I hate it when someone tries to shame me for not having watched a certain movie. Having spent a little time around a conservatory (a strange episode in my sitcom of a life), it has happened way too much for me.
“Oh, it’s like that scene in Casablanca… you’ve seen Casablanca right? No, wait. You can’t tell me that you haven’t seen Casablanca!” It’s the worst feeling, people trying to make you feel small over not watching a movie. It’s not my fault that I watch Revenge of the Sith and Monsters, Inc. every night (to clarify, I did watch Casablanca, so please don’t attack me).
Anyways, Jaws was one of those films that people would come at me for not knowing. So I finally watched it the other night, and naturally it got me in a shark mood, so I watched The Meg for the first time as well. I felt like I had to justify watching two shark movies alone on a Sunday night, so now I’m going to compare them to each other, one filmic category at a time. I’ll talk about Jaws first, because it came first (that’s not actually why but I didn’t know what else to say).
M U S I C
Obviously the music in Jaws is peak. The classic Jaws Theme literally makes the movie. You could play that music while I was eating a bowl of cereal and I would think a shark was about to jump out of the milk. But the rest of the soundtrack is equally impressive. I personally love it because some of the more tranquil pieces rhyme with pieces in Star Wars. That’s because the legend himself, John Williams composed for Spielberg’s masterpiece about Bruce the shark.
To be honest, I don’t have a ton to say about The Meg soundtrack. It got the job done. There’s some cool pieces, and then some average action stuff. I have nothing bad to say about Harry Gregson-Williams (we are kinda name buddies). I’ll just say John Williams won this time.
C H A R A C T E R S
Jaws has some really captivating characters. The protagonist is interesting (I definitely remember his name, I’m just not using it here). I went back and forth on how much I cared for him, but he was done really well. His family has the classic 80s film family dynamic; the parents usually seem annoyed with each other outside of a few lovey moments, and the kids just get yelled at a lot and live their own lives until they almost die or something. It’s nostalgic if nothing else.
That crazy captain guy is super entertaining. I like how he starts as the crazy captain stereotype, but then develops into something deeper and more subtle(ish). The marine biologist guy was great. He just has that thing about him that makes you want to watch him. He was quirky and goofy, but also strong-willed. He’s strong and weak at the same time, which made me want to pay attention. I was never sure if he was gonna get made fun of or do something big for the plot.
Also, the mom whose son got eaten, she was funny.
As for The Meg, this is only the second Jason Statham movie I’ve watched, but I am finding I have a soft spot for him. For whatever reason, I actually believe he is a badass as he delivers the most corny action lines known to man, unlike the Rock (oof haha). The other characters ranged from okay, to very not okay. I did like Jason’s friend, as well as the little girl. I think the friend was one of the few characters with some subtlety. And the little girl was over the top, but in an endearing way.
Some of the others felt a little too stereotypical lol. The guy funding the operation was just a stereotype of “the rich guy funding science but not caring.” I can’t complain about this too much, because the genre kinda allows these basic characters, but watching it back to back with Jaws made it stand out more.
Bruce (the shark in Jaws. You don’t believe me? They named the shark Bruce on set. I wonder what the shark in Nemo was named after…) is handled so well. They use Bruce sparingly early on and they rarely overstep the limitations of their technology. Bruce starts as a rando shark that ate some people. Then he buds into a very scary shark that continues to eat people. And by the time the crazy captain, marine biologist, and protagonist are hunting Bruce, he’s more than a mindless eating machine, Bruce is a full-on monster.
Not gonna lie, I was really hoping to be more impressed by the meg in The Meg. The CGI was kinda rough, compared to some of the other stuff out there. It just felt fake, like you could put your hand through it. I think it made the shark feel soft and less scary. In general the underwater CGI was pretty rough. The Star Wars prequels from the early 2000’s have it beat. If the studio couldn’t afford to get better CGI done, then they should have taken a note from Jaws and shown us the shark less. After the hype of Bruce the great white, the no name meg was not exciting, which is a bummer because the Meg is way bigger and extinct (maybe).
F I N A L T H O U G H T S
I see why Jaws is a classic. The plot actually gripped me; I wanted to see how the chief-protagonist-guy would manage to save the townspeople when the town wouldn’t shut down the beaches. I was surprised at how many memorable moments were packed into one film.
Of course, the initial Bruce attack is iconic, but when Bruce pulls apart the dock that the two fishermen are on, I had to stand and applaud in my own living room (or family room, I can never remember which is which. Also, I didn’t actually stand. Or clap. But it was really cool). The sequence with the frenzy of fishermen going after the shark is really fun. The jumpscare when the dead guy comes out of the hole in the sunken boat is peak. And the actual hunt for Bruce was riveting, every step of the way, through every twist and turn. Man, I want to watch it again now.
The Meg is not bad. I was surprised I made it through the movie sober lol. The story is not nearly as strong as Jaws, but it’s there. There’s lots of twists in the plot. I kept thinking I knew what was gonna take up most of the screen time, and then all of the sudden that plot point would get resolved and something new would happen. It was nice to not get bored in one space, but also that pace was a little exhausting for things to change every 5 minutes.
The Meg understands itself, which makes the film work. It knows that it’s a popcorn film about a massive shark eating people. It’s funny and charming enough. And Statham’s super serious action hero performance is really funny in light of the events of the film.
There’s good moments: the opening submarine rescue was pretty cool. The fat guy getting eaten while he’s sticking his toes out of the water was funny. The funding guy getting eaten by the whale was satisfying. And I’m sure there’s another one.
There you have it. My incredibly professional analysis of Jaws and The Meg.What did we learn? I’m not sure. But ya know, I was having a rough day whenever I decided to watch these movies, and I was surprised how an evening spent watching shark movies actually made me feel better. You never know what random thing is gonna help you get through.
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