How many shark movies have you really seen all your life? Let me guess? All of them? And why not, shark movies have the thrill of horror and gore put together, with a crazy, wild animal, who is ripping flesh apart like it’s cheddar cheese! My point though is, if you put together all shark movie franchises there are in Hollywood, nothing, I repeat nothing, is ever going to beat the one that’s going to hit the theatres near you, pretty soon!
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Jason Statham has been in every kind of action movie there is and the only thing he had to strike off his bucket list was to be chased around by a prehistoric shark, deep in the ocean! And guess what, he’s completely checked that off from his list of things to do by starring in the newest shark adventure called ‘The Meg’. Now, don’t go by the name. The name may sound gentle and dainty AF but it’s actually short for ‘Megalodon’, which was a prehistoric shark, and is duly extinct now! Phew, thank God for that! Megalodon actually means ‘big teeth’ and boy, did it have huge canines, which were razor sharp. The shark existed about 2.3 million years ago, during the early Miocene era. So anyway, coming back to The Meg, the movie also stars Rainn Wilson (The Office), Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Sophia Shuya Cai, Masi Oka and many more.
© Warner Bros. Pictures
The film is actually based on the bestselling novel- ‘Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror’, by Steve Alten and is directed by Jon Turtletaub, the same guy who directed the ‘National Treasure’ franchise, the one we all loved! But this movie is not just any other shark film. I mean, nothing can or should be compared to the likes of ‘Jaws’ (I didn’t swim or take a shower for days after seeing the series!) but it has some terrific, logically sequential shots, that can make you, maybe, wet your seat! And of course, how do we forget the movie is actually based on a real life creature, who by the way was supposedly spotted, somewhere in the deep oceans in the 90s! *shudders*.
© Warner Bros. Pictures
The plot is a bit clichéd though, but then how else do you create a creature right from the imagination of an aqua phobic writer, if you don’t have it in an already familiar plot line! A deep-sea submersible is attacked by the 75-foot monster (Megalodon), disrupting the workings of the amphibious vehicle and trapping the crew at the bottom of the sea. Of course, there is only one man for the rescue job (Statham), who plays an expert sea-rescue diver-Jonas Taylor, saving the day from the monstrous creature, who’s only role is to kill everyone in sight. Taylor though has his own history with this creature but he has to let his own fears of risking his life go, in order to save everyone from the floor of the ocean bed.
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But get this- Statham actually had to spend a considerable amount of time with 20-30 huge Bull Sharks, in Fiji, just to get comfortable filming a movie with a shark and of course to prepare for the role as well.
“On the early stages of the prep, we took a trip to Fiji, and we went diving with some bull sharks. They hand-feed them and it’s a spectacular thing to see. These things are three meters in length, huge big things. There were 20 or 30 of these things, and they were hand-feeding (them) big tuna heads, and we got very, very close, and it was a spectacular moment. To swim in close proximity to a big, three-meter shark, is to be recommended to all and everyone.” – Jason Statham (as told to another publication).
© Warner Bros. Pictures
‘The Meg’ is said to release in the first week of August in 2D and 3D, so be sure to catch this fantastic thriller. Who knows, maybe the movie is based on a true story, since these sharks were sighted again, a while back. But for now, we’re glad they stay in the realms of extinction and aren’t going to haunt us anytime soon…or are they?