The Meg (2018) – Review

If it wasn’t clear before, the moment Jason Statham (playing an expert in saving people from the deepest parts of the ocean) swims towards an enormous prehistoric shark singing Dory’s “Just keep swimming”, you know that this is a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously. And it shouldn’t, because this is a monster movie that has a ridiculous idea behind it. A billionaire has invested a lot of money to find out if the Marianas trench is even deeper than we thought. The first mission doesn’t go as planned and Jonas Taylor (Statham) is called to save the people from the bottom of the ocean. There they find the biggest shark that ever lived, a megalodon, which escapes from the deep and starts terrorizing people. It’s up to Taylor and the group he is working to kill it.

 The Meg is a project which was planned to be made several times. In the nineties Hollywood Pictures bought the rights but didn’t make a film. In 2005 New Line Cinema wanted to make it with Jan de Bont directing it. So almost thirty years later it has finally surfaced. Through the years there have been a lot of Jaws inspired movies, whether it were smart sharks in Deep Blue Sea, flying ones in Sharknado or the slightly more realistic ones in The Shallows or 47 Meters Down. They entertain because you know these monsters are present and could show up at any moment. That’s also the case here and the moments the Meg shows up are the most entertaining. The plot in between is not really worth watching and never really convincing (a romance between Jonas and biologist Suyin (Bingbing Li) feels way too forced) and its the actors who are having fun with it manage to sell the madness. Going in I was expecting a fun B-movie and it has enough moments to make it an enjoyable ride.

[score6]