Sharing the Same Destiny

The first issue is the quality of the set design, practical effects and CGI, which for just another shark movie, holds up reasonably well. As a ‘polished B-movie,’ The Meg sacrifices any nostalgia or laughs which could be garnered from shitty effects like those in Jaws or Sharknado. The performances were also fine, with Rainn Wilson bringing a refreshing and contemporarily accurate depiction of The Billionaire Bad Guy. Shuya Sophia Cai, who plays Meiying, even brings likability to Statham’s unexciting performance of Jonas Taylor through their rapport.

Where things get further complicated, however, is the film’s identity crisis when it comes to the fence of self-awareness; The Meg can’t pick a side. The megalodon’s destruction of a finning ship is used as a jumping off point for political commentary on the shark finning industry, which comes off as both tonally and contextually confused. Cheesy gags and cliches are sprinkled between scenes that intend to build actual tension and character development. When this is paired with the surprisingly high-quality nature of the film, it gives away how The Meg takes itself entirely too seriously.

Despite this, the cheesy moments we do get are brilliant. The chihuahua sub-plot is undeniably hilarious, as well as the impeccably trashy scene in which a person at the beach in an inflatable hamster ball gets ‘popped’ by the megaladon’s jaws. The Meg even pulls off a cliche twist of sorts, with what was believed to be the megalodon being eaten by an even larger shark, emulating Jaws’ iconic “you’re gonna need a bigger boat” scene. Our finale, which has Taylor one-on-one with a shark larger than Statham’s blunder at the 1990 Commonwealth Games is ridiculous, but not shy of what anyone could ever want out of a shark movie.

As an aficionado of good-bad movies, I can only wish the film had embraced the bad and the ugly of its premise and execution. While The Meg reached to be ‘the mother of all deep-sea attack movies’, it fell short, but it did not fall short enough. However, not dissimilar to the Sharknado franchise which leant fully into its inadequacy after the first film, The Meg has an opportunity to redeem itself. I patiently await the upcoming sequel, The Meg 2: The Trench, with my fingers crossed that The Meg accepts its fate as just another shark movie, and has fun with it in the process.

Collated by Chetha Nawana

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