The Meg is boldly stupid

A giant shark cruises through the buffet in The Meg. Image courtesy Warner Bros.

The Meg is big, brash, and tremendously inane. It’s uninterested in the nuances of good storytelling or concepts of logic in its plot, and it shows a blatant disregard for character development. This movie is audacious in its stupidity, and comes pretty close to being outstanding because of it.

 

The concept driving The Meg is pretty simple. It's an enormous shark (the eponymous Megalodon) trying to eat Jason Statham, as Jason Statham tries not to be eaten. That Jason Statham is not eaten immediately is impressive considering how often he offers himself up as a snack, but he does put up a valiant fight against the Meg. Fortunately for the shark, Statham has a lot of friends (Bingbing Li, Sophia Cai, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Winston Chao, Ruby Rose, Page Kennedy, Robert Taylor, Jessica McNamee, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Masi Oka) to nibble on as it chases after Statham; some are munched, while others watch their friends get chomped. It all builds up to a climax where Statham tries to go Ahab on the shark, which is very much as nature plans when it introduces a giant shark and Jason Statham to each other.

Technically there is more to the plot than Statham vs. enormous eating machine, but it's clear The Meg doesn't care how the man fought the shark. How the shark came to be in the first place is an example of science as magic, because throwing a chart on a computer and saying a shark escaped is just enough to keep the story going. Statham has a dark past with the shark, for reasons that don't make sense even in the film's universe. The romantic subplot between Statham and Li exists because it apparently needs to exist, even though the movie tosses in an ex-wife subplot with McNamee that ultimately means nothing to the plot. Rose’s character is a master of technology and hacking, which is easy to tell because her name is Jaxx. Wilson is a billionaire who makes terrible decisions, because it apparently takes a special kind of dumb to become that rich.

 

What all of these components have in common is a lack of originality. The Meg leans so heavily on numerous tropes it almost breaks the crutch. Point after point after point after point has been done in a far better fashion before. Even the film's shocks and scares have been done so often there's little surprise when the shark just pops out and starts nibbling on people. The filmmakers play it up a lot, showing characters tempting fate more and more and building up to the point when, finally, the shark comes around to start eating some fools. Director Jon Turteltaub is no Spielberg when it comes to building drama and emphasizing fear; if there is an occasion for the shark to come around, it will come around to bite a person or two in half as quickly as possible.

That would be a demerit for almost every other movie, yet it works for The Meg. Because The Meg is first and foremost about the shark, and investing too much time into things unrelated to the shark is inefficient and reduces the shark to screen ratio. There is a point to having an otherwise uninteresting movie, which is to showcase the eponymous prehistoric creature and watch as it invades a popular beach, gobbling up everyone in sight. And it's the simplicity of the delivery that makes the movie fun. There are no lessons to be learned from this movie, no great speeches to be had nor points about society and nature worth learning. Audiences want to see a giant shark attack Jason Statham, and the audience sees a giant shark attack Jason Statham. Where this movie fails as cinema it succeeds at spectacle and economics. 

 

Because of that, The Meg plays a dangerous game. The line between good dumb fun and bad dumb fun is super thin and easy to cross, a fate that has befallen similar movies like Snakes on a Plane and Sharknado. There are certain slower points, when the focus on the shark starts drifting away, where the film's numerous flaws become an actual problem. The movie ultimately rights itself though, reverting the viewer's attention back to Statham as he fights against the shark again. Watching Jason Statham fight a shark is not good cinema, but it makes for a fun enough matinee trip.

Review: Three and a half out of Five Stars

 

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 113 minutes

Genre: Action

tl;dr

What Worked: The giant shark, Jason Statham

What Fell Short: Less than spectacular special effects, basic filmmaking

What To Watch As Well: Deep Blue Sea, Orca, Piranha