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The Meg

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The Meg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJon Turteltaub
Screenplay by
  • Dean Georgaris
  • Jon Hoeber
  • Erich Hoeber
Starring
CinematographyTom Stern
Edited bySteven Kemper
Music byHarry Gregson-Williams
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • August 10, 2018 (2018-08-10) (United States & China)
Running time
113 minutes[4]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget$130–178 million[5][6]
Box office$151.5 million[7]

The Meg is a 2018 science fiction thriller film directed by Jon Turteltaub with a screenplay by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, loosely based on the 1997 book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. The film stars Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis, and follows a group of scientists who encounter a 75-foot-long (23 m) megalodon shark while on a rescue mission at the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

Disney originally purchased the film rights to the book in the 1990s, but after several years in development hell, the rights landed at Warner Bros. Turteltaub and much of the cast joined by September 2016, and filming began the following month in New Zealand and ended in Sanya City of China in January 2017.

A Chinese-American co-production, The Meg was released in both countries on August 10, 2018, in RealD 3D. It has grossed over $151 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, with some describing it as an entertaining B-movie and others calling "neither good enough or bad enough" to be fun.

Plot

Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), a rescue diver, attempts to save a group of scientists in a damaged nuclear submarine. As Taylor is rescuing the last survivor, he witnesses the hull of the submarine being rammed in by a giant, unknown creature. When he returns to the rescue vessel, two of his crew are trapped in the damaged submarine but Taylor leaves anyway, realizing that attempting rescue would result in his death as well as the deaths of everyone that has been rescued. Moments after detaching, the damaged submarine is destroyed in an explosion. Taylor's account of the mission stating that a giant sea creature was the cause of the disaster is dismissed by Dr. Heller (Robert Taylor) who believes that Taylor was affected by pressure-induced psychosis.

Five years later, billionaire Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson) meets Dr. Minway Zhang (Winston Chao) at an underwater research facility named "Mana One", which Morris finances. Zhang and his daughter, Suyin (Li Bingbing), an oceanographer, are supervising a mission to explore what may be an even deeper section of the Mariana Trench concealed by a cloud of hydrogen sulfide, forming a thermocline. The mission is being carried out by Lori – Taylor’s ex-wife, scientist Toshi, and another scientist referred to as "The Wall" (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) in a submersible. The mission appears to be going well until a very large creature collides with the submersible and causes it to lose contact with Mana One.

James "Mac" Mackreides (Cliff Curtis), another crew member at the station, suggests sending Taylor down to attempt a rescue, citing the similarity to his story. Despite Heller's objections, Zhang and Mac decide to travel to Thailand and are able to recruit Taylor. While they are away, Suyin attempts the rescue by herself by taking a submersible and diving beneath the thermocline. When she spots the crew's damaged submersible, her sub collides with the large creature before being nearly crushed by the tentacles of a giant squid. However she is saved when a giant shark attacks and kills the squid. Before the shark can attack Suyin, Taylor reaches them in a submersible and distracts it with underwater flares, then orders Suyin to return to Mana One. Taylor reaches the damaged submersible and pulls an injured Lori and The Wall into his sub. However, when the shark returns to attack the subs, Toshi sacrifices himself by closing the hatch door connecting the two subs, allowing Taylor, Lori, and The Wall to escape safely while he diverts the creature's attention to his sub by turning on the lights. The shark then destroys the damaged sub, which kills Toshi.

Once everyone returns to Mana One, Suyin's daughter, Meiying, witnesses the shark damage a section of the underwater level of the facility and the crew realizes that the shark followed them to the facility. The crew, along with tech designers Jaxx and DJ, discovers that the shark is a megalodon, the largest shark ever known to mankind and thought to be extinct for millions of years. They learn that it escaped from the depths of the trench by swimming through a hole in the thermocline which Taylor's submersible created when breaching it. The group decides to track and poison the megalodon, which they succeed in doing. However, a second, much larger megalodon emerges and kills The Wall, Heller, and Dr. Zhang as it devours the smaller megalodon. The surviving crew make it back to Mana One on two life dinghy's.

When nightfall arrives, Morris attempts to destroy the megalodon himself by ordering a helicopter crew to drop modified depth charges at it. He approaches the carcass of the supposed megalodon in a boat but discovers it is a whale. The megalodon approaches the boat which accelerates, causing Morris to fall overboard and get eaten by the shark.

Taylor and the remaining Mana One crew resolve to track and kill the shark. They realize that the megalodon is en route to a crowded beach on the Sanya Bay in the Chinese mainland. The megalodon kills several beachgoers before the Mana One crew projects audio of a whale call to divert the shark’s attention away from the crowd and towards them. After attempts to shoot it with rigged torpedoes fail, Taylor manages to cut the megalodon's belly with his damaged sub as well as stabbing it in the eye with poison which disables it. Other sharks approach and begin to devour the megalodon, finally killing it. Suyin was able to evacuate the rest of the crew to a boat where a Chinese couple were getting married. Jonas and Suyin then consider taking a vacation.

Cast

Production

The rights to the novel were initially acquired by Disney's Hollywood Pictures in 1996.[8] Around that time, Tom Wheeler was hired to adapt the book into a screenplay, but, having decided that his script wasn't good enough, the studio hired Jeffrey Boam to write a new draft. Boam's script was later rejected for the same reasons.[9] By 1999 the project had stalled and the rights reverted back to Steve Alten, the book's author.[8]

In 2005, reports surfaced that the project was being developed by New Line Cinema, with an estimated budget of $75 million, and a slated release of summer 2006.[10] Names attached to the production included Jan de Bont as director, Guillermo Del Toro as producer and Shane Salerno as screenwriter. However, New Line later cancelled the project due to budgetary concerns.[10] The rights reverted to Alten again, but the film remained in development hell.

In 2015, it was announced that the film was now moving forward at Warner Bros., with a new script written by Dean Georgaris.[11] By June of that year, Eli Roth was reported to be in talks to direct,[12] but, due to creative differences, Roth was replaced by Jon Turteltaub in early 2016.[13] Jason Statham and much of the cast joined in August and September 2016.[14]

Principal photography on the film began on October 13, 2016 in West Auckland, New Zealand.[15][16] Filming ended on January 4, 2017 in Sanya City of Hainan, China.[17]

Release

Released by Gravity Pictures in China[1] and by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States, The Meg was originally scheduled to open March 2, 2018.[18] Warner and Gravity then said that the film would be released during the 2018 Chinese New Year period in China, a week-long annual holiday that kicked off on February 16, 2018.[1] The film was later pushed back to its eventual date of August 10, 2018, in 3D and IMAX.[19]

The first official trailer was released on on April 9, 2018.[20] The studio spent $140 million on global prints and advertisement for the film.[6]

Reception

Box office

As of August 13, 2018, The Meg has grossed $50 million in the United States and Canada, and $101.5 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $151.5 million.[7] With a production budget between $130–178 million, and another $140 million spent on advertisement, the film will need to gross at least $400 million to break-even.[6]

In the United States and Canada, The Meg was released alongside Slender Man and BlacKkKlansman, and was originally projected to gross $20–22 million from 4,118 theaters in its opening weekend.[5] The film made $4 million from Thursday night previews, leading analysts to predict it would outperform its low-$20 million projections. After making $16.5 million on its first day, weekend estimates were raised to $40 million.[6] It went on to debut to $45.4 million, topping the box office and marking the best solo opening of Statham's career, as well as Turteltaub.[21]

In other territories, the film debuted to $101.5 million from 96 countries, for a worldwide opening of $146.9 million. In China, a co-producer of the the film, it grossed $50.3 million from 12,650 screens. Other top openings were Mexico ($6.2 million), Russia ($5 million), the United Kingdom ($4.4 million) and Spain ($2.4 million).[22]

Critical response

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, The Meg has an approval rating of 48% based on 181 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Meg sets audiences up for a good old-fashioned B-movie creature feature, but lacks the genre thrills—or the cheesy bite—to make it worth diving in."[23] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 46 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."[24] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[6]

Owen Gleiberman of Variety gave the film a mixed review, calling it "neither good enough or bad enough," and writing, "The Meg, a rote sci-fi horror adventure film that features a shark the size of a blue whale, comes on like it wants to be the mother of all deep-sea attack movies. But it's really just the mother of all generically pandering, totally unsurprising Jaws ripoffs."[25] In a more positive review, Alex Hudson from Exclaim! said the film succeeded nicely on modest terms; "As pulpy action films go, this is the best blockbuster about prehistoric monsters you'll see this summer. Sorry, Jurassic World."[26] Scott Mendelson of Forbes was impressed by the film's special effects and called it "a polished B movie that delivers the goods,"[27] while IGN's William Bibbiani praised the performances of the cast.[28]

References

  1. ^ a b c Frater, Patrick (October 13, 2016). "China to Get First Release of Shark Thriller 'Meg'". Variety. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  2. ^ "Film releases". Variety Insight. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  3. ^ "The Meg (2018)". AllMovie. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  4. ^ "THE MEG (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. July 5, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  5. ^ a b McClintock, Pamela (August 8, 2018). "Box-Office Preview: Big-Budget 'The Meg' Heads for Tepid $20M-Plus U.S. Debut". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
  6. ^ a b c d e D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 11, 2018). "'Meg's Opening Grows To $40M+…But Is It Big Enough? What The Shark Movie Means During Trump's Trade War With China". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  7. ^ a b "The Meg (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
  8. ^ a b "THE 20-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE MEG, THE MOVIE THE INTERNET WOULDN'T LET DIE". Wired.com. August 9, 2018.
  9. ^ http://www.comingsoon.net/horror/news/707242-the-details-of-megs-demise
  10. ^ a b "Trapped down in the depths". Los Angeles Times. April 13, 2008.
  11. ^ "{TB EXCLUSIVE} Long-Awaited Giant Shark Thriller "Meg" Swims To Warner Bros". Tracking Board. June 3, 2015. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  12. ^ Kroll, Justin (June 16, 2015). "Eli Roth to Direct Giant Shark Thriller 'Meg' for Warner Bros. (Exclusive)". Variety. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  13. ^ Chitwood, Adam (March 6, 2016). "Eli Roth Exits Giant Shark Movie 'Meg'". Collider. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  14. ^ "Jason Statham Is Going to Fight a Giant Dinosaur Shark in 'Meg'". Collider. April 14, 2016.
  15. ^ Butler, Karen (October 15, 2016). "Jason Statham, Jon Turteltaub start shooting shark tale 'Meg' in New Zealand". UPI. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  16. ^ "Meg: Filming Begins on Giant Shark Movie with Jason Statham". Collider. October 13, 2016. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  17. ^ "李冰冰杰森斯坦森联袂《巨齿鲨》杀青后期制作一年2018年上映" (in Chinese). January 13, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  18. ^ McNary, Dave (May 16, 2016). "Jason Statham's Shark Movie 'Meg' Gets 2018 Release Date". Variety. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  19. ^ McNary, Dave (March 2, 2017). "Jason Statham's Shark Thriller 'Meg' Swims Back Five Months". Variety. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  20. ^ "The Meg Trailer 2018". YouTube. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
  21. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 12, 2018). "'August Audiences Get Hooked On 'Meg' Shelling Out $44.5M". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved August 12, 2018.
  22. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (August 12, 2018). "'The Meg' Devours $97M Overseas/$141M Global Opening; 'Fallout' Flies Past $400M WW – International Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved August 12, 2018.
  23. ^ "The Meg (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
  24. ^ "The Meg reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
  25. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (August 8, 2018). "Film Review: 'The Meg'". Variety. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  26. ^ Hudson, Alex. "'The Meg' Review: Outrageous Shark Romp Brings Prehistoric Thrills". Exclaim! Media. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  27. ^ Mendelson, Scott. "Review: Jason Statham's 'The Meg' Is So Much Better Than 'Sharknado'". Forbes. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  28. ^ Bibbiani, William. "THE MEG REVIEW". IGN. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
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