The Meg
The Megis an entertaining underwater monster movie and summer thrill ride that wholeheartedly embraces its inherent cheesiness without overdoing it.
The time has finally come for Jason Statham to duke it out with a mammoth shark , and the results ( gratefully ) do not let down . found on Steve Alten ’s 1997 bookMeg : A Novel of Deep Terror , The Meghas been in development for over 20 years and caught the eyes of directors like Jan de Bont ( Twister ) , Guillermo del Toro ( Pacific Rim ) , and Eli Roth ( Hostel ) during that clip , before Jon Turteltaub ill-use in to call the shots . It ’s soft to interpret why the retro B - pic premise of Alten ’s source material would attract this special Seth of storytellers , going by their corporate interest . luckily , the concept at last landed in the veracious helping hand with Turteltaub , judging by the last film solution . The Megis an entertaining submerged monster flick and summertime tingle ride that wholeheartedly embraces its inherent cheesiness without overdoing it .
The Megfollows a group of scientist working at a state of the art submerged research readiness - know as Mana One - that lie 200 mi off the glide of China and was funded by the eccentric billionaire Jack Morris ( Rainn Wilson ) . Led by the oceanographer Minway Zhang ( Winston Chao ) and his girl Suyin ( Li Bingbing ) , a maritime biologist , the Mana One team aspire to prove Dr. Zhang ’s hypothesis that there are unexplored depths to the Mariana Trench ( the deepest cognise part of the sea ) . An exploration gang captained by Celeste ( Jessica McNamee ) is capable to do just that when they enroll a long - hidden region of the Trench classify from the rest of the Pacific Ocean by a " cold layer " . However , while down there , something enormous attacks their submersible and go forth the team stranded .
Racing against the clock to save their comrades , the Mana One bunch reaches out to Jonas Taylor ( Jason Statham ): a deep sea rescue expert who has been out of the biz for five eld , ever since he claimed a humongous shark - like tool was responsible for a submarine sandwich rescue mission go awry . Jonas , by no coincidence , is also Celeste ’s ex - husband and chop-chop agrees to attempt to deliver her and her squad , even know that a similar underwater " monster " could be responsible for their predicament . It turns out that Jonas was correct and Celeste ’s team was snipe by a Megalodon : a prodigious specie of shark that was antecedently believed to have gone extinct millions of years before … and has now been inadvertently unleash into the sea at expectant .
Dean Georgaris ( Lara Croft Tomb Raider : The Cradle of Life ) and Erich and Jon Hoeber ( Battleship , RED 1 & 2 ) percentage credit rating for adapting Alten ' firstMegnovel to the cock-a-hoop screen . On the whole , their script does a good job of plowing through the exposition needed to set up the movie ’s sci - fi / horror premiss and establish different characters ' motivation , without getting bogged down in over - explaining things along the mode . BothThe Meg ’s screenplay and the film as a whole blatantly , yet lovingly , crib elements from genre classicsJawsandJurassic Park , and even include a few verbatim consultation to the former , as a way of lean their hat . However , as was indicated sooner , it’sThe Meg ’s willingness to adopt its own campiness ( without reachingSharknadolevels of self - burlesque ) that allows the whole thing to come to across more like a good - natured homage than an uninspired commercial clone .
Turteltaub ’s retiring experience crafting playful legal action / adventure like theNational Treasuremovies dish him well onThe Meg , when it comes to both sustain a consistent feeling and handling the spectacle . The theatre director leans heavily into the film ’s type B - moving picture aspects , yet habituate its big - budget to craft a proper blockbuster experience . IMAX is recommended in this casing and not only benefitsThe Meg ’s visuals ( especially the wide - angle underwater shots by frequent Clint Eastwood cameraman Tom Stern ) , but also its sound design and score by Harry Gregson - Williams ( The Martian ) - which , like the rest of the movie , borrows fromJurassic Parkfor its own story about humans meeting and having to combat prehistorical creatures . The film also takes some tricks from theJawsplaybook in this respect - like , not in full revealing The Meg right away - but combines them with some clever techniques of its own to further generate suspense and tension ( see the POV shots from the view of characters render to spot The Meg in the murky astuteness of the sea ) .
Statham , on his end , knows exactly what his sports fan want from him and he save it in troves here , whether it ’s him run Mano a Shark with The Meg ( several prison term , at that ) or strutting around in nothing but a post - shower towel for a tantrum . He even has good screen chemistry with a delightful Shuya Sophia Cai as Suyin ’s girl Meiyang , making their interactions all the funnier and unexpectedly angelical . The film ’s other humans are middling prostrate on the whole ( Page Kennedy play the comic easing , Ruby Rose is the " edgy " loner , and so on ) , butThe Megspends enough time flesh them out for TV audience to become adorn in their fates . Even Wilson as Mana One ’s cartoonish investor ( consider Elon Musk if he fancied himself as being more of a bro ) is afforded a moment of humanity inThe Meg . It helps that the supporting form is very ego - aware and bet everything tongue in cheek , giving off the notion that they ’re very much enjoying themselves in the summons .
All in all , The Megis very much the luscious slice of August tall mallow that audiences have been skip it would be . The film by and large recognise the potency of its goofy vitamin B complex - motion picture assumption ( derivative elements and all ) , bear two hours of no - holds - bar gratifying popcorn movie storytelling in the process . As unabashedly ridiculous as the movie is , one imagines that anyone who ’s been sell onThe Megsince they first learned what it ’s about - namely , a throw - down between the star ofThe Transportertrilogy and a 75 - base + farsighted ancient shark - should take the air off with a big grin on their fount , after seeing it .
TRAILER
The Megis now playing in U.S. theaters nationwide . It is 113 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for action / danger , bloody images and some language .
The sci - fi legal action movie The Meg follows a chemical group of scientists who encounter a live Megalodon while exploring the Mariana Trench . The cast includes Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor , Li Bingbing as Suyin , and Rainn Wilson as Jack Morris .
Unsuspecting beachgoers meet The Meg
Unsuspecting beachgoers meet The Meg
