The Meg: Film Review
Jason Statham versus a shark?! Has there ever been a greater combo?! Despite this, I didn’t hold out much hope for The Meg, but thought it would be funny all the same. Sadly, it takes itself more seriously than I would have liked.
Statham is Jonas Taylor, a deep sea rescue expert who is called in to help save a sub that has encountered an unknown being in the uncharted deep sea waters in the Pacific Ocean. Although he manages to pull off the job, it turns out that the being, a prehistoric mega-shark known as a Megalodon, has followed them to their underwater research facility off the coast of China.
From the trailers I had hoped that The Meg would be hilarious in a knowing way, like they know the concept is ridiculous but they’re gonna give us a fun time anyway and ham it up. No such luck – there are some decent shots at humour and I did laugh a few times, but not in the tongue-in-cheek, nudge nudge wink wink way I was after.
However, there is still a lot of fun to be had with The Meg as there are plenty of action and shark encounters that are all very entertaining. It wasn’t edgy enough for it to be scary though. It was very tame, to be expected given the 12A rating, so I would have preferred a 15-rated movie that had some blood and guts to really ramp up the threat element. I didn’t get the thrill and sense of ‘oh no’ when the shark fin popped up on the water’s surface. There was no major feeling of danger because this plays things so safe.
Statham was fantastic as always. He plays the same kind of guy he does in everything – but he does it so well! Besides him, my favourite character was Meiying (Shuya Sophia Cai), the daughter of scientist Suyin (Li Bingbing), she was cute and feisty and had some of the best lines. Bingbing had a good character and was highly likeable, Ruby Rose was badass and cool (standard) and Rainn Wilson was the a-hole billionaire, which he does well. I was particularly pleased to see Hiro Nakamura from Heroes (Masi Oka) back on my screen – I love him!
The Meg is a pure popcorn movie that requires no thinking. Just sit back and enjoy the ride. There are some excellent sequences, including a beach scene right out of the Jaws playbook, but it looked cool. I just wanted it to be funnier or scarier, or both! It just played it too safe and family-friendly, with its eyes firmly on the box office.
In cinemas now