Review of The Meg (2018) by Graham M — 04 Jan 2019

The Meg.

(2018).

Plot:

When a massive creature attacks a submersible, the crew becomes trapped at the bottom of the Pacific's deepest trench. To save them from the clutches of the Megalodon - a prehistoric 75-foot shark once believed to be extinct - a visionary oceanographer (Winston Chao) recruits expert rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham). Teamed with the oceanographer's daughter, Suyin (Li Bingbing), Taylor must try to outwit the greatest predator alive...a killer he's faced once before.

Review:

What an awful movie! You can't watch this film without thinking about Jaws, which was an all-time classic, but this film doesn't come close. The acting was awful from the whole cast and the unrealistic storyline goes from one bad scene to another. No one seems to care about there friends who get murdered by the humongous shark, and it's obvious whose next on his menu. Personally, I'm really surprised that the movie made such a profit at the box office because I wanted to switch it off after the first half an hour. With that aside, the little girl was cute and some of the CGI was half decent but it's hard to find something positive to say about the film. Anyway, the film kicks off with a rescue team, led by Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), saving sailors trapped inside a sunken nuclear submarine, when Jonas sees the hull of the submarine being damaged by an unknown creature. Two of the rescuers are stuck in the damaged submarine and say their return to the rescue submersible will take a few minutes. Jonas leaves them behind as he's afraid they will all die if they wait. As they leave, the damaged sub explodes and Taylor claims that it was a sea creature that caused the disaster. He is dismissed by his teammate Dr. Heller (Robert Taylor), who believes that Jonas was affected with pressure-induced psychosis and blames him for the loss of their friends. Five years later, billionaire Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson) meets Dr. Minway Zhang (Winston Chao), at the underwater research facility "Mana One", which Jack finances. Minway and his daughter Suyin (Bingbing Li), whose an oceanographer, are supervising a mission to explore what may be a deeper section of the Mariana Trench, concealed by a thermocline cloud of hydrogen sulfide. The mission is being conducted by Lori (Jessica McNamee), who happens to be Jonas's ex-wife, Toshi (Masi Oka) and The Wall (Olafur Darri Olafsson) in a submersible. The mission appears to be going well, until a very large creature hits the submersible, causing it to lose contact with Mana One. Mac (Cliff Curtis) suggests sending in Jonas to attempt a rescue but Dr. Heller doesn't think that Jonas is the right man for the job. Minway & Mac decide to go to Thailand to recruit Jonas, while Suyin attempts to rescue the people from the damaged submarine. During her mission, she is attacked by a colossal squid who tries to damage her ship. Just before her ship is destroyed, a massive shark appears and kills it. When Jonas finally reaches Mana One, he rescues Lori and The Wall from the submersible but Toshi sacrifices himself by closing the hatch door and detaching the rescue vessel. With the crew safely back at Mana One, they discover that the shark is a Megalodon, the largest shark ever known, believed to be extinct for millions of years. The crew decide to track and poison the shark, which they succeed in doing, but they soon realise that the teeth doesn't match up with the previous attack. Shortly after, a second, more colossal Megalodon emerges from the water, which kills one of the crew and the smaller Megalodon. With the boat capsized Dr. Heller sacrifices his life to save one of the crew members, and then the crew head back to Mana One in two dinghies. Jonas and the remaining crew decide to track and kill the shark, realising that it is en route to a crowded beach on the Sanya Bay. This is when the movie becomes more tedious than the beginning. They decided to play audio of a whale call to divert the shark's attention towards them. Jonas and Suyin try to destroy the Megalodon with torpedos but to no avail, so Jonas decides to take on the Megalodon by himself, by harpooning poison into its eye. What a load of nonsense! The only reason why I could see it going down well with audiences is that it must have looked, and sounded amazing in the cinemas but apart from that, I really don't understand how people enjoyed this film. Statham doesn't know what accent to pick throughout the movie, and the stupid one-liners and terrible attempt at wit, just made matters worse. There was also a bad attempt at a romance story, which led to nothing but it lightened the intense the mood. Anyway, I doubt that I will be giving this bad attempt at a Jaws movie, a second watch but I might try and watch it in 3D, just to see if I have missed anything amazing, which I very much doubt. Disappointing!

Round-Up:

This movie was directed by Jon Turteltaub, who also brought you Thing Big in 1989, Driving Me Crazy, 3 Ninja Kids, Cool Runnings, While You Were Sleeping, Phenomenon, Instinct, The Kid, National Treasure, National Treasure: Book Of Secrets, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Last Vegas. With such an impressive back catalogue, I'm really surprised that this movie was so bad, especially with his experience behind the camera. With that aside, the movie did make an impressive profit at the box office, and although the reviews weren't that great, the studio must have been happy with the outcome. Walt Disney originally purchased the film rights to the book in the 1990s, but after several years in development hell, the rights landed at Warner Bros. The movie was eventually greenlit in 2015 when Turteltaub and most of the cast jumped on board in 2016. The film was shot in New Zealand and Sanya, China in 2017, so the project has gone through many hands over the years. I can only imagine how the movie would have turned out if Disney made it, but they might have got a director that could have done a better job.

Budget: $130million.

Worldwide Gross: $530million.

Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller.

Cast: Jason Statham, Bingbing Li, Rainn Wilson, Winston Chao, Ruby Rose, Page Kennedy, Robert Taylor, Jessica McNamee and Cliff Curtis. 2/10.