The Meg

Release Date: August 10, 2018
Runtime: 113 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Studio: Warner Bros.
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Cast: Jason Statham; Bingbing Li; Rainn Wilson; Cliff Curtis; Winston Chao; Ruby Rose; Page Kennedy

In the annals of nature vs. human movies, the killer shark (or related underwater predator) movie has become, more or less, a micro-genre of its own. From the granddaddy of them all, Jaws (and its subsequent sequels), to Orca, Piranha, Anaconda, Deep Blue Sea, and even the Sharknado movies, every decade welcomes its own assorted menu of killer sea creature entertainments. While definitely not breaking any new ground, and indeed paying homage to Jaws on more than one occasion, The Meg is a perfectly serviceable, middlebrow entry into this quasi-elite group of B-movies (as they almost always are).

This time, the antagonist is a prehistoric mega-shark heretofore thought to have been extinct. A movie-ready group of attractive underwater explorers (led by uber-babe, Jason Statham) unknowingly disrupts said shark’s habitat just below the Mariana Trench, releasing the beast into the wild. Mayhem ensues. It’s a familiar template found in most killer (insert animal here) movies: you know that some peripheral characters will eat it in gruesome, sometimes comical fashion and that the animal will become (pardon me for this) fish food by story’s end.

I have no idea if the science behind the movie is accurate (the movie’s IMDb trivia page doesn’t seem to think so), but it hardly matters. The only thing distinguishing The Meg from any of its kin is really the technology used in the film. The shark (specifically, a megalodon) certainly proves an imposing presence, impressively photographed to elicit the maximum “Oh Shit!” factor. Director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) and cinematographer Tom Stern (Sully, American Sniper) treat us to numerous shots of the animal’s gaping jaws and Noah’s Ark-size body, stealthily lurking beneath the surface. We, of course, watch with anticipatory glee as The Meg stalks each unfortunate victim with the consideration of a serial killer. All of this is fun to watch and, indeed, is the movie’s sole purpose for existing. Mind you, that’s not intended to be a ding on the film…as I said, each decade delivers a couple of these types of mindless good fun movies. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that these movies are actually any good (just look at the declining quality of the Jaws sequels). Unlike Jaws, The Meg is not played for sheer terror, but rather cheap thrills: no one will be in danger of developing a fear of the open sea from this film as many did when Jaws was released. As a well-made no-brainer, The Meg is exactly what you expect it to be and delivers exactly what you would expect from it.