Ben Oliver

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The Meg

Meg versus man isn’t a fight… it’s a slaughter.
07 December 2018

A deep-sea rescue mission awakens ‘The Meg’, a giant shark thought to have been extinct for 2 million years. It gets very bitey and only Jason Statham can save the day. From the director of Cool Runnings (I don’t know why but it seems worth mentioning).

The Meg shows just the right amount of self-awareness to get away with being incredibly stupid. It keeps its tongue planted firmly in its cheek but also doesn’t go out of its way to wink at the audience. Any comedy is purely visual, there are no ham fisted references to other films or cheap cameos.

The first half of the film is pretty dull stuff; pointless character development, a boring deep sea rescue mission, a lot of faffing around. When the shark starts murdering the cast every 10 minutes or so things get much more entertaining.

The restraints placed on the film hurt it. There’s no gore at all, to keep the age-rating down. This isn’t Jaws or even The Shallows, it’s more of a slasher movie than a tense thriller. You need blood and guts.

More entertaining than not, but alas The Meg doesn’t quite do enough to be worth a recommendation.