This summer’s weather has made it hard for anyone to enjoy a day at the beach, but luckily HBO Max and Jason Statham are here to show us all the silver lining. One look at The Meg will have you fleeing from the coast, grateful even if you’ve been driven indoors by a heat wave. The Meg was released in 2018, but it was just added to HBO Max this week. It’s a perfect summer flick for action buffs, marine biology enthusiasts, and fans of a good old-fashioned one-liner. For those that want to keep the adventure going, HBO Max already has the sequel as well — Meg 2: The Trench.
The Meg is the perfect middle ground between an authentically cheesy action movie and one that was made cheesy on purpose. While there are no sharknados in this movie, there is a massive prehistoric shark known as a Megalodon — or, “Meg.” The story follows a deep-sea diver named Jonas (Statham), who is hired to rescue researchers trapped in a submarine deep in the Mariana Trench. There, they encounter creatures previously believed to be mythical — or at least extinct.
‘The Meg’ Hides Depths Beneath Its Surface
If all the premise sounds a little outlandish, that’s not a mistake. The Meg is based on a novel by Steve Alten, who has an abiding passion for deep sea exploration and research. Alten constructed a premise that he felt was a plausible way to explain how a small population of Megalodon might still be alive today, and how they might breach the surface of our waters again.
Perhaps even more impressively, the movie does a great job of distilling Alten’s science fiction writing into something understandable for a blockbuster movie. The sci-fi elements don’t break the pacing of the action — in fact, they become rather fascinating, especially as Statham tries to get his head around it all with snide commentary. The screenplay was written by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, and the movie was directed by Jon Turteltaub.
Without spoiling anything, the researchers in this movie reach oceanic depths in that humans have not explored in real life, discovering a pocket of toxic gas at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Below, a small ecosphere has remained undisturbed for thousands of years, holding life that was believed to be extinct. Unfortunately, the act of discovery itself creates a breach in this barrier, setting a monster loose. Among other things, this movie grapples with the ethical choice of prioritizing human life at all costs, or making sacrifices to preserve scientific evidence.
Along with Statham, The Meg stars Rainn Wilson as the billionaire funding all this research, Cliff Curtis as researcher Mac, Ruby Rose as engineer Jaxx, Page Kennedy as engineer DJ, Robert Taylor as Doctor Heller, Masi Oka as crew member Toshi, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as crew member “The Wall,” and Jessica McNamee as Jonas’ ex-wife and researcher Lori. The Meg was a unique co-production with the Chinese film industry, and it also stars Chinese actress Li Bingbing and Taiwanese actor Winston Chao.
‘The Meg’ is Made For Summers Like This
On most days The Meg feels like an outlandish spectacle full of contrivances and designed for a cheesy summer screening. This year in particular, the movie is perfect. With unprecedented weather disrupting events around the world and the schedule that is available jam-packed with occasions like the World Cup, real life is feeling almost as over-the-top as life on the Mana One research facility.
For those that want to take the adventure further, The Meg can keep going as long as you can hold on. Meg 2: The Trench is also streaming on HBO Max, and it’s particularly essential viewing for those that love action movie catchphrases. The sequel was released in June of 2023, and it was nearly as successful at the box office as its predecessor. Many fans are still hoping for a third installment, and there has been speculation that these two monster movies may have inspired more collaboration between Hollywood and the Chinese film industry.
A threequel wouldn’t be too hard to put together, as the source material is ready to go. Alten published his first book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror in 1997, and since then he has written six sequels and one prequel, with another sequel now in the works. The author has has 14 other novels as well, many of which deal with similar subjects and themes. Alten even co-wrote Meg: The Graphic Novel, which was published in 2018 as well.
If all that still isn’t enough, there is plenty of other shark media out there to fill your days, but none will loom as large as The Meg. It’s the perfect movie to re-watch, share with a friend, or put on in the background during a backyard barbecue. The Meg and Meg 2: The Trench are both streaming now on HBO Max.
- Release Date
-
August 10, 2018
- Runtime
-
113 minutes
- Director
-
Jon Turteltaub
