Going by its movie thrailer, it was inevitable that movie-goers, including myself, entering the cinema hall to catch The Meg (巨齿鲨) for the first time would have compared it with the iconic "Jaws" from 1975.
With the plot of The Meg centered around the attacks of shark, the rescue effects that followed, and the attempt to destroy it (pretty simliar to the 1975 blockbuster), I was expecting the thrills to be equal if not better since the shark in this movie was the infamous prehistoric alpha hunter of ocean - Megalodon - which was at least three times larger than that Great White movie directed by Steven Spielberg; but unfortunately the similes ended here and I was left feeling mixed instead.
As a disclaimer, I have no problem with Hollywood movies co-produced/funded by China companies, as in the case of The Meg was co-produced by Warner Bros from USA and Gravity Pictures from China, since it gave international exposure to Asian talents such as Li BingBing (李冰冰) and Winston Chao (赵文瑄).
Unfortunately, in this case, the scriptwritting for The Meg were plain awful! Clearly written for the China audience in view of their limited English, I found the scripts for characters in The Meg were rather flat and at times, silly. Also there were too many "dry" jokes, which I found was rather unnecessary for a thriller. The only two times the audience did laugh were the airing of Thai version of "Mickey" by Pim, during a scene switch to Thailand, as well as the dog named "Pippin" swimming for its life, which I found rather funny but at the same time irrelevant.
The on-screen romance between Suyin (played by Li BingBing) and Jonas Tylor (played by Jason Statham) reminded me of SPG - Sarong Party Girl - as Suyin fall for Jonas Tylor's half-naked but well toned body after he rescued her from the deep.
The power of love had certainly turned Jonas Tylor from a reluntant participant in the rescue mission to someone who became spontaneous in his heroic effects to save everyone, which I found was just unreal especially up against a 23 meter long verocious shark.
While there no complaint about the acting skills of actors and actresses, it was Meiying, the daughter of Suyin (played by Sophia Cai), who stood out above the rest with her innocent but confident charisma on top of her distinctive Pan-Asian look (fyi: she was born to a Chinese mom and British dad) .
Lastly, the 3D animations in general were realistic but I were looking forward to more actions from the megalodon through my 3D glass at IMAX but there were not many to wow me.
All in all, The Meg is a movie I would give it a miss unless I'm a huge fan of either Li BingBing, Jason Statham, or liken the idea of swimming near a megalodon.
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