What's summer without a good shark movie? Over the course of the last few years we have seen films like The Shallows and 47 Meters Down do solid work in the blockbuster season by embracing our fears about what lies beneath the surface of the ocean, and in 2018 things are going to get even bigger and bolder with the debut of The Meg. Now, an international trailer for the upcoming film has debuted, and it features a one-liner-spewing Jason Statham going head-to-head against the massive, prehistoric shark. Check out the awesome preview for the film, below.
Based upon that trailer, it looks fairly clear that The Meg is embracing a certain B-movie charm that's sorely missing from the summer shark genre. Jason Statham's Jonas Taylor is an accomplished diver and a salty, reluctant hero who seems far more content just to sit around, drink some beers, and crack wise rather than return to the water. However, when he learns that the two-million-year-old megalodon (a beast that he apparently encountered years earlier) has surfaced and has begun eating people, he leaps into action and goes on the hunt. Jason Statham vs. a giant shark/dinosaur? Please take my money right now, Warner Bros.
One other thing that we should note about this trailer is the potential resonance of one of the lines uttered by Jason Statham. The endlessly badass phrase "I'm gonna make this thing bleed" conjures memories of other monster movies like Predator, but it also has some potential implications for how this group of scientists plans to take on the giant shark in the film. In this preview, we see a lot of other sharks roaming in the water, and if shark movies have taught us anything, it's that sharks are attracted to blood in ocean water. We cannot confirm that this is how it will go down in the movie, but it's easy to assume that one solution for taking down the titular beast would be to draw a little bit of blood and then let the other sharks go to work tearing it apart bit by bit.
In addition to Jason Statham, The Meg has enlisted a very impressive cast of stars and character actors to round out its ensemble. Besides The Transporter star, the film also includes Fear The Walking Dead actor Cliff Curtis, John Wick: Chapter 2's Ruby Rose, and The Office's Rainn Wilson.
It's clear that this trailer only scratches the surface of the adventures in store for The Meg, and I'm definitely onboard to see what happens. The film will debut in theaters later this summer on August 10, and we will bring you any and all relevant updates related to the shark-themed blockbuster as new details are made available to us.
