The Meg

Year: 2018
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Cast: Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, Page Kennedy, Robert Taylor


Plot: The crew of an ocean research station are terrorized by a prehistoric shark.


Review: I'm still wondering what everyone's problem was after they watched The Meg. I kept hearing it was a bad movie, or not as fun as they had hoped. Try telling that to the women sitting behind me in the cinema yesterday. They were screaming their heads off.

The Meg is a shark movie, like Jaws, The Shallows, 47 Meters Down and Deep Blue Sea before it. The difference is of course, the size of the shark, which is pretty humongous here. The CGI rendered megalodon is convincing enough and director Jon Turteltaub makes very good use of the shark in executing some thrilling action sequences here. While it does take some time before we actually get to see the shark, once it appears, there is no dull moment left as we get one nail biting sequence after another.

The Meg is not without flaws though. Some of its casting choices are not good. Jason Statham more or less succeeds as the reluctant hero here, but Li Bingbing looks quite awkward in her role, despite her acting having improved since her turn in Resident Evil 5. The rest of the cast fill the usual textbook roles well enough, but Rainn Wilson's overconfident billionaire who's financing the station could have been removed altogether as it feels very extraneous. The entire subplot featuring him trying to kill the shark all by himself didn't feel genuine at all.

On another note, some of the film's quieter moments don't really work. The Meg succeeds when it makes fun of itself but not when they try to make some of the deaths feel impactful. Thankfully, Turteltaub doesn't dwell on these too often and lets the shark do what it does best.

All in all, I enjoyed The Meg more than I thought I would. Is it a dumb shark movie? Yeah it is. But I liked it a lot, and that's what really counts. (7.5/10)