A Meg-nificant Movie Mistake

This film plays on one of the most well known fears throughout the world…How do you really know what is lurking beneath you in the ocean?

So far scientists have only explored around 20% of the world’s oceans which means we know so little about the environment, the climates, and the species that dwell below in the deep., and back in 1975 Jaws brought this fear to the forefront of peoples minds and although many years have passed, can you tell me when you go in the water you don’t still hear the chilling theme tune?

Besides have you seen Shark Week?!?! They are discovering the bigger sharks are dwelling at deeper depths and aren’t normally seen at the surface, so what else is hiding down there?

Since Jaws is one of my favourite films and got me looking at films from numerous aesthetic angles I can’t review a shark film without discussing them both!

Just like Jaws, The Meg is based on a book and is based around the deep sea research from an ocean based marine biology centre. Oh wait does this sound familiar?  You bet! From 1975 lets time travel to 1999 and Deep Blue Sea. Marine Biologists are researching on a floating rig in the middle of the Ocean. I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this already aren’t you?

So lets cut to the chase and look at our big bad sharks:

Jaws:

Great White Shark

Carcharodon carcharias

25ft or 7.5ms

Man- eater

Attacks from below

 

The Meg:

Megalodon

Carcharocles megalodon

68-88ft or 21-27ms

Top predadtor of the oceans

Extinct 2 million years

We have learnt in recent years that giant Great White Sharks called mega-sharks do exist.

I would like to introduce you to Deep Blue, a 20 ft female Great White Shark found in the Guadalupe Islands off of Mexico. She is believed to be one of the biggest White Sharks discovered, but she is still growing. She is believed to be around 50 years old and she is still growing. She is only 5ft off the shark in Jaws, so who else is hiding down there?

But I digress!

The Meg has tried to learn a lot from its predecessor shark films such as:

• Using music to build tension
• Not showing the shark straight away and playing on the audiences’ own fears
• Using Point of View shots from both the characters and the sharks

But it differs on the way it has been filmed.

To get the best shots of the actors in the water they wanted to be able to control the environment so instead of shooting in the ocean they shot in a tan. I can completely understand the reasoning behind it but it is soo obvious! You know it isn’t the ocean, purely because there isn’t anything disturbing the shots and to me it is going to scare me of the ocean because it clearly isn’t the ocean!

In Jaws they filmed in the ocean and tied ropes on to the actors and pulled them around giving the authentic feel, admittedly the shark is nothing by todays standards it gave a focal point for the actors. This is the problem with CGI because the actors are trying to act with a tennis ball on a stick for reference. I don’t care if you were the world’s greatest actor, you are not going to get believable reactions. I really believed that with clever angles and a smaller realistic model this would have been a much better film.

In my opinion, this film is style over substance and is weakened by bad aesthetic choices – CGI can only take you so far.  I know it was never going to be a master piece, but I really had higher expectations, a few funny moments can’t save it.

2/5

Director: Jon Turtletaub

Cast: Jason Statham, Ruby Rose, Rainn Wilson, Li Bingbing,

Crew:  Harry Gregson-Williams (Music), Tom Stern (Cinematographer)

Genre:  Science Fiction Thriller (apparently???) 

Rating: 12A