The plot: The underwater research facility Mana One, led by Dr. Minway Zhang (Winston Chao) and his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing), have discovered a previously-uncharted area of the Marianas trench that is even deeper than the current record. As they send a team down to explore the new depths, they soon find evidence of a Megalodon, a gargantuan shark thought to have been extinct that is far from dead. The mission, the facility, even the entire world could be in jeopardy if the Meg makes it to the open seas, and it's up to retired rescue diver Jona (Jason Statham) to stop it.
Statham is one of the few actors alive who
could be billed as going head-to-head against a giant prehistoric shark and have
no one question it. His action lead cred holds strong here, and his rather
charming jackass mannerisms give him solid chemistry with most if not all of
his co-stars, Cliff Curtis and Li Bingbing in particular. Bingbing herself
makes for a very good female lead, holding her own as far as sheer badass
credibility goes, and together with Winston Chao as her father, we get a look at
the good these actors can do when dealing with a production worth their efforts
(for reference, this is what we got last time we checked in on these two).
Shuya Sophia Cai as Suyin’s daughter gives a surprisingly solid performance
here, turning what could have been just a distraction into an adorably key part
of the main group dynamic. Rainn Wilson as the billionaire funding the
operation is all things American bro, only with an actual conscience to speak
of, and he does nicely in that role. Ruby Rose and Page Kennedy fit in nicely
with the main group, Masi Oka and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (whose character name
is “The Wall” because why not?) add to a pretty damn effective scene early on
in the story, and Robert Taylor as the resident doctor Heller is just a colossal prick
of a character, something that Taylor depicts well enough.
On the surface, this really isn’t the kind of movie that
would make it into theatres. Yes, even considering my previous rants on how low
our cinematic standards are over here, this is still something of a hard sell
just from the premise. These kinds of creature features, ones involving giant
sea creatures (bonus points if they are prehistoric), are usually
handled by the likes of The Asylum or other Syfy Original Movie production houses.
That’s how we wound up getting Sharknado and its numerous inexplicable sequels.
Around here, however, the term ‘B-movie’ is rarely if ever used as a putdown, since that
kind of silly entertainment still has its place in the industry; hell, the
original shark horror movie Jaws was made as a B-movie, and that one helped
changed the entire industry around it. What I’m getting at with all this is
that is this kind of movie isn’t the kind of thing you would expect Warner
Bros. to be attached to (at least, not in this decade), but honestly, I’m glad
it does. Because it proves that we can get that same brand of B-movie
cheesiness, but don’t have to put up with Asylum’s lack of quality control in
the process.
For a start, this actually looks decent. While director Jon
Turteltaub doesn’t have the most lauded filmography out there (his best known
works are pure 90’s cheese like 3 Ninjas and Cool Runnings), cinematographer
Tom Stern has frequently collaborated with Clint Eastwood on a lot of his more recent efforts and the camera work here shows that he at least knows what he’s
doing. The photography both in and out of the ocean is nice and clear, with
even the more hectic moments being given enough control to actually make out
what’s happening, and the effects work… well… I honestly don’t know how good it
is. Mainly, because this goes for an early Spielberg approach in how it tries
to limit how much we see of the titular shark and for how long. As a result, we
mainly get quick flashes of the giant predator, which ends up working out
better in the long run since it keeps the tension nice and high when it needs
to be. It also makes the surprising moments of gore have a solid impact when we get them.
For another, the characters we’re following aren’t made of
cardboard, unlike a lot of The Asylum’s casting couch. Again, not the best
track record from our writers, whose biggest accomplishments include Tomb Raider: Cradle Of Life and the Battleship movie, but they do pretty
well here in making us actually give a damn about who we’re following for 110
minutes and change. The banter between the main cast is pretty good and allows
for some decent laughs, and as delivered by the actors, it helps give the film
a light feeling that keeps things from becoming too dour or too self-serious.
Again, this is a film where Jason Statham fights a giant dinosaur shark;
it’d be a bit of a stretch if they tried to sell this as a drama. And that,
ultimately, is part of the fun: The fact that this film has the self-awareness
needed to let the audience have fun with the premise, rather than try and warp
the idea into something unwieldy. It can get profoundly goofy, like when a man
in a hamster ball tries to run away on water from the shark, but because it’s
fairly clear that it’s meant to be, it makes the chuckles ease out quite
nicely.
Of course, there are moments where the film does try to be serious, and it’s here
where the film hits a couple of low points. Most of these are tied into how
rescuers deal with the fact that they couldn’t save everyone, as shown
initially through our introduction to Jonas saving a crew from a nuclear
submarine. The film’s attempts to talk about things like survivor’s guilt can
get pretty annoying in places, mainly because it takes the majority of the
film’s running time for the idea that a few unfortunate casualties isn’t as bad
as everyone dying to sink in for the characters. This is why Dr. Heller’s character is so
loathsome; he spends most of his time on-screen berating Jonas for doing what
is, logically, the right thing to do.
Yeah, that’s the point of his character, but as I’ve said before, making
someone intentionally annoying isn’t much of a goal if you don’t do anything
with it.
But at the same time, because a lot of this film’s tension is built on the backs of the characters and how the audience is supposed to be invested in their survival, this notion still holds up in places, particularly with the characters who actually recognise that one death is preferable to several deaths. It gives quite a few characters, namely Jonas, Suyin and even Masi Oka’s Toshi, some pretty badass moments as we see them push themselves to save those around them. Considering this is essentially a slasher film where the killer is a giant shark, and most slasher films nowadays go out of their way to make their human characters unlikeable as all hell, this is yet another reason why this kind of B-movie experience is worth having.
All in all, this is an incredibly silly film but also
incredibly fun. The acting is pretty good, with everyone here managing to leave
a solid impression by film’s end, the visuals deliver on that Sharknado-level
of marine goofiness but with effects work that isn’t painful to look at, and
while the writing may get a tad morose on occasion, it still allows for enough
characterisation and banter to make the story worth sitting through. It’s light
entertainment that doesn’t feel the need to completely dumb itself down to make
it happen, nor does it try too hard to be more than it has to; honestly,
there’s something to respect in that.
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