The Meg (trailer)

[mr friendly guy]

Ok, Megalodon was a big prehistoric shark which we think most probably resembles an upscaled version of a modern day Great White shark.

There was a novel by Steven Alten in the 90s about one which survived in the marianna trench (LOL) and it comes up to terrorise the US coast.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg:_A_No ... eep_Terror

In more detail, the protagonist Jonas Taylor gets a call from his older Japanese friend (who just happens to have a hot daughter, you can see which way this is going) to help retrieve a submersible in the marianna trench and then he sees the megalodon. Meanwhile Jonas's estranged wife gets killed by the Meg. Oh, and he kills the shark too. This is of course from what I remember of listening to the audiobooks.

Looks like its being adapted with quite a few changes



For one thing, Japanese friend seems to be changed to Chinese ones and its China's turn to get terrorised by giant monsters (its clearly attacking around Hainan based on the landmarks). This is not surprising since Chinese companies appear to be partially funding this.

So basically giant prehistoric shark and Jason Statham. Hmm. I am in.

[Zaune]

"We're gonna need a bigger boat."

[Rhadamantus]

Terrible but amusing, probably.

[Khaat]

Damn it! I heard about this this weekend and my "scy-fy original"-quality treatment included global-warming-melted-glaciers-release-megalodon-to-terrorize-coastal-city. Post credit scene includes equally massive megalo-cephalopod (giant terror squid) melting out of the ice to do the same in the sequel.

[LadyTevar]

The book was pretty fun to read. This? Wow..

[mr friendly guy]

The trailer does seem to deviate quite a bit from the first book. For example Jonas appears to already be married with a child (this occurs by the second book).

[Rhadamantus]

Just saw it, and it was actually a good bit better than I expected. The plot was pretty bad, but they made some attempt to disguise it.

[Majin Gojira]

For what it is, it was quite well done. A few more polishes and it could rival "Rampage" as best giant monster movie of the summer.

[mr friendly guy]

Deviated a bit from the book, aside from the point that Jonas encountered a Meg earlier and no one believed him, and that the Meg survived because it was living deep in the oceans where humans have not explored yet.

However still entertaining popcorn flick.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'd kind of like to see this. "Giant shark" is a decent enough premise for an action movie (as Jaws proved), but the "explanation' about it being in the deep sea sounds like it raises more questions than answers. How does it survive the pressure? What does it eat? Why didn't any come to the surface sooner?

Honestly, I don't think you need much explanation for big cryptids in the ocean, unless they're regularly swimming close to densely-populated shores or shipping lanes.

[mr friendly guy]

Not sure how it survives the pressure.

It eats giant squids for one. Squids which live at that depth (somehow). Once less deep it munches on whales, which is what we suspect Megalodon fed on in real life. Whales are most probably not down that deep for obvious reasons as they need to surface for air.

It can't come up sooner because of the cold. Megalodon thought to go extinct because whales migrated to colder waters and its now missing its food source.The reason that deep in the ocean was warm enough for Meg (in the book and the movie) is explained by thermal vents, and technobabble prevents the heat dissipating (they explain in the movie). The water above the Meg's home is cold, while if you go higher up to the surface, it warms up for obvious reasons. However due to plot device, the temperature distribution changes enough for Meg to pass up through the cold water, until it reaches the warmer waters closer to the surface.

[The Romulan Republic]

Okay, that's... not completely stupid. The heat issue seems very contrived, though.

[mr friendly guy]

Well the Meg made a profit. Its estimated it needs $400 million in sales to break even, and its now up to $408 million and the third biggest movie market (Japan) is still to open. Not sure how well it will do in Japan who has a history of having local films edge out Hollywood productions and have their own share of monster movies.

As has been brought to my attention, the Meg did better than the Han Solo movie. Wow.

[Q99]

Well the Meg made a profit. Its estimated it needs $400 million in sales to break even, and its now up to $408 million and the third biggest movie market (Japan) is still to open. Not sure how well it will do in Japan who has a history of having local films edge out Hollywood productions and have their own share of monster movies.

As has been brought to my attention, the Meg did better than the Han Solo movie. Wow.

Though Japanese monster movies and shark movies have their differences in style, so I wouldn't be surprised if it had some draw.

[LadyTevar]

Okay, that's... not completely stupid. The heat issue seems very contrived, though.

Iirc, in the book, the male was injured and floating/rising out of the trench. The female attacked it, started eating, and the warmth of the male's blood and body protected her from the cold zone just long enough for her to reach the point where she had to go up to reach warmer water.

[Elheru Aran]

Just saw this. Not bad. It's not quite as gripping as Jaws, but it's not bad. Crosses off pretty much every shark movie cliche though. Entertaining enough, though. Gets a fairly solid B-minus from me.

[LadyTevar]

Sometimes a solid B-movie is just what you're looking for.
Not had time to see any movies of late, working too many hours.

[mr friendly guy]

I thought it was a decent B movie. Hopefully it paves the way for future sea monster movies, since its currently at a healthy $462 million revenue, largely due to good figures in the North American and Chinese markets.

[mr friendly guy]

I think the Meg has done enough to go into sequel territory.

From a budget of $130–178 million its so far made $505 million. Consider Pacific Rim got a sequel from a budget of $180–200 million with a revenue of only $411 million.

The second book deals with the smaller Kronosaur as well as the megalodon. I think the third book involved a wealthy Arab billionaire, the Meg and larger Liopleurodon. If Chinese studios want to help fund it again, just switch to an eccentric Chinese billionaire who wants to capture a meg for their aquarium and then Jonas meets the Liopleurodon, and have a monster fight.