This is probably not the kind of movie I might want to watch but somehow had to watch it. Maybe it's because of the actor(s) featured, or that I happened to hear the title of the movie and wanted to check it out, or probably just came across it online, the trailer or so. Either for one or all of the reasons as I can't really remember, I did watch the movie, some time back.
The 2018 sci-fi/action film, The Meg is directed by Jon Turteltaub. The film stars Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor, Li Bingbing as Suyin, Rainn Wilson as Jack Morris, Ruby Rose as Jaxx, Winston Chao as Zhang, and Cliff Curtis as James 'Mac' Mackreides. It was loosely based on the 1997 novel “Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror” by Steve Alten. The first question that could come to mind might be, what's the Meg?
The movie follows the encounter of members of an underwater research facility, Mana One with a 75-foot-long shark, known as a megalodon. What was meant to be research turned into a struggle for survival when the Mana One crew got attacked and trapped by a creature, which they later discovered to be a megalodon, a species of shark believed to be extinct. They were now prey to this creature, in its home and comfort zone.
A deep-sea diver, Jonas Taylor was hired to rescue the Mana One crew trapped underwater. He happened to have a story of survival from an attack together with his crew by an unidentified creature. He only survived it, and when he tried to share about the incident he was dismissed as going through some trauma from the incident. This was years before the Mana One crew encountered the megalodon, or “Meg” as they called it.
Jonas was possibly the best-suited person for such a task, considering he had experience before. And so, he came in to help the crew. As you would expect, it wasn't an easy job, and this makes for the plot of the movie. Another movie of humans battling a monster, in water in this case. The team experienced some casualties and loss of life. There's also a sad reflection of humans trying to benefit themselves even in a dangerous and troubling situation.
The Meg is a survival sci-fi and action movie that gets viewers into the scenes and actions, and the feeling of what it would be like to be in such a situation. The plot isn't unfamiliar, but one that has been seen and employed before. The idea of a giant prehistoric shark wasn't a bad one though, and the CGI is commendable for the effect it brought. The megalodon looked believable. The action sequences didn't look bad, while managing and utilising the aquatic environment.
Seeing someone like Jason Statham featured in a movie means mostly one thing, some good action. Not the high-octane action in this case, but he brought the action, and the scenes of him fighting the Meg with caution while trying to save the crew are probably the most interesting and captivating thing about the movie. But not without the performance of others, like Li Bingbing, Cliff Curtis, Ruby Rose and Rainn Wilson.
The movie isn't one to really scare, though there are survival and horror tendencies. If you enjoy a goofy movie, mashed with Jason Statham hero action energy and the idea of a giant creature attacking people, leaving them in terror as they strive for survival, The Meg gives that. It's a fairly good watch.
Thank you for reading!
Rating: 68/100