THE MEG (2018) Review

The Meg Poster Copyright Warner Bros., Flagship Entertainment, Di Bonaventura Pictures

So first things first that beach scene that the trailers seem to like showing forget it that's like last ten, fifteen minutes of the movie.

Right onto the review, The Meg stars Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor, a diver who rescued some sailors from a nuclear submarine that was attacked by something and Jonas was forced to sacrifice the others in order to save the eleven men they had saved.

When Jonas tries to explain what had attacked them no one believed him.

Then we have a time jump where we skip to five years later where we are taken to a marine research station off the coast of China. A helicopter lands and we are introduced to Jack Morris, played by Rainn Wilson, the man who was financing the development of the center. We then meet the director of the center Dr Mingway Zhang, played by Winston Chao, the two of them discuss the discovery that the center is about to make. And now this is where your suspension of disbelief is tested, the discovery is that the bottom of the Mariana Trench isn't actually the bottom instead it is a layer of freezing gases which prevents creatures underneath the layer form escaping.

So what did I like about this film, well its above average for what it is, it being essentially a B movie about a giant shark. Its a fun traditional summer blockbuster and its nice to a shark that actually acts like a shark and not an extension of the villain.

Now some complaints, so spoilers from here on out so be prepared.

About halfway through there's a fairly major twist in the plot, it being that the shark the team kill is only one of two that came up and the second shark jumps out of the water and capsizes the boat, I would have honestly preferred the film to fake the audience out, let them think the shark is dead, have some character development then, boom the sharks not dead, the beach attack happens then the team kill it once and for all.

The characters are also woefully underdeveloped, the only ones who get any real development are Jonas, who's development basically stops after that opening scene and Suyin, played by Li Bingbing, Zhang's daughter. The film tries to force you to care about a romance between Jonas and Suyin but its hardly touched upon for the most part, everyone else is just as stereotypical as you would expect from a film like this.

But then again, whats the main draw to a film like this? Easy, Jason Statham fighting a giant shark. This is a dumb film and it, fortunately, knows it dumb, could it have been improved, yes, it walks the line between cheesy and serious fairly well but occasionally it does slide into the too serious realm and because of the flat characters we don't care about anything that happens in these plot heavy sections. Another thing is that this film could have really benefited from an R rating rather than its PG-13, its a similar situation that Alien Vs Predator found itself in, do they sacrifice the high box office money for a more adult film or tone down the fun for a bigger chunk of change. This could have been a good, fun film but its character and rating hold it back. I'm convinced that this will be getting a sequel so I hope that the listen to the feedback that people have given.