The Meg (C+ or 2.5/4 stars)
'The Meg' (directed by Jon Turteltaub) is no Jaws -- not nearly as good as that 1975 masterpiece. It's also no Sharknado -- too competent to be in the schlocky, so-bad-it's-good territory of the latter film. Instead, it's a so-so PG-13 rated sea monster flick that might satiate, but not overwhelmingly please. Lurking deep in the Pacific Ocean is something very scary – according to former deep sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham); who now spends his days in a drunken stupor in Thailand after one bad decision cost him his beloved career & marriage.
Sent for by billionaire investor Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson) to a undersea research facility called Mana One, located far off the coast of China, Jonas discovers that his ex (Jessica McNamee) & her crew are trapped in a small deep sea submersible 11,000 meters below, beneath a layer of hydrogen sulfide in the Mariana Trench which, apparently, covers an even deeper canyon. What has attacked this vessel? Well, none other than a Carcharodon "MEG"alodon, previously thought to be extinct for millions of yrs.. Recruited by experienced Chinese oceanographer, Dr. Zhang (Winston Chao) against the wishes of his oceanographer/shark expert daughter, Suyin (Bingbing Li), the controversial Jonas joins-up to save the crew. Unfortunately, the "Meg" manages to escape to the deeper surface, leaving it up to Jonas, Suyin, & the rest of the team to stop the 75 ft. pre-historic creature before it reaches more populated areas {beach, much!?} ... and the rest of the world. Mayhem ensues.
As I said before, this was too competent to be a fun baaaad movie, and not good enough to warrant high praise, either. It did the job it set-out to do; but the bar was not placed too high. 'The Meg' starts interestingly enough with its clever scientific discovery angle, but that is sidelined for 'dumb action movie' stuff (copious, blunt shark attacks with no legit terror build-ups) . And despite the enticing promise of Jason Statham vs. a huge killer shark, this action flick steals dialogue & happenstance from just about every sea creature/shark-movie that we've ever seen. So, while there are pretty neat visuals & jump scare moments ... a lot of suspense, sheer terror, & flat-out fun is kind of drained from the film.
The action scenes are not poorly executed, but some are executed with iffy CGI, & contain meaningless, bloodless deaths that don't leave much impact. Who cares about so much death if you don't ... care ... about who is being dispatched? Also, this type of movie could've ended at the 90-95 min. mark (like a Sharknado), yet it approaches the 2 hour mark and, it didn't need to -- should have been tightened up.
I actually dug Jason Statham, here. Some effort is made to give him character depth {self-guilt over a prior job-related mishap} and I liked him as our hero. I also liked Bingbing Li; nice chemistry btwn. her & Statham. Actually, the character that people might walk away remembering best is the tiny yorkie, Pippin, who sees the "Meg" out at sea and has an "Oh, hell no!" moment. I enjoyed the ridiculous visuals that aid the familiar "terrorize the beachgoers" segment near the end of the film. But yeah, The Meg's script is too unimaginative. Absurdities abound, but the film takes those absurdities too seriously when it could've embraced them. And while this by-the-numbers shark flick will make good $$, I really should've been better.
Sent for by billionaire investor Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson) to a undersea research facility called Mana One, located far off the coast of China, Jonas discovers that his ex (Jessica McNamee) & her crew are trapped in a small deep sea submersible 11,000 meters below, beneath a layer of hydrogen sulfide in the Mariana Trench which, apparently, covers an even deeper canyon. What has attacked this vessel? Well, none other than a Carcharodon "MEG"alodon, previously thought to be extinct for millions of yrs.. Recruited by experienced Chinese oceanographer, Dr. Zhang (Winston Chao) against the wishes of his oceanographer/shark expert daughter, Suyin (Bingbing Li), the controversial Jonas joins-up to save the crew. Unfortunately, the "Meg" manages to escape to the deeper surface, leaving it up to Jonas, Suyin, & the rest of the team to stop the 75 ft. pre-historic creature before it reaches more populated areas {beach, much!?} ... and the rest of the world. Mayhem ensues.
As I said before, this was too competent to be a fun baaaad movie, and not good enough to warrant high praise, either. It did the job it set-out to do; but the bar was not placed too high. 'The Meg' starts interestingly enough with its clever scientific discovery angle, but that is sidelined for 'dumb action movie' stuff (copious, blunt shark attacks with no legit terror build-ups) . And despite the enticing promise of Jason Statham vs. a huge killer shark, this action flick steals dialogue & happenstance from just about every sea creature/shark-movie that we've ever seen. So, while there are pretty neat visuals & jump scare moments ... a lot of suspense, sheer terror, & flat-out fun is kind of drained from the film.
The action scenes are not poorly executed, but some are executed with iffy CGI, & contain meaningless, bloodless deaths that don't leave much impact. Who cares about so much death if you don't ... care ... about who is being dispatched? Also, this type of movie could've ended at the 90-95 min. mark (like a Sharknado), yet it approaches the 2 hour mark and, it didn't need to -- should have been tightened up.
I actually dug Jason Statham, here. Some effort is made to give him character depth {self-guilt over a prior job-related mishap} and I liked him as our hero. I also liked Bingbing Li; nice chemistry btwn. her & Statham. Actually, the character that people might walk away remembering best is the tiny yorkie, Pippin, who sees the "Meg" out at sea and has an "Oh, hell no!" moment. I enjoyed the ridiculous visuals that aid the familiar "terrorize the beachgoers" segment near the end of the film. But yeah, The Meg's script is too unimaginative. Absurdities abound, but the film takes those absurdities too seriously when it could've embraced them. And while this by-the-numbers shark flick will make good $$, I really should've been better.