By Tracy Lam, Staff Writer
An adaption from the 1997 Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, The Meg was expected to have a $30 million dollar debut, but it blew those expectations right out of the water. At its opening weekend, the film was en route to a $150 million global debut and received a “B+” Cinemascore from its theater audience. With the main character, Jonas Taylor (played by Jason Statham) and a 75-foot-long prehistoric shark as the antagonist, it’s no wonder this film captivated audiences around the world and left them with a jaw-dropping experience.
The opening scene takes us to the past when Taylor was a deep sea rescue diver. During one of his rescue missions, Taylor encountered a massive creature that attacked the submarine he was trying to save, leaving him to choose between the lives of the crew or the lives of his own team. With the deaths of his team members on his conscience, Taylor retreated to Thailand only to be recruited to save the crew of an international undersea observation program that was attacked by possibly the same creature.
This opening scene alone was brilliant and foreshadowed what was to be a movie of action, suspense and horror, so I was surprised to find it also had a strong comedy factor. In even the most stressful and dangerous situations, the characters were cracking jokes. I was finding it hard to suppress my laughs in some cases – the most memorable being when Taylor sang the iconic Just Keep Swimming Song from Finding Nemo when he was steadily swimming towards the Megalodon. I was also ecstatic to find a romance blossoming between Taylor and Suyin, played by actress Li Bingbing. It was clear they had chemistry from the beginning and with their constant, unnecessary bickering, it also became clear to their co-workers. As a fellow romance fanatic, I couldn’t help but gush over the scenes with the two lovebirds and how their friendship slowly evolved into something more.
The cast list proved to be quite impressive with a range of diversity in actors and actresses. It encompassed everyone to appeal to a global audience which contributed to the film’s success. I was most impressed by the performances of Statham, Ruby Rose, who played Jaxx and Shuya Sophia Cai, who played Meiying. Statham, who starred in countless films including the Fast and Furious franchise, is especially known for his roles in action-filled movies so it should be no surprise when I say his performance in The Meg was nothing less than outstanding. As a controversial actress, Rose had a lot riding on her performance in this film and she did not disappoint. The fact that she had to deal with a long-standing health issue while filming this movie makes her performance that much more spectacular and her comeback into the world of entertainment that much more inspiring. Working with adolescents on a movie set could be tricky, but with Cai, I couldn’t imagine it being any harder than working with adults. For her age, the level of maturity and the talent she portrayed in her performance was unrealistic. With a debut like this, her future career in acting is bright and promising.
Another brilliant factor in this film was the cinematography. The quality of the movie itself was fantastic, which is surprising for the amount of difficulty that goes into imagining and editing the scenes underwater. The close up scenes with the Megalodon were so realistic which made the movie that much scarier. The scenes from the hub of the underwater research facility included all sorts of marine life which reminded me just how beautiful the ocean can be; a startling contrast to how it is later portrayed in the movie. But the best scene that depicts this level of brilliance in cinematography was when the submersible from the research institute broke through the layer of frozen gas at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, uncovering a brand new world with creatures never known to man. The new ecosystem was simply beautiful and it had me on the edge of my seat, trying to get a closer look.
If you’ve read this far, you could probably guess that I love this movie, so you could imagine my surprise when I found out it only had a 47% for Rotten Tomatoes (A good rating being 60% and higher). Though I must say, I understand where half of the critics are coming from. The Meg is rated PG 13 which limits the amount of gruesome and gory scenes an over the top shark movie should have. For those hardcore shark movie fans, this film did not deliver on its promise of a horrifying shark movie. And like most adaptations, the book was better than the movie, so for those who read the book and had something to compare it to, this movie was a disappointment.
Nonetheless, with everything else going for it, The Meg is a worthy movie that I highly recommend watching.
