The Meg

I went to the cinema to see The Meg out of curiosity, because I wanted to see how Jason Statham would handle a giant shark in such a high-budget film, expecting no miracles. In the end, it was pretty good, mostly because the shark looked realistic and the film offered a pretty compelling look at the mysterious life in the depths of the ocean. I would, however, fault the somewhat longer running time for a film of this nature and the insertion of excess relationship and family filler that could have easily been dumped into the ocean or replaced with more action (and even blood). As something to watch once in the cinema, however, The Meg is ideal. (16/09/2018)

I’m actually not all that surprise by Jason Statham being in this film. MEG is quite a quality b-rated movie, which looks stupid only in those moments when Jason doesn’t have a beer in his hand. Because when he does, he looks like the coolest guy under the sun, so I think he should’ve had one even while he was holding a fishing rod with the megalodon in his other hand. (01/11/2019)

Chinese people like American blockbusters, yet at the same time they don't have the same demands from them as the American market. And movie studios realize that targeting a multi-million dollar market, which by virtue of the absence of any cultural alternative has inherently easier movie motives, is the way to a giant vault above the city where they can jump into a pile of dollars in a one-piece bathing suit. The Great Wall, starring Matt Damon, was a similar attempt at such a breakthrough, and it lived up to the expectations of a colorful, passionate, expensive action movie starring an American superstar. The Meg is aimed purely at the Chinese market, just by the way the actors are forced to act... Chinese. Excessive emotional expression, unnecessary gestures, sweeping gesticulations, plus the constant cuts to the people who are currently speaking. Not to mention a funny attempt to prove the moral superiority of the Chinese crew members over everyone else with their constant self-sacrifice or impassioned speeches about how man is hurting nature. I have no reason not to think that the disjointed scene where the American millionaire, who had been behaving quite normally – helping characters in trouble etc. – now decides to kill all the characters with Semtex was an afterthought, imposed by the demands of the Chinese production company. Why did there have to be some helicopters exploding completely randomly? Because Chinese audiences like exploding helicopters. We might just as well ask why the actress Ruby Rose had her tattoos repainted in the makeup room into Chinese visuals. Could it perhaps be because tattooed crosses aren't exactly popular with the Chinese? The Warners are betting that audiences will adapt to whatever succeeds in China, for which they deserve no more than one star. A perfectly clean equation of the film and the product. (13/11/2018)

A forgettable, average B-movie. It needed a director like Stephen Sommers or Joe Johnston, who would make such deliberately silly subject matter into a better spectacle. John Turtletaub is not very good.____P.S. The Czech subtitles by Kateřina Hámova are once again horrendous. No, “squid" really isn't “octopus," and there were plenty of other mistakes as well. (22/08/2018)

MEG runs mostly on two things: the predictable problem with accessibility, which makes the potentially adrenaline-pumping and thrilling premise suffer from constant downplaying and visual softness; and the attempts to humanize the main characters, which mostly look terribly ridiculous – we have the most classic cast: from a doctor to a whiny black man to a pretty scientist, and of course we have Jason Statham, who is initially mired in booze and remorse, but for most of the film he's an incredibly cool, fearless superhero, so that the viewer gradually comes to see the shark not as a terrible threat, but as someone looking forward to Jason’s next heroic stunt. But I’m cool with it. MEG lost any A-grade ambitions with the announcement of the creative team, and the production poured the 150 million into deliberately dumbed-down and great-looking entertainment where everybody es having plenty of fun (Statham pulls it off outrageously, Turteltaub occasionally delights with inventive action or suspenseful point-of-view shots), and if it weren't for the aforementioned attempt at personal conflicts and the associated boring dialogue, the film would have flown by. Making a family film with a bloodthirsty shark is no joke, and the creators quite managed it. Even the dog survives in the end. 60% (15/08/2018)