet awesome in a perversely comical way. 

Despite the schlocky intention, The Meg is just a good-looking film. What the camera accomplishes with the underwater sequence here proves that the filmmakers are actually trying to make something worthy of cinematic viewing. Turteltaub here captures this beautiful, yet forbidding underwater world, along with its colorful vistas and pitch-black caves, with such elegant and awe-inspiring manner that it is hard not to take the postcard-worthy landscape seriously as a theatrical release. Even with the shark design, the film tries to give its main attraction the five-star treatment in terms of the special effect work, to wonderful effect. The Megalodon here looks like a hybrid between threatening and tongue-in-cheek, enough of the force of nature-type physical characteristics from Jaws and enough of the goofy mannerisms from Sharknado (2013).  The Meg’s CGI body does blend in well with the surroundings, and during its fight with Jason Statham, it looks like Mr. Statham is facing a real threat than a computer-generated character. At the same time, since we’re talking about a dumb shark movie, there are enough winks to the camera moments through the shark movements that indicate the shark himself knows he’s in one. There’s even one glorious shot of the shark squinting at Jason Statham, like they’re both in a Western film stare down. 

If there is anything that’s holding back The Meg’s B-movie potential, it is the PG-13 rating. Without discrediting PG-13’s ability to craft scary sequences, PG-13 can sometimes work in horror films, like for instance with A Quiet Place (2018), but in The Meg’s case, this is a film that begs for an R rating. Jon Turteltaub even mentioned once in an interview that he made the film with R-rated intention. Due to the studio’s insistence however, it is forced to settle for a more commercial PG-13 rating, which is apparent as some of the more violent shark actions have been cut to ribbons for family appeal. Obviously, the animal deaths here are easily the most violent parts of the shark action. It is the scarce opportunity of seeing large amount of blood floating about in the silver screen, where the hard PG-13, and yet just an ink of blood away from being R-rated, material comes into play. Sadly, it is during the human deaths where the PG-13 restrictions start to take hold.  Those who wish to see limbs and an outpouring of blood fly as the sharks eat the humans onscreen will be left disappointed. Any human deaths from the shark action here are dealt in the most bloodless way. The shark comes, swallows the human whole like he/she is a pill, and then just leaves, without spilling any blood at the scene of the crime. 

Another disappointing aspect is Turteltaub’s copycat attempt at paying homage to Jaws.  It is clear that the director is influenced by Steven Spielberg’s shark masterpiece in the way he builds suspense. The off-screen manner his film The Meg introduces the Megalodon, with the camera bobbing and weaving as if the audience sees the event through the shark’s perspective is reminiscent of the underwater shot from Jaws’ opening sequence. Yet, the similarities do not stop there. There are actually two sequences in a boat and the beach at one point during the second act and third act respectively that feel like a shot-by-shot reconstruction of two of the most memorable scenes in  Jaws, which just so happens to also take place in a boat and the beach. The copycat scenes in The Meg are well-shot obviously, yet lazily-directed in the sense of how much every visual beats is overly derivative of its muse. Perhaps the only difference despite the placement of the two scenes in the narrative between The Meg and Jaws lies on the intent. Spielberg clearly went for suspense with those scenes, while Turteltaub plays them for laughs. There is one scene here involving a guy in a plastic bubble trying to run away from a shark which is the biggest laugh I’ve had in the cinema in terms of the climax. 

Beyond being a shark movie, The Meg really is an exercise in Jason Statham’s superhuman feat. Some might say that means every character Jason Statham has ever played in his career, which is somewhat true. However, if that’s the reason he’s a box office draw, if that’s the reason he’s the darling of the masses, so be it. He brings such physicality and tough guy, likable charisma that makes him one of the noteworthy names in the 21^st century action star category. If there is any criticism about his performance here, it is his struggle with human connection. There is one point in the narrative where they try to shoehorn this awkward romantic subplot between Statham’s rescue diver character and Li Bing Bing’s scientist character, which feels like a small, throwaway subplot that just does not work. In fact, the best chemistry Jason Statham had with any human being here is with Li Bing Bing’s character’s cute, adorable ten year old daughter (Shuya Sophia Cai).   

Chinese actress Li Bing Bing does her best with the little she’s given.  At least, she’s got to be more involved with the shark action than the other supporting cast, and while she’s set up to be this fierce, independent woman who challenges the men’s, particularly Statham’s, authority in the crew, the film gradually ditches on that promise with this character. In subsequent scenes, she suddenly becomes this rom-com lady, nervous every time she’s around Jason Statham. Even during the shark action, she barely had any heroic acts. She’s just there to be the damsels-in-distress, an extra stake to keep the action wheel moving, which makes her such an uninteresting character. 

Rainn Wilson comes into the fold to be the comic relief, and he gives a pretty funny, entertaining performance. In this universe where the characters’ subconscious minds know they are in a dumb shark movie, he is the only character who’s more forthright about it. There is one Meta joke where he mentions Shark Week that is just hilarious, further bringing home the film’s campy intention. He somehow makes this greedy, millennially-dressed corporate guy, or in other words, an awful human being tolerable to watch. Ruby Rose barely had anything to do on an action standpoint. Considering the fact that she had proven herself to be a capable action star in films like XXX: Return to Xander Cage (2017) and John Wick Chapter 2 (2017), and considering the fact that she is going to be the next Batwoman in CW’s Arrowverse, the least the film could have done is let her kick a shark in the face or something. Yet, her whole screen time is her basically sitting behind the monitors, telling the action hero what to do and where to go. If she does ever any action, it’s her constantly falling off a boat, flailing about the water asking for help while the shark approaches her, which is such a waste of her physical talent. 

CONCLUSION: 

The Meg is everything you want out of a B-grade shark movie: emotionally undemanding characters, bad acting, cringey dialogue, laughable attempts at drama and over-the-top, unintentionally hilarious shark action. Yet, all these things combine to create something that is fun to chew on. Statham and co manages to take the man vs. shark premise to crazier extremes. Ladies and gentlemen, we might be witnessing a future so-bad-it’s-good classic. 

Score: 7.5/10.