Ever since Jaws caused moviegoers to be afraid of going back into the water in 1975, the concept of rampaging sharks has been a staple in the horror, thriller and science fiction genres, often blurring the lines between them. And while the topic of today’s discussion isn’t nearly as over the top as the likes of Sharknado, Sharktopus and Ghost Shark, it sure has been generating its share of online buzz as of late.
We are, of course, talking about The Meg. In it, “a deep-sea submersible—part of an international undersea observation program—has been attacked by a massive creature, previously thought to be extinct, and now lies disabled at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific…with its crew trapped inside.
With time running out, expert deep-sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) is recruited by a visionary Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao), against the wishes of his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing), to save the crew—and the ocean itself—from this unstoppable threat: a pre-historic 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon.”
So, if you’ve been keeping up with news regarding this picture, then you’ve probably noticed that it’s been making some generous waves in the past few months – and that was before the first trailer even surfaced. And now that it has, we imagine that anticipation for this one will only increase.
Naturally, the marketing machine will gain momentum as opening weekend draws near, with a new poster being released in this case. Funny enough, it calls back to the aforementioned Jaws, really putting into perspective how greatly The Meg‘s antagonistic ocean dweller dwarfs his cinematic predecessor.
As you can see, only the mouth of the impressive Megalodon is able to fit in the image, making the otherwise intimidating Great White look like a minnow by comparison. And to be honest, this may be my favorite depiction of the food chain since Troy McClure explained the concept on The Simpsons many years ago.
The Meg opens in theaters on August 10.
