More than 40 years after Steven Spielberg terrorized audience with Jaws, The Meg is here to instill the same fear in a grander way. Billed as a Jason Statham film, it has the surprise factor of Jaws as well and with bigger and better graphics, it comes out as one of the better shark films…
SAMAA | Omair Alavi – Posted: Aug 15, 2018 | Last Updated: 3 years ago
More than 40 years after Steven Spielberg terrorized audience with Jaws, The Meg is here to instill the same fear in a grander way. Billed as a Jason Statham film, it has the surprise factor of Jaws as well and with bigger and better graphics, it comes out as one of the better shark films in recent history. Inspired from Steve Alten’s novel of the same name, The Meg will terrorize you for most of its duration but will end on a positive note with good defeating evil, in this film’s case human slaying the giant prehistoric monster!
The Plot
After a deep sea experiment goes wrong, scientists bring in Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) for the rescue of the team that includes his ex-wife. The mission is a success but brings a prehistoric giant shark Megalodon to the surface and all hell breaks loose as it terrorizes all who comes in the way. At one point, Jonas and his team manage to save themselves from certain death but then, the killer shark has a mind of its own. Who wins this battle of man and animal is something you will have to experience yourself; we can tell you that Jonas is no ordinary rescue diver – he is the best there ever is.
The Good
For those who missed Jaws in cinema, this is the perfect opportunity to redeem yourself. The shark is bigger than it was in the classic flick and is hungrier too, making it eat anything and anyone that comes in its way. The sets, the CGI, the outdoor sequences are all in sync with each other as they all combine to give you a surprise blockbuster that has a predictable story but an unpredictable execution, a predictable plot but an unpredictable angle, a predictable end but with an unpredictable twist! Jason Statham carries the whole film on his shoulders as he saves the lives of many and pisses off the shark on more occasions than one.
The Bad
The film goes too slow after the advent of the 70ft prehistoric shark; the story of Jaws moved quickly and is appreciated still because of that. However, The Meg takes a long turn towards slowness before finding back its pace near the end. Furthermore, the characters were shown to be clumsy and stupid and if I were a scientist, I would have been offended by their actions. They fell from a boat into the sea like cartoon characters and also didn’t think two steps ahead like people with common sense do. That’s the main reason why the film became so lengthy otherwise it would have ended quickly. The characters were clichéd too as there was a businessman who didn’t care about lives, a female scientist who dressed like men, a scientist who was strict on his daughter and so forth. As for the dialogues, you could predict each one of them if you have seen disaster films because nothing seems out of the box here.
The Verdict 3.5/5
To watch a huge prehistoric shark on screen is something people in Pakistan wanted to, considering multiplex cinemas are a new phenomenon in the country. Some of the scenes are not advisable for children especially the ones in which the shark eats humans and fish. The 3D effects make everything look so real and even though the plot sounds too scientific to be true, it comes out as something from a very bad nightmare. Add Jason Statham to the equation and you get a Science Fiction film that dares, scares and in the end, spares the brave, because the brave was Jason Statham.
