Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Jon Turteltaub, Roadshow Entertainment.
Cast: Jason Statham, Cliff Curtis, Winston Chao, Jessica McNamee.
No comparison can be made to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws or Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Shallows, but there’s no denying the intermittent frightening moments that grip you.
Described as a “cheesy thriller”, here we have a jumbo-sized shark wreaking havoc on the cast — that is, until expert deep sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Statham) arrives to save the day.
A deep-sea submersible lies disabled at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific … and its crew is trapped inside. It had been attacked by a massive creature who was previously thought to be extinct. The threat is unstoppable: a pre-historic 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon.
Once Jonas joins the group he is taken to the facility and is introduced to members of the highly selective group: egomaniacal billionaire Rainn Wilson, as Jack Morris, funds the project; madcap African-American Page Kennedy doesn’t know how to swim and didn’t sign up for this; and the edgy tech genius Ruby Rose is called Jaxx.
Then there is Li Bingbing as Suyin, a romantic interest for Jonas. She also has a gifted eight-year-old daughter (Shuya Sophia Cai). Suyin is the daughter of Zhang (Chao), head of an underwater research facility outside of Shanghai looking into the possibility of a previously undetected undersea realm beneath the floor of the Marianas Trench.
While exploring this new world, the sub containing three members of the research team, one of whom is Jonas’s ex-wife Celeste (McNamee), is hit by something that leaves them crippled – and with a rescue window of almost 18 hours.
Statham is actually the perfect person for a film like this: his clear-cut valiant disposition is perfect for the role. Then there’s the ‘tongue-in-cheek sense of humour’ that nicely balances the ongoing nail-biting sequences.
Both Mile 22 and The Meg make for fine Blu-ray viewing.
