The Meg

THE MEG(12)

D: Jon Turtletaub

Warner Bros/Gravity/Flagship/Appelles/Maeday (Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Colin Wilson & Belle Avery)

US/China 2018

113 mins

Adventure/Horror

W: Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber [based on the novel "Meg: A Novel Of Deep Terror" by Steve Alten]

DP: Tom Stern

Ed: Steven Kemper

Mus: Harry Gregson-Williams

Jason Statham (Jonas Taylor), Li Bingbing (Suyin Zhang), Rainn Wilson (Jack Morris), Ruby Rose (Jaxx Herd), Winston Chao (Dr. Minway Zhang), Cliff Curtis (James 'Mac' Mackreides)

There's an episode of TV's Family Guy where Peter, the moronic head of the Griffin family, suggest a new idea for a film. It's Jaws, but with a bigger shark, the film's title will be Bigger Jaws. That's what The Meg is.

Set off the coast of Shanghai, because cracking the Orient means more to Hollywood than a decent script or dependant acting nowadays, the plot opens with a group of scientists who unearth a trench on the ocean floor which is considered the deepest point on Earth. The expedition goes wrong and rescue expert Jonas Taylor is brought in to save the day, albeit too late as disturbing the trench has allowed the escape of a Megalodon, a huge shark thought to have been extinct since prehistoric times. Everything that follows is derivative of any shark movie you may have seen since Jaws first emerged onto cinema screens in the 1970's.

The Meg is certainly one of those films you'll know you'll enjoy or not before you even watch it. It's exactly what it says on the tin- Jason Statham fighting a shark. 

The acting is atrocious, the dialogue laughable and the plot ridiculous, but with films like Sharknado managing to find an audience, this at least deserves some credit for having some production value. For fans of shark movies or Jason Statham vehicles, this is worth a catch, just don't expect it to be fresh. For me, The Meh would have been a more accurate title.

4/10