Movie Rating 6 out of 10
Family Rating There are a number of shark attacks resulting in deaths and may be scary for young children. Similar to Jurassic Park.
Can you remember ‘back in the day’ when movies were not part of the Marvel or DC universe, did not have a political message and were designed to give you a few laughs, a few fright jumps and would be forgotten the day after you have watched it? Welcome to The Meg.
For those who haven’t seen the trailers, Meg is short for Megladon, a gigantic shark that ruled the oceans during the time of the dinosaurs. It has been estimated to have been around 14 metres long, had jaws that could swallow a human whole and makes Great Whites look like bait fish. Luckily there are no more on the earth to terrorise the beaches – or are there???
The film stars Jason Statham playing Jonas Taylor, a washed up diver who was held accountable for the loss of a submarine crew during a rescue. He claims that he had no choice as the vessel was attacked by a 20metre shark but of course no one believes him. Fast forward a couple of years and a research submarine crashes to the bottom of the deepest spot in the ocean with only one person having the skill to pull off the rescue, enter Jonas and talk about coincidences his ex-wife is on board. The rescue is completed but in doing so The Meg is released into the ocean proper and the fun begins.
This shark movie doesn’t rank with the original Jaws but is much better than the many sequels that were made. Throughout the movie, you will see a number of references to Jaws (one of my top 10 movies ever) with most of them done tongue-in-cheek. The movie flows pretty well with many cliche one-liners, some good humour, the sacrifice of a number of actors to the shark and some genuinely jump-worthy moments.
Working with Statham is an international cast including Australian’s Ruby Rose, Jessica McNamee and Robert Taylor, New Zealand’s Cliff Curtis and Asian stars Bingbing Li and Winston Chou. Rainn Wilson, Dwight from The Office, plays the billionaire who is funding the research station and while not the ‘evil’ benefactor we see in a lot of these movies he is still looking after his own needs before the safety of the world and karma bites him on the butt.
While the movie played well on the big screen it is a movie to put on your “wait till it comes to Netflix” list but once it arrives, take the time to enjoy the thrills.