Shark tale 'Meg' a formula but appealing creature feature

<h3 class="briefHead">"The Meg" - ★ ★ ½</h3>

It takes nearly an hour before the titular, prehistoric giant shark comes into the sea-foam limelight.

Then, "The Meg" makes up for lost time by ringing the aquatic dinner bell and serving a nonstop smorgasbord of hapless humans and fish.

Look, I can sit back and have fun watching a 75-foot monster gobble up hundreds of screaming swimmers like soggy popcorn shrimp as much as the next guy.

But "The Meg" feels like a better production deal for the filmmakers than a better killer shark thriller for audiences.

As many recent global action pictures (including the most recent "Transformers" movie, "The Last Knight") do, "The Meg" has locations set in China and features Chinese actors in prominent roles so it can grab a bigger slice of the huge Chinese film market.

As a result, the characters become generic, the plots simplistic, Americanized references eliminated and the action amped up to breakneck speed.

Had "The Meg" shaken up its male-dominated formula approach (it's based on Steve Alten's best-selling novel) by making Li Bingbing's scientist, Suyin, the real hero, the story might have felt fresher and daring.

Instead, British action star Jason Statham recycles his standard-issue stocky-tough-guy-with-a-conscience persona as Jonas Taylor, a deep-sea rescue diver.

He's apparently the only man in the world who can save the scientists aboard a deep-sea submersible stuck at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean after being attacked by something unseen and big.

Taylor teams up with the resourceful Suyin ­­- the conveniently divorced mother of a precociously cute kid named Meiying (Sophia Cai) - to save the crew.

They wind up trying to save themselves as well when they realize that the vehicles' lights and vibrations have honked off a Megalodon, a huge shark thought to be extinct for two million years.

It's up to the fearful crew to stop the monster before it gets to China's Sanya Beach where zillions of happy swimmers begin to look like floating Reese's Pieces.

Rainn Wilson brings a welcome comic wink to his billionaire tech geek, come to see how scientists have spent his $1.3 billion investment.

Cliff Curtis keeps his jaw squared as Mac, a stoic station chief who five years earlier believed Jonas when he claimed a deep-sea vessel had been attacked by a huge beast, and no one else did.

Like Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" (the gold standard of giant shark thrillers), "The Meg" tries to muster some mystery by not showing the shark right away, a tactic that doesn't work because trailers and commercials show us the big fish with its bigger teeth.

Had director Jon Turteltaub (he gave us the "The DaVinci Code" knock-off "National Treasure") treated "The Meg" with the same lightly comic touch as its ad campaign and trailers (complete with Bobby Darin's song "Beyond the Sea") his movie would have taken an even bigger bite out of the box office.

China and everywhere else.

<b>Starring:</b> Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Sophia Cai, Winston Chao

<b>Directed by:</b> Jon Turteltaub

<b>Other:</b> A Warner Bros. release. Rated PG-13 for language, violence. 114 minutes