The Meg is based on the book, Meg: A Novel Of Deep Terror, by Steve Alten.
The rights to the novel was acquired by Disney back in 1996, but production for the movie stalled by 1999 and the rights returned to the author, Steve Alten. In 2005, there were reports that New Line Cinema would take on the project with a 2006 release. Jan De Bont as director, Guillermo Del Toro as producer, and Shane Salerno as writer were named for the production. Due to budget concerns, New Line Cinema cancelled the project and returned the rights to Steve Alten. In 2015, Warner Bros. announced to take on the project and would release by March 2, 2018. The release date was pushed back to August 10, 2018.
Some gory scenes were filmed, but had to be cut from the film to keep the PG-13 rating.
REVIEW:
After having an encounter in a rescue mission, retired deep sea diver, Jonas Taylor, must save a team of researchers in a sunken submersible and a beach full of tourists from a 70 ft. shark that was thought to be extinct.
I will say right now that I have not read any of the books that The Meg was based on. So I have no clue how accurate the story is in the movie compared to the book. However, I really enjoyed watching this movie. Perhaps, more so than any other monster movie this year. Is the story good? It was decent. It isn't going to blow up as the new JAWS, but the movie is very self aware that it is not going to take itself too seriously. It is very action packed and it knows when the humor is appropriate. There was one part where Jason Stathom's character, Jonas, was asked to swim and tag the shark from 100 feet away and he just looks so annoyed that he is the only one that is capable of doing this. So while he is swimming out to the shark, he is singing "just keep swimming" over and over. And there are a lot of cheesy moments like these, but for the type of movie The Meg was going for is what made the movie so much fun to watch.
I actually enjoyed most of these characters. I didn't mind Jason Stathom, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, and so on. I enjoyed how their character's interactions are either sarcastic or annoyed. I like how the romance between Jason Stathom's character and Li Bingbing's character isn't forced, but was shown in cheesy ways. Rainn Wilson plays Morris, a multi-billionaire that funded the deep sea research facility, and I'm actually glad that the movie didn't go with the evil rich character cliche. How many times have we seen the same evil rich character in movies over the years? I love how Morris actually shows feelings towards the people he works with. The problem with the characters is that they don't leave a lasting impression. While I did enjoy these characters, they are just not memorable.
The Megalodon is terrifying, but the CGI could have used more work. There were times where it looked unpolished or the size was inconsistent. When you see it swimming under a bunch of swimmers it would be as huge as a submarine, but then when it breaches out of the water to snack on some swimmers it would look smaller.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
The Meg is a fun shark movie. It isn't trying to do anything special or be an award winning blockbuster. I don't know how accurate the movie's story is to the book's story, but in the end it is made just to be a fun cheesy shark movie and I do recommend seeing it.
Did you see The Meg? If so, what are your thoughts of the movie? Did you enjoy it or did you not enjoy it? If you haven't seen the movie, are you planning on watching it? Leave a comment in the comment section and make sure to share with your friends and subscribe to my page for more news, reviews, and discussions.