‘The Meg’ Trailer Is Full of Giant Shark Goodness

Drew Dietsch
Movies Movie Trailers
Movies Movie Trailers

The Meg is a movie that’s been in the works for a very long time. It’s based on the 1997 best-selling novel by Steve Alten. The story revolves around a prehistoric shark known as a megalodon that is found living in the depths of the ocean. It ends up coming to the surface and starts wreaking havoc in the world’s oceans. It’s up to scientist Jonas Taylor (played by Jason Statham in the film) and his team to stop the creature before it kills.

Sounds like a lot of fun, right? Well, we’ve finally got a trailer for the film adaptation and it’s as joyously entertaining as you’d expect from a movie about a 70-foot giant shark.

Statham vs. Shark

When judging the trailer on its own, this looks like a blast. The tone of this trailer is pure glee and that’s pretty great. It doesn’t hurt that you’ve got the always charming Jason Statham anchoring the picture. His sense of humor and screen presence is a welcome addition to any movie. Plus, he apparently went swimming with real sharks in order to prepare for the role. What a badass. The cast also includes such talents as Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Cliff Curtis, and Li Bingbing.

It’s worth noting that the film is heavily deviating from the source material. Characters have been changed or renamed, and the plot details are definitely taking the basic structure of the story and ignoring a lot of the particulars. For example, the book version of the megalodon is completely white. It evolved this way since it has been living in the deepest parts of the ocean and hasn’t been absorbing any sunlight. The movie is taking inspiration from the novel instead of being a direct adaptation. That might irk a lot of fans of the book but it’s not something to get worried about. It just means we have two different versions of a story to enjoy.

Don’t Do Jaws

Probably the best thing about this trailer is that it’s clear what kind of movie The Meg wants to be. Whenever a shark movie gets made, the comparisons to Jaws always get brought up. But, no shark movie has really tried to replicate what Jaws did. That film had a lot more character moments and drama than shark shenanigans. And its tone was completely serious. Most shark films have gone the Sharknado route and opted for comedy and a sense of knowing goofiness.

However, there are movies like Deep Blue Sea where they balance the over-the-top elements with old-fashioned high spirits action-adventure. That seems to be the arena that The Meg is playing in. It knows it’s a bonkers premise and is leaning into it. That sequence in the trailer with the giant beach party? That’s a wonderful balance of scary and silly.

The Meg looks to be an all-out celebration of creature feature cinema. That’s awesome. Here’s hoping it’s as fun as this first trailer. We’ll find out when The Meg hits theaters on August 10.

Drew Dietsch
Drew Dietsch has been professionally writing about entertainment for over a decade. His bylines include FANDOM - where he was a founding contributor and Entertainment Editor - Bloody Disgusting, SYFY WIRE, and more. He created and hosts GenreVision, a weekly film discussion show at genrevision.com.