Jaws may have set the bar for killer shark movies, but even if nothing comes close to Steven Spielberg’s 1975 smash hit, shark films will never go out of style in Hollywood. Both The Shallows and 47 Meters Down performed well at the box office recently, and now we’re about to see The Meg, which pits a giant prehistoric beast against a cast that includes Jason Statham and Rainn Wilson.
Watch the first The Meg trailer below, and read about the experience of seeing the trailer in 4DX.
The Meg Trailer
This looks just ridiculous enough that it might be fun. Sure, parts of it reminded me of a slicker, more expensive version of the so-bad-it’s-good 2002 movie Shark Attack 3: Megolodon, but at least it appears The Meg knows better than to take itself too seriously. Whether Rainn Wilson’s quippy funny guy character will work in context remains to be seen, and I personally have my fingers crossed that Statham gets to spin-kick the shark in the face before the final credits roll.
The Meg in 4DX
Last week, Warner Bros. shuttled a group of journalists to a theater in downtown Los Angeles equipped with 4DX, the technology that rocks your seat and adds blasts of water, smoke, and other effects that correspond with the events happening on the screen. I’d never tried 4DX before, and as someone who regularly gets motion sickness on similar theme park rides that jostle you around while you watch a big screen, I was a little worried I’d hurl all over the place. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly that intense.
The row of seats calmly and even pleasantly pitched and tilted us along with the camera as it swooped through a hallway, jerking us around a bit when the shark’s jaws smashed into the glass. And of course there were water effects: streams of water shot up in a straight line from our headrests and sprinkled down onto us, which might be nice if you’re looking for respite from the sun on a hot summer day.
But the more I think about it, the more I probably won’t be seeing a full movie in 4DX any time soon. The water is an appropriate effect, but seeing it happen in practice means that if you’re sitting in the middle or the back of the theater, you’re watching as dozens of streams of water fire up in front of the screen each time the effect is utilized. It’s an odd thing to behold. And there’s also a smoke effect that blasts in your face during jump scares, and seeing that smoke shooting out from the back of the seat in front of me was distracting enough to momentarily divert my attention from the screen. I’m sure more adventurous moviegoers than I will have a total blast with this, but if I’m going to see The Meg, I’d rather see all of the movie and not be worried about what moments I might miss because of these “immersive” environmental effects.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad afternoon. In addition to watching The Meg trailer a bit early, at least I got this video out of it:
Here’s the film’s official poster, complete with its own appropriately goofy tagline:
The Meg swims into theaters on August 10, 2018.
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