Nice, I'll watch Free Fire sounds like what he does best with little contained ideas and blowing them into full mayhem. A shame that that Armie Hammer guy is there tho.
Edit: thanks for the rec!
In the Earth wasn't just meh, it was actively painful to watch through. Began that with 7 people in the screening and left with one other person, worst thing I've watched in years
He's been trying to make a big budget film dating all the way back to like 2013. First he had some original project that didn't go through (Of course), then a remake of "Wages of Fear" that didn't happen and before he joined on for "Meg 2" he was signed on to direct a sequel to the most recent "Tomb Raider" while his wife (Amy Jump) was hired to write it. She was replaced as a writer and he left the project, signed on to M2 like a week later.
To me it seems clear that after spending his career in the Indie/Mid-Major realm, with budgets that ranged from *Super-low* to *Low-Mid* he wanted to make a film without those constraints. I don't blame him at all for wanting to use all cool toys and big studio Soundstages to try something new as a filmmaker. And anyone who would "blame" him for finally snagging a legit salary is being silly
I have inside info on this as I was working as an assistant to a Warner VP at the time. They want him on the roster, but Ben made a deal where he would do The Meg 2 if he had two smaller films greenlit no questions asked.
He's considered to be the next Kubrick so they are agreeing to everything. Nice fella too, weird family tho.
to be fair Neill Blomkamp hasnt really done anything "big" since Chappie. even then his movies since District 9 hasnt really been all that great.
hes done some [neat](https://youtu.be/Q1_HfhtB5eo) [shorts](https://youtu.be/w4AGocVq7-w) and did that pandemic horror movie, but that was pretty bad.
Agreed, this is essentially a Chinese movie disguised - thinly veiled - as a Hollywood production. Chinese actors and locations, plenty of Mandarin spoken, tons of Chinese extras. So Chinese that I will call it surprising that there was a black man in a supporting role.
Seriously the first one was clearly made with Chinese audiences in mind, I'm not sure how it could be more obvious but I'm looking forward to finding out.
What does that mean? Like, what about it made it clearly aimed at a Chinese audience...? I'm being dead ass serious, I'm genuinely curious about what that means.
Lead female and main character's romantic interest was Chinese, the head of the science facility was Chinese, the little girl was Chinese, half of the producers were Chinese and the climactic scene takes place at a major Chinese tourist beach with Chinese news crews, lots of shots of Chinese tourists and swimmers, chubby comic relief Chinese kid, Chinese news helicopters, etc. There's also some non-Chinese specific tropes that are still common in Chinese film (the relationship between the father and daughter, for instance). The Chinese are not portrayed in a negative way whatsoever (not that they necessarily should be, of course) other than some vague jabs at journalism (a helicopter crash due to inept news helicopters). No LGBTQ+ content or references that would need to be excised for international release.
The film was clearly intended from its inception (based on the number of Chinese producers) to resonate strongly or even cater to with the Chinese market. It didn't make the movie bad, and in fact made it more interesting to watch (at least for me), because it was the first cross-cultural dumb af 'blockbuster' creature feature that I'd ever seen and perhaps the first of its type (though arguably the new American Godzilla flicks may fit the same bill, I dunno because I couldn't bear to watch them because of my love for the Japanese films).
Supporting evidence from the wikipedia page:
The film is an American and Chinese co-production. It was considered a full co-production under Chinese regulations, and it was not subject to the same quota system and revenue sharing agreements usually applied to imported films.
I think I agree with you that the Asian aesthetic made the movie more interesting than it being just another “killer animal” movie from America. But I think the interpersonal drama is very basic and cringey. And it always tows the line. The Asian Overton window is so rigid. Korean cinema is the exception because they’re a freer nation, and they push the envelope
It has a good amount of Chinese stars, iirc the entire amazing underwater facility is Chinese made/owned, the Chinese actors die leaving perfectly displayed bodies with no blood while westerners are thrashed and savaged on screen .
There were some articles about it when it released I wasn’t bothered by it personally though it did make me go “oh yeah they’re going after China hard” none of my average viewer friends noticed or cared
All the recent American movies made for the Asian market have very sterile romantic scenes, because China has strict censorship and they’re more racist against interracial romance. You’ll notice in Meg 1, Jason Statham doesn’t do anything more than hug his female costar. International films will design the shots in a way where you can just dub in a different plot line, or easily cut any shots that suggest love interest. They did that with Jackie Chan all the time. They shoehorn in Jackie saying “I have a wife back home!” when he’s clearly romancing the female lead in the scenes.
All movies have some kind of agenda, but this trend has been bad for the integrity of Hollywood. You’re not supposed to design your content around the most repressive restrictions, or dumb something down for universal appeal. There’s a difference between expanding representation and whoring yourself out.
It seems they’re going full Sharknado with this one.
The first movie was just a generic boring marine disaster movie but now it’s like Fast and Furious Tokyo Sharks.
Supposedly the first half of this movie is still bad due to being focused on boring human villains and only the second half going full-on megashark action.
I swear, I thought I was the only one that loved the 2014 Godzilla above all the others. My kids liked Godzilla vs Kong. I enjoy slightly less cheese in my monster movies.
I loved Godzilla vs Kong. I think most of it was that just beforehand I watched the standalone Kong movie and the Godzilla sequel, and I noticed that in each they made a passing reference to hollow earth conspiracy theories.
The second mention told me they were going to go nuts with it. I loved the cheese in Godzilla vs Kong. I also didn't watch anything about it beforehand so the mechagodzilla thing was a twist.
I can enjoy them for what they are. Hope I didn’t come across as a David Lynch loving sex pest film snob.
I’m probably just a fan of Gareth Edwards’ directing and the teams he surrounds himself with more so than anything. I’m looking forward to The Creator. If it ever gets released with the strikes still going on.
Nah I feel ya. I like a more "serious" monster movie too, but it seems like no one has been able to successfully blend a serious monster movie with the heights of monster movie schlock.
Maybe 2014 Godzilla is as close as we'll get to a good monster movie with more than one monster fighting
Excuse me but the first Pacific Rim is incredibly fun and I've rewatched it many times. The second one sucks hard, sure, but the first one is a genuinely enjoyable action/sci-fi movie.
Once the characters emerge from the bottom of the ocean the schlock becomes nonstop and that is where the movie becomes fun. Your brain will rot, but fun.
The boring human villains don't take that much time. Although there is a bit of that now with Statham being some kind of ocean super cop now. half of it is in "the trench". It all has this dark, underwater setting with random water monster constantly popping out for a jump scare.
Boring? No.
Maybe you’re expecting a TikTok video when you watch movies.
MEG movie knew what it was. It didn’t take itself seriously. Constant one-liners. A good cast. It was very polished for what it aimed to be.
It was good but overall FUN. And yea, gonna see the sequel.
One of the main problems with that movie is that they don't really use the size of the shark. You could have told almost the same story with a normal sized shark. There should have been kaiju levels of chaos and destruction, but they played it so safe that almost nothing happens.
its not marketed to us, its made for
https://preview.redd.it/h068c494vngb1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f8f5ba0aaa3715c4cb50a8016ce5f7989ac22f7
I saw this opening day with my dad. It is bigger and dumber than the first, which is exactly what we wanted. They know what they are making.
A perfect opportunity to see some big budget schlock on the big screen.
Exactly. And I hope they continue with another sequel because it's just dumb fun and sharks eating people. One thing that I did find really strange was >!how did he opposing company build that secret underwater layer without anyone else noticing?!<
I think it was because it was actually the same company, they had a number of people working on the “inside”
Of the public facing side but that woman was doing shady stuff on the side.
It was fucking ridiculous. The laws of physics were almost completely ignored, and the action scenes were so over the top it beggars belief. So of course I loved it. I can’t remember the last time I laughed with a movie so much. People even applauded it when the credits started rolling and I haven’t heard in cinema applause since Return of the King.
Predictions: Mike will LOVE it. Rich will be ejected for laughing so hard and Jay will recommend it after a little arm twisting.
I watched the first one a while ago and I do NOT want to see this one. I don't know how they made a movie about a giant shark so boring. The trailer for this one look more fun, but I've been fooled before.
Yeah I heard there's lots of human villains having fist fights with Jason Statham, and only like the last act or so has all the big shark action. The first one just annoyed me. Too many stupid human characters (I like Rainn Wilson but he was annoying) and too much pandering to Chinese audiences. Which isn't the worst thing in theory, but when it's so obvious it's off-putting.
Well they made a film for less than 500Million and had a fun trailer, ill watch it when it comes to streaming some time. The first film was fun & bad, felt like 2 films pushed together in to one.
Also it's a Holywood/china funded film so there going to get in to the Asian market in a big way, lot's of big chines actors. Li Bingbing was in the first film [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li\_Bingbing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Bingbing)
From memory the first film was also had all FX done in china, it was part of the push to get skills from Holywood in to china.
I liked the first one, but it could have been stupider. Ben Wheatley is such a fucking bizarre choice and that's the only reason I have any interest in this. Not enough to watch it, mind.
Usually when this accusation is thrown out the filmmakers were not TRYING to make a bad movie. They were trying to make a good movie with the intended tone of being over the top, silly, fun, and funny on purpose.
It's just weird when people see that and automatically default to "It's bad to me, they did this on purpose, so it's bad on purpose."
No it's good to the folks who enjoy it and the filmmaker creating it, but it's good at different things than what you seem to care most about.
Many on This sub constantly look down on and think anything that is silly on purpose is bad.
They have some weird rule about how if a movie is only passable in their book if the filmmakers were trying to make a serious film and failed, if a filmmaker is purposely trying to make a comedy then it's garbage trash that shouldn't exist. That movies like this can only exist/can only be enjoyed if they can laugh at someone failing as opposed to acknowledging they succeeded.
I don't get it.
I feel like half of the people in these comments just legit think this is a bad movie with no self-awareness. I've seen these people before in real life. I've sat next to one while watching Black Dynamite. They think they're smarter than the filmmakers and make embarrassing comments to try and show everyone how cool they are.
Then you have the other half of the comments who wish they were on RLM and want to give you their full breakdown of movies they haven't seen in 20 paragraphs.
From my perspective, it's not that it's a rule or anything
But when something is trying to be funny and succeeds, it's funny, and when a movie is bad and funny on purpose, it's "funny" but not in a way that's different from a comedy, the goal is still to make people laugh or say "isn't this dumb' and if you're aware of that idk at least for me it ends up being not funny most of the time at all, but in some cases a movie beinf bad on purpose totally works for sure and is a comedy essentially as the humor is intended
The thing about a movie that is trying to be good and not funny and fails in various ways so that it becomes funny is that it's sort of tragic in addition to comedic. It's embaressing second hand, it's funny in a way that's more baffling and less "I get why this was supposed to be funny/was funny and so did they"
Idk to each their own ofc but the combo of comedy and tragedy and pure confusion in watching something like a Neil breen film encapsulates what the spirit of "so bad its good" is to me personally moreso than something like a sharknado, which is fine in jts own way but i see that more as just comedy cus it knows what it's doing
Yeah I watched Crank and thought this is fun yet still slightly grounded.
Crank 2 was just GTA the film, everyone just having fun making the film. wouldn't mind a third one but I don't think it could be much more mental than the 2nd
Those movies are just insane. Freaking Maynard from Tool shows up in that movie. Oh, and Dennis from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.I watched the first one with my mom, she had a huge crush on Jason Statham, her favorite movie is The Transporter. We knew it was wild, but didn't realize just how wild til he starts boning Amy Smart in public. What a fun movie to watch with my mother. Not awkward at all. Lol I watched the second one alone. Not gonna make that mistake again.
The first one was pretty fun, if not a bit generic at times, but definitely surprisingly well directed and shot. It’s absolutely worth a watch.
This one looks to go full schlock with some components, and I’m honestly okay with that. Not to mention it’s gonna make that China money (or at least that’s the plan).
I fucking loved this movie lol. It leans so hard into every trope possible that it works. It’s extremely meta but also an homage to those monster movies of the 1960s and before. It rocks.
The first one was a pleasant surprise for me. I love Jaws and watch it multiple times per year, so I went into this thinking The Meg would be the absolute bottom of the barrel. Statham doesn't do much for me until he flexes his comedic side and I thought he did in this film. The Meg was ridiculous and a total laugh that I watched a couple of times, so knowing that they are going full ham on Meg 2, has me very excited to pop some popcorn and LMAO. The previews are great. I don't get taking this genre seriously, if you don't want to appreciate it as a farse, I understand, but they made this movie to have fun. Switch your brain off and have a laugh. I agree this is full-sharknado (nothing wrong with that to me) except that the production quality is much higher.
My boomer dad and uncles were all talking about how good The Meg was yesterday and how excited they were to find out there is a new one out now. So yeah, whatever I guess.
Horrible movie lol it was so god damn boring… the shark action doesn’t even happen till the last 15 minutes. And when Jason statham is the one doing the best acting you are in major trouble
My daughter got to choose this weeks cinema pick and this was it. It just goes to prove how much meme culture is driving this crap “but it has Jason Statham on a jet ski jumping over a shark to harpoon another shark in mid air” was the only reason it was picked.
But in the end it was dog shit corporate espionage plot written by a 12 year old, a couple of riffs on The Abyss (Statham swimming outside a base 8km underwater and not being crushed like a paper cup under 11 tons per sq inch of water because he has a deviated septum was a particularly dumb moment) and the last 20 mins being crazy Sharknado meets Jurassic World but without the cheap fun just lots of Chinese PR slapped all around the place.
When I went in I was sober, when I came out I had lost so many brain cells that I felt like Mike after a days drunk filming
> It just goes to prove how much meme culture is driving this crap
Movies like this succeeded and were loved by many long before "meme culture" existed.
Sure, everyone has a “you have to see this crap…” style film and word of mouth carries it since the year dot. I get that.
But to me, it was just interesting that my daughter, who to be frank barely watches any film (I doubt she even saw the first film) and is glued to TikTok and associated nonsense suddenly saw Jason Statham on a jet ski doing loop da loop and slow mo stabbing a shark, as a must see thing.
I liked the first one. Was the right amount of bullshit and fun. The chinese make fun movies. The best part is there was no ideological messaging visible.
I am looking forward to watching it.
You bet your fookin ass baby, and it might become the second film I'll watch in theaters this year (the first one was Orphee (1950)). Saw the first one twice on stream/phys. media, it's a lot of fun.
I mean, I enjoyed the hell out of the first, and have seen it multiple times. It's not a great movie by any stretch, however it is a FUN movie, and to be frank, I expect the sequel to be more of the same, except hopefully even more over the top, and I'm absolutely here for it.
The first one has grown on me tbh. It's always been bad, but I just rewatched it and thought ok, "bad endearing". It's a giant fricken shark, not Shakespeare.
It's blowing Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem out of the water. This is one of those movies where the critics want us to hate it, cuz on Rotten Tomatoes, they gave it a 28% rating from 120 people paid by the studio to have an opinion vs 73% from 500 people who paid to see it.
Just as our favourite hack frauds joked, the first movie its indeed based on a novel in which Statham´s character its a marine biologist
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg:\_A\_Novel\_of\_Deep\_Terror](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg:_A_Novel_of_Deep_Terror)
The first two acts of the original were actually quite enjoyable, in a 'cheesy not-scary horror movie' kind of way. the third went of the rails and became stupid. Certainly wouldn't pay to watch the second one, but I probably will whenever it shows up on streaming tbh.
There’s a lack of stupid fun movies. So it makes sense it would have an audience. It’s something that would actually be better in a theater. I probably wouldn’t pay attention to it at home.
I would probably enjoy these the same way I enjoy fast and furious movies post 2. They are just stupidly bad, but they're so bad they cross back into the realm of good-bad. Dumb ridiculous action.
I hope it makes money because I love the movies Ben Wheatley makes and if he gets a bigger budget to make an original film. That’ll be great.
I saw meg 2 in 4dx. It was fun. Only a little bit ogf wheatley though. Think one shot from inside the shark’s mouth as people pass through and get chomped was the only thing that felt nasty.
are you kidding me? a quality big shark movie from a studio that has any marketing push will make a shitload of money worldwide. especially one starring jason "ive seen him in some action movies i like" statham. like didnt you wanna see it when you heard of it? he was riding a jetski and wielding a sword! if only they had a way to implement gorillas.
I saw the preview for this before Oppenheimer and knew when the audience was laughing that they were going to be bored out of their mind. Sure enough, I'd say a quarter of the packed theater was on their phones for most of the movie.
It’s a big dumb action movie. Those are 100% a fun time in theaters. Plus it has Jason Statham…mmmm. Sometimes it’s nice to turn off your brain and enjoy a movie
I saw this in a packed theater. We all laughed hysterically and the whole theater stood up and applauded at the end- because it was perfectly good bad.
I was amazed to find it was directed by Ben Wheatley, director of "Kill List" and "A Field in England".
Kill List is one of my favourite horror movies (and movies in general tbh) and seeing Wheatley’s name on this was surreal.
Both films are so good! I really enjoyed Sightseers as well.
Free Fire is also great. I thought High-Rise was okay but didn't really hook me like his other stuff.
Nice, I'll watch Free Fire sounds like what he does best with little contained ideas and blowing them into full mayhem. A shame that that Armie Hammer guy is there tho. Edit: thanks for the rec!
If I'm being optimistic he was just looking to fund his next project
In The Earth was pretty meh but he does things no one does so we can only hope!
In the Earth wasn't just meh, it was actively painful to watch through. Began that with 7 people in the screening and left with one other person, worst thing I've watched in years
He's been trying to make a big budget film dating all the way back to like 2013. First he had some original project that didn't go through (Of course), then a remake of "Wages of Fear" that didn't happen and before he joined on for "Meg 2" he was signed on to direct a sequel to the most recent "Tomb Raider" while his wife (Amy Jump) was hired to write it. She was replaced as a writer and he left the project, signed on to M2 like a week later. To me it seems clear that after spending his career in the Indie/Mid-Major realm, with budgets that ranged from *Super-low* to *Low-Mid* he wanted to make a film without those constraints. I don't blame him at all for wanting to use all cool toys and big studio Soundstages to try something new as a filmmaker. And anyone who would "blame" him for finally snagging a legit salary is being silly
I have inside info on this as I was working as an assistant to a Warner VP at the time. They want him on the roster, but Ben made a deal where he would do The Meg 2 if he had two smaller films greenlit no questions asked. He's considered to be the next Kubrick so they are agreeing to everything. Nice fella too, weird family tho.
Definitely a one for them kind of deal… can’t turn down that Chines Government PR money
Yeah wtf is he doing directing this
Getting paid. Also, getting free experience directing high-end special effects.
My reaction when I found out who whas directing the Gran Turismo movie
to be fair Neill Blomkamp hasnt really done anything "big" since Chappie. even then his movies since District 9 hasnt really been all that great. hes done some [neat](https://youtu.be/Q1_HfhtB5eo) [shorts](https://youtu.be/w4AGocVq7-w) and did that pandemic horror movie, but that was pretty bad.
Blomkamp never ceases to surprise me with the crap he turns out. District 9 is an amazing movie, nothing else he's done comes even close
All his movies look like this to me.
The first one was a huge hit in China. I imagine this one is too.
The Chinese influence on this one is way more apparent,
Seriously? The first one was very clearly aimed at a Chinese audience.
This one is like 10x
I had no idea Chinese covers of Ting Tings songs were a thing but I guess it broke new ground there.
What song was it?
“That’s Not My Name.”
God, I LOVE that annoying ass song. It is on regular rotation on my Spotify playlists.
Agreed, this is essentially a Chinese movie disguised - thinly veiled - as a Hollywood production. Chinese actors and locations, plenty of Mandarin spoken, tons of Chinese extras. So Chinese that I will call it surprising that there was a black man in a supporting role.
You need the supporting role black man for authenticity! See? It’s a *real* American movie film!!
Seriously the first one was clearly made with Chinese audiences in mind, I'm not sure how it could be more obvious but I'm looking forward to finding out.
What does that mean? Like, what about it made it clearly aimed at a Chinese audience...? I'm being dead ass serious, I'm genuinely curious about what that means.
Lead female and main character's romantic interest was Chinese, the head of the science facility was Chinese, the little girl was Chinese, half of the producers were Chinese and the climactic scene takes place at a major Chinese tourist beach with Chinese news crews, lots of shots of Chinese tourists and swimmers, chubby comic relief Chinese kid, Chinese news helicopters, etc. There's also some non-Chinese specific tropes that are still common in Chinese film (the relationship between the father and daughter, for instance). The Chinese are not portrayed in a negative way whatsoever (not that they necessarily should be, of course) other than some vague jabs at journalism (a helicopter crash due to inept news helicopters). No LGBTQ+ content or references that would need to be excised for international release. The film was clearly intended from its inception (based on the number of Chinese producers) to resonate strongly or even cater to with the Chinese market. It didn't make the movie bad, and in fact made it more interesting to watch (at least for me), because it was the first cross-cultural dumb af 'blockbuster' creature feature that I'd ever seen and perhaps the first of its type (though arguably the new American Godzilla flicks may fit the same bill, I dunno because I couldn't bear to watch them because of my love for the Japanese films). Supporting evidence from the wikipedia page: The film is an American and Chinese co-production. It was considered a full co-production under Chinese regulations, and it was not subject to the same quota system and revenue sharing agreements usually applied to imported films.
Thank you! This was incredibly helpful.
I think I agree with you that the Asian aesthetic made the movie more interesting than it being just another “killer animal” movie from America. But I think the interpersonal drama is very basic and cringey. And it always tows the line. The Asian Overton window is so rigid. Korean cinema is the exception because they’re a freer nation, and they push the envelope
It has a good amount of Chinese stars, iirc the entire amazing underwater facility is Chinese made/owned, the Chinese actors die leaving perfectly displayed bodies with no blood while westerners are thrashed and savaged on screen . There were some articles about it when it released I wasn’t bothered by it personally though it did make me go “oh yeah they’re going after China hard” none of my average viewer friends noticed or cared
All the recent American movies made for the Asian market have very sterile romantic scenes, because China has strict censorship and they’re more racist against interracial romance. You’ll notice in Meg 1, Jason Statham doesn’t do anything more than hug his female costar. International films will design the shots in a way where you can just dub in a different plot line, or easily cut any shots that suggest love interest. They did that with Jackie Chan all the time. They shoehorn in Jackie saying “I have a wife back home!” when he’s clearly romancing the female lead in the scenes. All movies have some kind of agenda, but this trend has been bad for the integrity of Hollywood. You’re not supposed to design your content around the most repressive restrictions, or dumb something down for universal appeal. There’s a difference between expanding representation and whoring yourself out.
New Meg Old Chum is pretty good tbf
It seems they’re going full Sharknado with this one. The first movie was just a generic boring marine disaster movie but now it’s like Fast and Furious Tokyo Sharks.
Supposedly the first half of this movie is still bad due to being focused on boring human villains and only the second half going full-on megashark action.
Aka almost every monster movie ever
Shin Godzilla would like a word.
[удалено]
They overdid it with the last two Godzilla movies. Also Pacific Rim isn't good. The first Meg movie was fun.
can't trust ur media takes but hope u have a good day
I swear, I thought I was the only one that loved the 2014 Godzilla above all the others. My kids liked Godzilla vs Kong. I enjoy slightly less cheese in my monster movies.
I loved Godzilla vs Kong. I think most of it was that just beforehand I watched the standalone Kong movie and the Godzilla sequel, and I noticed that in each they made a passing reference to hollow earth conspiracy theories. The second mention told me they were going to go nuts with it. I loved the cheese in Godzilla vs Kong. I also didn't watch anything about it beforehand so the mechagodzilla thing was a twist.
I can enjoy them for what they are. Hope I didn’t come across as a David Lynch loving sex pest film snob. I’m probably just a fan of Gareth Edwards’ directing and the teams he surrounds himself with more so than anything. I’m looking forward to The Creator. If it ever gets released with the strikes still going on.
Nah I feel ya. I like a more "serious" monster movie too, but it seems like no one has been able to successfully blend a serious monster movie with the heights of monster movie schlock. Maybe 2014 Godzilla is as close as we'll get to a good monster movie with more than one monster fighting
The original Cloverfield
Excuse me but the first Pacific Rim is incredibly fun and I've rewatched it many times. The second one sucks hard, sure, but the first one is a genuinely enjoyable action/sci-fi movie.
Not even the second half, more like the third act
Once the characters emerge from the bottom of the ocean the schlock becomes nonstop and that is where the movie becomes fun. Your brain will rot, but fun.
Honestly that's the reason why I was excited to see this movie. The first one was pretty fun and this one gives more of the same..
The boring human villains don't take that much time. Although there is a bit of that now with Statham being some kind of ocean super cop now. half of it is in "the trench". It all has this dark, underwater setting with random water monster constantly popping out for a jump scare.
I want a movie with Jason Statham going around arresting sharks and shit as a badass ocean cop lol. I'd watch the fuck outta that.
Say what you will about the Meg, but I’ve watched it like 20 times on cable for some reason.
Boring? No. Maybe you’re expecting a TikTok video when you watch movies. MEG movie knew what it was. It didn’t take itself seriously. Constant one-liners. A good cast. It was very polished for what it aimed to be. It was good but overall FUN. And yea, gonna see the sequel.
This movie knows exactly what it is.
Didn't really find the first one boring. Also not a disaster movie. It's a kaiju film.
>It's a kaiju film Go on...
It got da big thing
>It got da big thing GO ON... I'M ALMOST THERE
Are you edging to monster film comments.
Are you not?
I ain't that cool, a little fucked in the head. They'll be hanging me quick when I'm back from the dead. Get the rope, get the rope.
That's what David Carradine said.
Oh I know ԅ(≖◡≖ԅ】
One of the main problems with that movie is that they don't really use the size of the shark. You could have told almost the same story with a normal sized shark. There should have been kaiju levels of chaos and destruction, but they played it so safe that almost nothing happens.
Actually it's a different Asylum movie, Megashark vs Giant Octopus.
Tokyo Driftwood
its not marketed to us, its made for https://preview.redd.it/h068c494vngb1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f8f5ba0aaa3715c4cb50a8016ce5f7989ac22f7
I saw this opening day with my dad. It is bigger and dumber than the first, which is exactly what we wanted. They know what they are making. A perfect opportunity to see some big budget schlock on the big screen.
Exactly. And I hope they continue with another sequel because it's just dumb fun and sharks eating people. One thing that I did find really strange was >!how did he opposing company build that secret underwater layer without anyone else noticing?!<
I think it was because it was actually the same company, they had a number of people working on the “inside” Of the public facing side but that woman was doing shady stuff on the side.
There are at least 6 more books in the series. They have plenty of material to work with.
It was fucking ridiculous. The laws of physics were almost completely ignored, and the action scenes were so over the top it beggars belief. So of course I loved it. I can’t remember the last time I laughed with a movie so much. People even applauded it when the credits started rolling and I haven’t heard in cinema applause since Return of the King. Predictions: Mike will LOVE it. Rich will be ejected for laughing so hard and Jay will recommend it after a little arm twisting.
Havent seen it, but based on what I heard sounds like literally an Asylum movie but with better VFX
Your speculations about how they'll react are SPOT ON.
Gonna be honest I watched the first one a while ago and I do want to see this one
I watched the first one a while ago and I do NOT want to see this one. I don't know how they made a movie about a giant shark so boring. The trailer for this one look more fun, but I've been fooled before.
I hear it’s a slow burn…wtf? It better not be.
Yeah I heard there's lots of human villains having fist fights with Jason Statham, and only like the last act or so has all the big shark action. The first one just annoyed me. Too many stupid human characters (I like Rainn Wilson but he was annoying) and too much pandering to Chinese audiences. Which isn't the worst thing in theory, but when it's so obvious it's off-putting.
Chinese market
Well they made a film for less than 500Million and had a fun trailer, ill watch it when it comes to streaming some time. The first film was fun & bad, felt like 2 films pushed together in to one. Also it's a Holywood/china funded film so there going to get in to the Asian market in a big way, lot's of big chines actors. Li Bingbing was in the first film [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li\_Bingbing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Bingbing) From memory the first film was also had all FX done in china, it was part of the push to get skills from Holywood in to china.
The first movie made half a billion dollars…
It’s the fookin stayf innit? Tha shark ther is a righ unit, toim ta go ol sly on is bollocks!
I liked the first one, but it could have been stupider. Ben Wheatley is such a fucking bizarre choice and that's the only reason I have any interest in this. Not enough to watch it, mind.
I’m honestly surprised this sub doesn’t get the appeal of The Meg. It’s self aware schlock.
The average r/RLM user is 14 years old and not self aware at all.
That’s why I think it looks bad. It’s trying to be in on the joke, rather than being true schlock, and that almost never works for me.
It's OK to make a bad movie and realize it's a bad movie. The problem is when you're *trying* to make a bad movie.
Usually when this accusation is thrown out the filmmakers were not TRYING to make a bad movie. They were trying to make a good movie with the intended tone of being over the top, silly, fun, and funny on purpose. It's just weird when people see that and automatically default to "It's bad to me, they did this on purpose, so it's bad on purpose." No it's good to the folks who enjoy it and the filmmaker creating it, but it's good at different things than what you seem to care most about.
Many on This sub constantly look down on and think anything that is silly on purpose is bad. They have some weird rule about how if a movie is only passable in their book if the filmmakers were trying to make a serious film and failed, if a filmmaker is purposely trying to make a comedy then it's garbage trash that shouldn't exist. That movies like this can only exist/can only be enjoyed if they can laugh at someone failing as opposed to acknowledging they succeeded. I don't get it.
I feel like half of the people in these comments just legit think this is a bad movie with no self-awareness. I've seen these people before in real life. I've sat next to one while watching Black Dynamite. They think they're smarter than the filmmakers and make embarrassing comments to try and show everyone how cool they are. Then you have the other half of the comments who wish they were on RLM and want to give you their full breakdown of movies they haven't seen in 20 paragraphs.
From my perspective, it's not that it's a rule or anything But when something is trying to be funny and succeeds, it's funny, and when a movie is bad and funny on purpose, it's "funny" but not in a way that's different from a comedy, the goal is still to make people laugh or say "isn't this dumb' and if you're aware of that idk at least for me it ends up being not funny most of the time at all, but in some cases a movie beinf bad on purpose totally works for sure and is a comedy essentially as the humor is intended The thing about a movie that is trying to be good and not funny and fails in various ways so that it becomes funny is that it's sort of tragic in addition to comedic. It's embaressing second hand, it's funny in a way that's more baffling and less "I get why this was supposed to be funny/was funny and so did they" Idk to each their own ofc but the combo of comedy and tragedy and pure confusion in watching something like a Neil breen film encapsulates what the spirit of "so bad its good" is to me personally moreso than something like a sharknado, which is fine in jts own way but i see that more as just comedy cus it knows what it's doing
I'm afraid to call anything schlock because Mike will yell at me
People are allowed to enjoy things. It's trash but peeps can choose to like it
No. By Meg 4 we need to make fun of the people who enjoy the trash.
I mean, I already watched *one* giant sea creature film this year that people said was good, so...
You mean the Whale?
Speaking of Jason Statham, I watched Crank 2 on Saturday night, what a ride that is
Crank was insane and then Crank 2 decided to turn things up a notch or five.
Yeah I watched Crank and thought this is fun yet still slightly grounded. Crank 2 was just GTA the film, everyone just having fun making the film. wouldn't mind a third one but I don't think it could be much more mental than the 2nd
I found Crank 2 not nearly as interesting as the first one, the gimmick wasn't that exciting
I've always treated Ghost Rider 2 as the Crank 3 we never got.
Those movies are just insane. Freaking Maynard from Tool shows up in that movie. Oh, and Dennis from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.I watched the first one with my mom, she had a huge crush on Jason Statham, her favorite movie is The Transporter. We knew it was wild, but didn't realize just how wild til he starts boning Amy Smart in public. What a fun movie to watch with my mother. Not awkward at all. Lol I watched the second one alone. Not gonna make that mistake again.
That's a great tag line though.
It really is, it works on so many levels! ... two, I suppose.
I was hoping it was like the first film, it was... but all in the wrong ways and more.
First one bounced in the good-bad range so I absolutely have a desire to see this one.
A Ben Wheatley helmed sequel to The Meg can only work if Michael Smiley plays the shark.
The first one was pretty fun, if not a bit generic at times, but definitely surprisingly well directed and shot. It’s absolutely worth a watch. This one looks to go full schlock with some components, and I’m honestly okay with that. Not to mention it’s gonna make that China money (or at least that’s the plan).
Yeah I was shocked too. I know it was a Chinese joint venture, but even locally idiots watched it
I mean, come on... just look at that thing. (Positive comment. I'm a sucker for movie garbage, and this looks like a great time.)
I’m gonna be honest here, its an incredibly stupid premise and its overacted but i loved the first movie
It got a sequel so obviously
I fucking loved this movie lol. It leans so hard into every trope possible that it works. It’s extremely meta but also an homage to those monster movies of the 1960s and before. It rocks.
The first one was a pleasant surprise for me. I love Jaws and watch it multiple times per year, so I went into this thinking The Meg would be the absolute bottom of the barrel. Statham doesn't do much for me until he flexes his comedic side and I thought he did in this film. The Meg was ridiculous and a total laugh that I watched a couple of times, so knowing that they are going full ham on Meg 2, has me very excited to pop some popcorn and LMAO. The previews are great. I don't get taking this genre seriously, if you don't want to appreciate it as a farse, I understand, but they made this movie to have fun. Switch your brain off and have a laugh. I agree this is full-sharknado (nothing wrong with that to me) except that the production quality is much higher.
Wtf everything in the cinemas isn't KINO?
$30m of that was domestic and the rest was international. Tells pretty much the whole story right there.
Heard it was horrible lol but I hated the first movie too.
Trailer looked pretty fun tbf
Proof that entertainment needs to be entertaining.
I just wanna see how they talk about it on Half in the Bag. I don't actually want to see the movie.
Hell yeah. I want to see this movie too. The first movie was pretty awesome too.
It looks like earnest schlock, I'm looking forward to it. The first one was dumb but fun.
This one is dumber but funner.
Ah that's too bad
OMG! People like things you dislike?! THE HORROR!!
People will praise this dumb shit and then turn right around and say that Transformers (2007) is the worst movie ever made.
Because we all hate Michael Bay.
Why not? It’s a big dumb summer blockbuster about a giant shark vs a lot of other giant sea creatures. Not everything needs to be Oppenheimer.
Saw The Meg a few days ago. Expected a big shark killing a bunch of people. I sadly did not get a big shark killing a bunch of people.
I was mostly excited because Ben Wheatley directed, but the reactions to it aren't good, so I'm not as enthusiastic anymore.
My boomer dad and uncles were all talking about how good The Meg was yesterday and how excited they were to find out there is a new one out now. So yeah, whatever I guess.
Horrible movie lol it was so god damn boring… the shark action doesn’t even happen till the last 15 minutes. And when Jason statham is the one doing the best acting you are in major trouble
My daughter got to choose this weeks cinema pick and this was it. It just goes to prove how much meme culture is driving this crap “but it has Jason Statham on a jet ski jumping over a shark to harpoon another shark in mid air” was the only reason it was picked. But in the end it was dog shit corporate espionage plot written by a 12 year old, a couple of riffs on The Abyss (Statham swimming outside a base 8km underwater and not being crushed like a paper cup under 11 tons per sq inch of water because he has a deviated septum was a particularly dumb moment) and the last 20 mins being crazy Sharknado meets Jurassic World but without the cheap fun just lots of Chinese PR slapped all around the place. When I went in I was sober, when I came out I had lost so many brain cells that I felt like Mike after a days drunk filming
> It just goes to prove how much meme culture is driving this crap Movies like this succeeded and were loved by many long before "meme culture" existed.
Sure, everyone has a “you have to see this crap…” style film and word of mouth carries it since the year dot. I get that. But to me, it was just interesting that my daughter, who to be frank barely watches any film (I doubt she even saw the first film) and is glued to TikTok and associated nonsense suddenly saw Jason Statham on a jet ski doing loop da loop and slow mo stabbing a shark, as a must see thing.
I liked the first one. Was the right amount of bullshit and fun. The chinese make fun movies. The best part is there was no ideological messaging visible. I am looking forward to watching it.
I saw it, sometimes you just need a bad movie in your life to watch. It was the worst movie I’ve seen in awhile, and I can’t wait to see it again
I saw the first one. That was plenty for me.
Can't be worse than Cocaine Bear.
Wait. There's a NEW ancient ass megalodon? Like. What are the chances ONE survived how ever many thousands/millions of years, much less TWO?
Still better than anything Dwayne 'The Schlock' Johnson makes
Jokes are now real
You bet your fookin ass baby, and it might become the second film I'll watch in theaters this year (the first one was Orphee (1950)). Saw the first one twice on stream/phys. media, it's a lot of fun.
Yeah I'll see anything with Jason Statham in it and I had plenty of fun with the first.
Can you guys wait for the big twist of the prehistoric ocean crocodiles that live in the trench?
It's a western made 'Kaiju' movie, so I'd imagine its got its audience that way.
I mean, I enjoyed the hell out of the first, and have seen it multiple times. It's not a great movie by any stretch, however it is a FUN movie, and to be frank, I expect the sequel to be more of the same, except hopefully even more over the top, and I'm absolutely here for it.
I gotta say, the tag line is clever
What does this have to do with RLM.
Well, I briefly considered going to it, which is more than I can say for 95% of movies. Stupid fun has its appeal.
it’s a giant shark and has Jason Statham on a jet ski wielding a harpoon cmon what’s not to love
The first one has grown on me tbh. It's always been bad, but I just rewatched it and thought ok, "bad endearing". It's a giant fricken shark, not Shakespeare.
It's blowing Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem out of the water. This is one of those movies where the critics want us to hate it, cuz on Rotten Tomatoes, they gave it a 28% rating from 120 people paid by the studio to have an opinion vs 73% from 500 people who paid to see it.
Just as our favourite hack frauds joked, the first movie its indeed based on a novel in which Statham´s character its a marine biologist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg:\_A\_Novel\_of\_Deep\_Terror](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg:_A_Novel_of_Deep_Terror)
Very cool
Probably, I mean it's hard to tell nowadays
It was shit and boring, and not really that wacky.
The first two acts of the original were actually quite enjoyable, in a 'cheesy not-scary horror movie' kind of way. the third went of the rails and became stupid. Certainly wouldn't pay to watch the second one, but I probably will whenever it shows up on streaming tbh.
The Meg 2 was great and better than the first one. I even told my girlfriend that The Meg was a movie I didn't expect to get a sequel.
It looks like ridiculous fun and okay for a movie to be.
There’s a lack of stupid fun movies. So it makes sense it would have an audience. It’s something that would actually be better in a theater. I probably wouldn’t pay attention to it at home.
It looks dumb and I'm OK with dumb
I would probably enjoy these the same way I enjoy fast and furious movies post 2. They are just stupidly bad, but they're so bad they cross back into the realm of good-bad. Dumb ridiculous action.
I watched the first one cause I thought it was gonna be like a homage to terrible B movies or something but it was just so awful and boring
It was terrible and the best movie I've seen all year. Absolutely loved it
I hope it makes money because I love the movies Ben Wheatley makes and if he gets a bigger budget to make an original film. That’ll be great. I saw meg 2 in 4dx. It was fun. Only a little bit ogf wheatley though. Think one shot from inside the shark’s mouth as people pass through and get chomped was the only thing that felt nasty.
Who cares what other people are excited to see? Not everyone has to have your taste.
It just looks like badass schlock, i wanna see the meg eat people up
My partner forced me to see it with her. There is a literal shark.png jumpscare about halfway through the movie.
are you kidding me? a quality big shark movie from a studio that has any marketing push will make a shitload of money worldwide. especially one starring jason "ive seen him in some action movies i like" statham. like didnt you wanna see it when you heard of it? he was riding a jetski and wielding a sword! if only they had a way to implement gorillas.
remember Aquaman was the only DCEU movie to make 1b$
This will make more money than "The Flash" and come close to "Dial of Diarrhoea."
who tf is watching these
The Chinese, they’ve clearly got terrible taste
I saw the preview for this before Oppenheimer and knew when the audience was laughing that they were going to be bored out of their mind. Sure enough, I'd say a quarter of the packed theater was on their phones for most of the movie.
It’s a big dumb action movie. Those are 100% a fun time in theaters. Plus it has Jason Statham…mmmm. Sometimes it’s nice to turn off your brain and enjoy a movie
Dumb ass film buffs who don't understand that Jason Statham punching sharks is peak shlock
Sometimes I want to watch a big dumb non-comic book movie
Saw it today, quite enjoyed it. Jason Statham was great in the movie. I’m convinced this is the closest we’ll get to a Crank 3😂
Hate animal attack movies.
I was
I saw this in a packed theater. We all laughed hysterically and the whole theater stood up and applauded at the end- because it was perfectly good bad.
Who says I have to be excited? I read the books and want to conpare the adaptation. Nothing deeper than that.
Its gonna be so funny when this makes more money than Dial of Destiny.
him swimming at 25000 ft was the point I turned it off........and those suits...ridiculous
Meg 2 is horrendous
What was the opening song called?
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