Meg 2: The Trench took a major bite out of both the global and worldwide box office during its opening weekend in 2023, signifying that nothing beats a good, old-fashioned monster mash to kick off the end of the summer movie season. While the film’s financial, if not critical success was mostly due to the titular massive shark, it was another win for Jason Statham who also delivered another successful appearance in The Fast and the Furious franchise in Fast X. While Statham is undoubtedly one of the most popular leading action stars in the world right now, the quality of his projects has been affected by the similarity of many of his various action roles. It’s time for Statham to spice things up and return to being the tough British gangster that he was always so good at being.
Jason Statham’s Work with Guy Ritchie
It’s somewhat ironic that Statham has starred in action films for over two decades, as that’s not where he started his career. Statham’s big break came from Ritchie, who gave him his first two roles in 1998’s Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Ritchie’s films aren’t necessarily high art, but they were incredibly influential in the way that they inspired the “London underground crime thriller” subgenre. These films helped launch the careers of many rising British actors such as Dexter Fletcher, Jason Flemyng, Stephen Graham, and Robbie Gee, but unsurprisingly, Statham is the one that has stuck around the longest.
Within those early films, there was a level of genuine anger and youthful detachment within Statham’s characters that was distinct from the flawless action heroes that he tends to play now. Statham’s quips cooler in Snatch. because his character Turkish isn’t a super spy, a renowned bank robber, or some sort of special operative agent; he’s simply a small-time slot machine salesman and boxing promoter who manages to get in too deep with some particularly dangerous gangsters like “Brick Top” Pulford (Alan Ford).
Jason Statham’s Characters Are More Interesting When Relatable
There was a level of insecurity within Statham’s early characters that made them more interesting. Turkish in Snatch and Bacon in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels are both poor, disheveled working-class men that would never wear the type of classy suits that Statham wears in all of his action films now. They’re both constantly angry, and their rage is directed at an unfair economy that has taken them for granted. These men both have nothing to live for, so why not make jokes about it in the coolest Cockney accent ever?
Even Statham’s early action roles at least were able to inherit some of that darker desperation that had been present in his earlier work. The Transporter and Crank are essentially stories about ruthless mercenaries; they just happen to feature some extraordinary stunt work and incredible racing sequences. Statham felt like an exciting voice in action cinema because he wasn’t the clear-cut hero like Denzel Washington or Arnold Schwarzenegger, but over time, those edges began to get sanded off.
Are Jason Statham’s Action Movies Becoming Dull?
It’s interesting to see that Statham has become the most reliable action star that has emerged in the past few decades. Most of the major action franchises today are led by older actors who have been playing the same role for decades, such as Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves, and Statham’s contemporaries like Dwayne Johnson and Chris Hemsworth have just as many misses as they do hits. Statham generally puts out a few action films every year, and over time his films have tended to blend together. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who could tell you the fundamental difference between his characters in Wild Card, Redemption, Safe, or Blitz.
The issue is that Statham has always worked better when he’s playing darker, meaner, and less complimentary in his quips. The character of Deckard Shaw in the Fast & Furious saga almost feels like a parody of the types of “rough and tough” British gangsters that he played earlier in his career in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Yes, Statham is great at yelling out one-liners and being sarcastic during action scenes, but that’s only an element of what makes him so cool. Statham’s charisma is defined by many attributes, including his dramatic range, but his most recent string of roles have seemed to just let him coast off of his surface-level charm. It’s sad to see him typecast as the “funny British bald guy” when he’s so clearly talented enough to do more.
The other issue with Statham’s action films is that ironically, they don’t actually shine a spotlight on his great skills as a stuntman. In a highly expensive movie with tons of computer-generated imagery like The Fate of the Furious or The Meg, all the stunts are so unbelievable that there’s nothing special about Statham using his martial arts skills in a one-on-one fight. In comparison, his extraordinary physical talents make him stand out in smaller gangster films like The Bank Job or Revolver, because it’s obvious that the films only had the budget to do those scenes for real.
There is still hope for the rest of Statham’s career. When the Fast and Furious franchise wraps up, Statham has the dramatic skills to carry him when his ability to do action films has depleted. Even his recent roles in Ritchie films such as Wrath of Man and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre show that his personality pops better when he’s not working on massive blockbusters. Perhaps it’s time for Statham to start looking for British gangster roles again. There’s a reason Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels stand out in his filmography; but thanks to The Meg, he’s literally jumped the shark.