The Meg Review

Shark movies have come in many shapes and sizes over the years, but more so since 1999’s Deep Blue Sea than 1975’s Jaws (she was the first). Two species now plague the screens: there are the deliberately-shlocky straight-to-SyFy stinkers like Sharknado, and there are those that are worthy of the silver screen like 2010’s The Reef and 2016’s The Shallows. Luckily, Jon Turtletaub’s The Meg falls into the latter.

Starring Jason Statham, Rainn Wilson and Li Bingbing, the film sees scientists at ocean-based research facility “Mana One” unearth a 75-foot prehistoric megalodon shark when they penetrate a self-contained deep-sea trench. Cue plenty of jumps, screams and scares, and, of course, lots of well-delivered one-liners from the remarkably-fearless Statham.

They’re definitely going to need a bigger boat…

There’s no denying that this film is derivative of Deep Blue Sea, but while the cult classic 90s flick is more superior in terms of plot and entertainment, The Meg is a far better executed film altogether, and rarely does its toothy antagonist ever look overly-artificial. Not only that, but it doesn’t rely on relentless horror to entertain.

Having spent years in development hell, The Meg should be welcomed to the surface with arms wide open (on second thoughts, keep your arms to yourself), especially with it being a PG-13 as the result of the distasteful gore-master Eli Roth being forced to walk the plank. Sure, it’s as formulaic as they come, and it won’t go down in history as a film that discouraged an entire generation of people from going swimming, but at least it makes an effort.