Sharks with popcorn--it's cheesy but plenty of summer fun.
The Meg
Grade: B-
Director: Jon Turteltaub (Las Vegas)
Screenplay: Dean Georgaris (The Manchurian candidate—2004) , et al., based on the novel by Steve Alten
Cast: Ruby Rose (John Wick: Chapter 2), Jason Statham (Transporter)
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hr 53 min
by John DeSando
“It’s not about the people you lose; it’s about the ones you save.”
That mantra for The Meg is repeated by more than one character and serves as the heaviest philosophy in an otherwise B movie with technology and Steven Spielberg on its mind. Because its hero Jonas (Jason Statham), as in Jonah and the Whale, has been responsible for losses while saving others, that two-edged declaration dogs him with those who don’t believe he fought a pre-historic megashark about 75 feet long and lived to tell about it.
Meg is short for Megalodon, a shark seriously bigger than Jaws and at least as angry or predatory or plain Hollywood agitated. Scientists going deep under find a world preserved from time, but one that could harbor bad actors like antediluvian Meg. What follows is a series of set pieces about encounters with Meg, each one an anticlimax if it weren’t for the next shark attack.
Jonas is a credible hero, sullen and smart with a regulated beard Statham must pay a fortune to have the same every day. One of his memorable features is an outsized body built to make women silly and men cringe in envy. It is, however his surly terseness, be he Transformer or here as disconsolate diver, that makes me come back to the actor gleefully every time. He’s not as naughty as he might be, but to keep the ratings in family range, he swears barely well enough.
Director Jon Turteltaub keeps the action going fluidly, if not mechanically, as he and his team of writers make sure there are enough cases of tears over family or Jonas’s loves while he Ahab-like goes after the whale. Clichés abound, especially when they introduce an 8 year old for sassy remarks and loveable mien.
While nothing here compares with Steven Spielberg’s masterful, and by comparison minimalist, Jaws, writer Dean Georgaris and his team, adapting from Steve Alten’s novel, now and then evoke Jaws’ terror while not coming close to its suspense.
A beach scene, with many more delicacies swimming and floating than Spielberg has, is a veritable reverse sushi for Meg. The usual child and dog, this time a cute Pekinese, are prominent as are bikini-clad teens ripe for the mashing. The amount of technology and number of modern diving boats alone distance this film from the more primitive Jaws so many decades ago.
The Meg is a fun formulaic summer movie with the ability to make you hesitate to go in the water. I’d say you’re safe except I can’t guarantee there aren’t other Megaladons released from deep under. Have fun the rest of your summer, which was just made more exciting by good ol’ Meg.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
