Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…
Jason Statham started his career playing hard-as-nails tough guys in movies like Crank (2006) and The Expendables series. He became so identified with that persona that he was able to (brilliantly) spoof it in Spy (2015), where we first saw his comedic chops. Then came The Fate of the Furious (2017), where a hilarious Statham and a baby nearly stole the movie from the action stars.
Now we have The Meg, in which Statham plays Jonas Taylor, a diver dishonorably discharged from the Navy after he makes the tough call to sacrifice two submariners to save eleven others. (Side note: Statham was on the British National Diving Team in the 1990s—I wonder whether he did some of his own stunts.) He insists that a monster creature is responsible for attacking the sub, but no one believes him. He moves to Thailand and promptly starts drinking himself to death.
Enter Mana One, a billionaire-funded research station in the Pacific’s Mariana Trench. When a subversible piloted by Taylor’s ex-wife (naturally) runs into trouble below the thermocline layer (just go with it), who they gonna call? You guessed it. And guess what else? Turns out he was right about the monster creature, a prehistoric 70-foot shark known as Carcharodon megalodon, or the Meg.
In many ways, The Meg follows a standard-issue Jaws scenario: Big shark is a threat, but no one believes it until it’s too late. Other boxes checked off:
- Dog in peril – Pippin the dog, which is the same name as the dog in Jaws. Nice.
- Precocious kid in peril
- Estranged family members
- Evil corporate shill – Rainn Wilson at his slimiest best
- Side characters sacrificing themselves
- Gorgeous effects – the underwater and overhead shots are stunning in places
- Classic(?) song – Thai version of Toni Basil’s “Hey Mickey”
What The Meg also has is *three* competent female characters who pass the Bechdel test, and a talented, diverse supporting cast. The only missing standard element is the destruction of an iconic landmark.
But what got me was the emotion in the movie. Multiple characters show their grief when others are killed, and it feels organic. The slow-burn romance between Statham’s character and another also is satisfying, as his budding relationship with the precocious kid in peril. There are moments of real tenderness that are unusual in a disaster movie.
Statham has now shown he can do Van Damme, Clouseau, and Willis. Can’t wait to see what he does next.
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The Meg
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 113 min
Director: Jon Turtletaub
Writers: Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber (screenplay); Steve Alten (novel)
Stars: Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Winston Chao, Shuya Sophia Cai, Ruby Rose