This article originally appeared on CinemaRetro
BY MARK CERULLI
Do sharks give you the willies? Does the sight of a 12-foot Great White on the Discovery Channel make your heart skip some beats? Then imagine a 75-foot super shark, looking like a freight train with gills! Meet the villain of the new Warner Bros. sci-fi thriller, The Meg starring Jason Statham and Chinese star, Li Bingbing.
The story concerns a Chinese-American exploration team penetrating the deepest reaches of the Pacific, cut off beneath a thermal layer. The operation’s backer, a snarky billionaire played by Rainn Wilson (TV’s The Office) is hoping to exploit the sea bottom’s mineral wealth. Unfortunately this untouched region is inhabited by a Megalodon, a gigantic prehistoric shark that makes “Bruce” (the shark from Jaws) look like a sardine. It can bend submarines and implode research pods with ease… but it meets its match in a “washed up but still heroic” rescue diver played by Jason Statham.
Directed by Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) and made with (lots of) Chinese money, there is an obvious Chinese influence running throughout – with Chinese talent in key roles and the climax unfolding at an exotic Chinese beach resort. (There, several scenes such as a frantic mother searching for her child during the shark’s attack, or the giant shark dragging swimming platforms like flotsam are truly reminiscent of Jaws.)
Although the movie drags on the surface, it picks up speed underwater and the visual effects of the enormous shark trashing whatever technology mankind throws at it are superb. While Statham turns in his usual rugged performance (and at 51, his physique remains a work of art), Li Bingbing is lovely but a bit wooden. The dialogue tells us they’re inching towards romance but their interaction has an odd formality, with nary a kiss to be seen. Instead it falls to her precocious daughter (the wonderful Sophia Cai) to tell Statham, “My mom likes you.” As if an action movie icon like Statham needs a romantic assist from an 8 year-old!
To be fair, any shark movie made after 1975 will always be compared to the mother of all summer tentpoles, Jaws, and while The Meg does provide some thrills, it’s not better… it’s just bigger. But maybe for the “global audience” this movie is going after, that might be enough.
The Meg opens nationwide on August 10th from Warner Bros.
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