It’s Statham vs. shark in ‘The Meg,’ and you’re gonna need a bigger popcorn
It’s as true in 2018 as it was in 1975: There’s no better way to beat the summer heat than a movie about a big shark. From “Jaws” to “The Shallows,” moviegoers have been gobbling up flicks about treacherous fish for decades, and it’s time to meet our newest finned foe: “The Meg.” It’s the nickname for the megalodon, a prehistoric shark bigger than a tour bus. But all you need to know about John Turteltaub’s watery summer action flick is it’s Jason Statham fighting a shark. Statham vs. shark — you’re gonna need a bigger popcorn.
Based on the novel “Meg” by Steve Alten, the film exceeds expectations in action and set-pieces. It’s far bigger than simple one-setting B-movies such as “The Shallows” or “47 Meters Down,” boasting a large international cast and several showdowns with the Meg, each wilder than the last.
Our hero, Jonas (Statham), first encountered the Meg during a deep-sea rescue mission and had to abandon two of his team members to save the rest. Blamed for their deaths and called crazy for his claims that “something was down there,” he’s now washed up and drunk on a beach in Thailand. But as the only person who has pulled off rescues that deep, he’s recruited for a mission at a research facility in the waters off Shanghai. He only shows up because his ex-wife Lori (Jessica McNamee) is piloting the research sub that’s been stranded by a large, mysterious sea creature in a deep sea trench.
Aboard the research facility are a motley crew of scientists and hangers-on, including father-daughter team Dr. Minway Zhang (Winston Chao) and Suyin (Li Bingbing), man-child billionaire funder Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson), various techies (Ruby Rose, Page Kennedy, Masi Oka and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), Jonas’ nemesis, Dr. Heller (Robert Taylor), and, of course, a preternaturally precocious child, Suyin’s daughter, Meiying (Shuya Sophia Cai). Every character comes face to face with the Meg multiple times after the rescue mission punches a hole in the ocean layer that keeps deep-sea creatures away from regular ocean creatures, and the previously believed extinct megalodon comes chomping through.
With so many characters, an established star persona in Statham and a familiar formula, “The Meg” follows and plays with genre convention in a pleasing way. If anything’s missing, it’s character backstory. But as it turns out, that’s pretty much unnecessary here. It’s exactly right for the doldrums of summer.
Starring Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Winston Chao, Ruby Rose, Rainn Wilson, Robert Taylor; directed by Jon Turteltaub; 113 minutes; PG-13 for action/peril, bloody images and some language.
Grade: B+
A scene from “The Meg,” which centers on a living specimen of a prehistoric Megalodon, long thought to be extinct. MUST CREDIT: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
A scene from “The Meg.”
Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor in the science fiction action thriller “The Meg.” MUST CREDIT: Daniel Smith — Warner Bros. Pictures