Ryan Shoots First: The Meg
I had such high hopes for The Meg, I am a big fan of shark movies but there is a very fine line between absurdity and summer dumb fun. While some movies like Sharknado tend to lean a little too much past the line, for me the classic Deep Blue Sea may toe that line better than any shark movie we’ve seen. Its combination of absurd over the top dumb-fun moments are balanced by some real general scares and twists on classic movie tropes that the movie feels familiar and fun but fresh and bold. With the lead up to The Meg, I felt confident that it would be in the Deep Blue Sea realm of absurdity as evident by the trailers and the top-notch marketing done on movie posters and advertisements. The tease of seeing a prehistoric shark swimming towards a loaded beach filled my head with what cool scenes and scenarios you could do with this shark that no other movie could. Sadly it seems even a shark of this size is no match for its greatest predator… movie studios intervention.
The Meg is not without its moments and there is some general end of summer fun to be had just turning your brain off and watching a shark but the film just doesn’t deliver those moments at a rate it itself built up in its marketing. I am all too familiar with fans getting their heads filled with wild “headcanon” no movie could hope to live up to but this felt different. This felt like the movie sold itself as one thing and even teases it only to pull back the reigns at the last minute. I wouldn’t call it a total flop or let down but perhaps just so much wasted potential. Now that the movie has been released it is coming out that late into production the studio decided to make some pretty drastic changes. They pulled back much of the absurdity and gore to achieve a more friendly PG-13 rating, dialed back on some of the more audacious scenes and simplified the narrative to provide a more “by the numbers” plot, and it shows. It’s one thing to watch a movie and think to yourself “man they were not even close, they totally missed the mark on this one.” This is different, there are hints and glimpses all over of the movie of what this could have been, like a YouTube video of a marathon runner collapsing 1 mile before the finish line.
The cast is serviceable, Jason Statham serves as the bulletproof hero who no matter how many times finds himself in the water with the ultimate killing machine comes out unscathed. Rainn Wilson (The Office) plays the billionaire investor who wants to see first hand “what his money has bought him”, he is delightful in the film and plays the role of the character who is 100% aware of the movie he is in. He plays his part and is glaring evidence of the self-referential movie this film could have been. The cast is also rounded out but some notable Chinese actors as I’m assuming some Eastern money was infused into this films 150 million dollar budget. Bingbing Li (Transformers: Age of Extinction) plays the head love interest of Statham and while she is not bad the language barrier does serve to take the air out of the romance that the script itself seems to not take seriously.
I wanted to love The Meg, the cast, the budget, the premise, the marketing, it all pointed to an awesome summer shark movie but in Hollywood there is no such thing as a sure thing and the weight of those expectations may have caused an unsure studio to literally deteeth their 70 foot monster shark. While some moments will play great to the crowd and look great on the big screen they serve as a reminder of what could have been if the movie had just dived right into shark-infested waters.
