I have learned a lot from movies, with one of the most important thing being, that we are not meant to swim in the ocean. I mean how many movies do we have to see where something in the sea kills us before we get the message? Knowing you sometimes need something bigger to get the message across, someone somewhere watched Jaws and said that that fake looking shark is so cute and small, someone hold my beer while I come up with something to really fear. That is how I pictured writer Steve Alten coming up with the concept of The Meg in which he introduces the world to a seventy foot shark, where we will definitely need a bigger boat. Well for the film perspective, they did indeed bring a bigger boat, but they have something even more important, and that’s Jason Statham.
Jonas Taylor (Statham) is an underwater rescuer. He is that guy you call when no one else can do it and it is during one of those recuses that he has a Cliffhanger moment, which changes him. A few years later a rich guy named Morris (Rainn Wilson) has funded a cool underwater research station that is trying to prove that the ocean is deeper than we have previously thought. Just like you’d expect something goes wrong during their exploration and only one man can save them. Since Superman is busy fighting in bathrooms along Tom Cruise, the next best thing is Jonas as he comes in and saves the day, but not before he sees the real danger that is lurking out there. Having escaped and thinking the worst is behind them, little did they know their nightmare is just beginning as their entry into the unknown has unleashed a creature long thought extinct. What it sets up is a battle of man vs shark in a winner take all match, but don’t worry “man” in this case is Jason Statham, and that’s all we need to win this battle.
This movie would be pretty easy to sell with the tag line “Statham vs Shark” and most people would be in on seeing it. Well the film lives up to that title and takes everything you know about shark movies and raises the volume to eleven and goes all in on the Hollywood adage ‘bigger is better’. While the suspense of Jaws is missing you do get to see a giant shark make short work of anything that gets in its path, including a scene at a beach where it goes through beach goers like Mikey eating cereal. The shark is cool and all, but it’s Statham who makes the ride fun, as his level of bad ass is so high that there isn’t anything on earth who would stand a chance against him. This really is the perfect movie to end the summer with, because after you see it, that final trip to the beach might not hold the same desire as it once did. The Meg is for me the next logical step in the world of sharks on film and like the beasts that have swam on the big screen before it, it will make you think a little harder before you dip your toe in the water.
