The Meg

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Jonas Taylor (played by Jason Statham) is a deep sea rescue man. He retires after being disgraced following a rescue that led to the deaths of his two teammates. Five years later, his old crew asks for his help on another resuce mission. This leads to Jonas and his crew battling it out with a megalodon. The movie is pretty much advertised and billed as Jason Statham vs. a shark. That's what I wathced this movie looking for, and that's what I got out of it. The actors all seem like they're enjoying themselves (especially Jason Statham and Rainn Wilson). The character development is admittedly pretty thin. The little character development that is there is pretty stock. A lot of it comes from what you would get out of action movies from the 80s and 90s. However, there does seem to be something of a self-aware wink and nod to it in parts. It almost feels like the movie understands the cliches of the genre, and has a little bit of fun with them. The issue with this is I don't feel they do quite enough with that. I also think the PG-13 rating is a bit of a hindrance.It doesn't fully allow the movie to really go balls-to-the-wall. I love the look of the underwater scenes. There's some incredible detail. The shark itself also looks pretty decent (even if you can tell that the shark is CGI). Despite it's very noticable flaws, I still recommend The Meg. It promises Jason Statham fighting a shark, and that's what it delivers. In my eyes, it doesn't really matter whether this is a truly "good" movie or not.

6 / 10