The Meg - Movie Review

This film is a 12A, was released on August 10th 2018 and this review will contain VERY MILD SPOILERS, nothing that'll damage your viewing, but minor things.

Introduction

I love to go to the pictures and be entertained, that is the primary reason that I go in the first place. Yes, Hollywood can always put out something emotional and ground-breaking, but I'd much rather see something that entertains me. Entertaining audiences has always been a goal of cinema, but it really began to show when a new type of film was born in the 1970s - the summer tent pole. 

There was a little movie called Jaws, and it gave birth to films that were released in the summer and had the core intention of being escapism and enjoyable. Throughout the years, examples of this film include Star Wars, Jurassic Park and more recently Marvel. But in the summer of 2018, we're so spoilt for choice regarding what film we can see. There's the feel-good Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the family animations like Incredibles 2 or Christopher Robin, light hearted, fun action in Ant-Man and the Wasp, or more serious action such as Mission: Impossible - Fallout. Even with all of these, none of them seem like a classic summer tent pole, but there's also something that just looks like stupid, enjoyable fun with a giant shark - The Meg, 43 years after Jaws.

Thoughts Going In 

I was sure that I would enjoy this film. I like a blockbuster that does something clever or interesting with its visuals or storytelling, but occasionally, something stupid will suffice. The Meg took my interest because the trailers made it look like Jaws if the makers had access to CGI and were maybe a little bit drunk. But, I was keen to see just how ridiculous it was. So, I did. 

The Story 

A few hundred miles of the coast of China, an underwater research team have discovered a hidden trench on the ocean floor, covered by a layer of foam. This seems like a place to uncover new species but ends up causing the crew some trouble when an unknown creature attacks all the vehicles they send down. Of course, Jason Statham is brought in to help the crew and finds out that this creature is a prehistoric type of shark. As he leaves the trench the shark slips out and they then have to hunt it and kill it before it reaches the shore.

What I Liked

You know, this film is actually really enjoyable. Truth be told, there were so many times where I was engaged and having fun with all the bonkers action. When I saw Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom earlier this year, I thought that there were stupid parts, but at least it had Chris Pratt vs some Dinosaurs. The Meg is the exact same case except with Jason Statham vs a shark. So, believe it or not, this film does actually entertain in terms of action scenes and set pieces. 

Regarding Mr Statham, he is really good. He holds the film together well and at times makes this all seem plausible. He is so fully aware of how stupid the film is and his performance reflects that. All you need to know about his character is that he's someone who is willing to dive in the sea and get close to a massive shark to place a tracker on its back. There you go, now you know everything. He's definitely having a great time during all the action scenes and of course drops a few cheesy one-liners here and there. One of the bright spots. 

Of course, this is a shark movie, so this naturally pays respect to the film that began this sub-sub-genre. The references to Jaws are actually a mix of explicit and implicit. You have the underwater shots where the shark looks at all the kicking legs by the beach, the parent being stubborn about their child swimming but allows them (except this time it is played for a joke), the <Minor Spoiler> catching the wrong one and realising as the real one next attacks, the dog (which is called 'Pippin' which I'm sure is a reference to a dog in Jaws called 'Pippet') in peril, Jason Statham basically being a copy + paste of Robert Shaw, the cheesy line before the kill and various others. So it does pay a lot of tribute. 

This may not be a positive for others but I loved it, the predictability. This film is easier to guess than guessing the outcome of dropping a ball to the floor. And it is great. When someone is in the water and all seems fine, you know they won't be around for much longer. When a character makes a stupid decision or has a certain arc, you know what their fate will be. It was so much fun just sitting and saying to myself what I think will happen, and that thing occurring. So even though some may be bothered by this and say it makes the film worse, I really thought it was just hilarious.

What I Didn't Like

The Meg is a stupid movie, I'm sure you've got that vibe based off what I've said. But, there is some attempted drama regarding the deaths of some characters. This isn't fully explored but even from what there was, it bothered me because even though you're supposed to feel emotionally engaged and upset, I was still laughing my head off from the previous, ridiculous set piece. Obviously there needs to be some level of depth to these characters, but it is hard to take someones death seriously when I just witnessed a huge shark jump over a boat. So, what my problem is is that the film had boring scenes which focused to much on  character depth and ended up weighing down the film. 

The CGI. This is odd because CGI is an easy thing to point out and praise, but here there is an overload of it and it is so noticeable at times. You may say that the shark in Jaws was obviously fake too but you should acknowledge: the film was made in the 70s and CGI wasn't big until the 90s or so, and the film made you feel terror not by jumps or showing you a scary shark (for the most part) because it used dramatic build up with setting or characters and combined an equally dramatic theme tune and made you bite your nails until it reaches the climax of the scene. Here, the shark is largely present and the size of it and lack of plausibility makes it hard to feel tension. It usually just uses jumps, which to me are a cheap way to scare an audience.

The last thing is to do with expectations. I thought that I'd sit down, have a good ol' time with a silly movie and watch Jason Statham punch a shark for an hour and a half. The result is I had a good ol' time with a silly movie and watched Jason Statham punch a shark for an hour and a half. That's right, this film didn't offer many surprises. The doesn't necessarily mean the movie is bad but so many films this year like Ready Player One or Avengers: Infinity War surprised me and twisted my expectations in places. I just wish this maybe did something really ridiculous or surprised me in some way, but it didn't. Again, it didn't make the movie bad, but you should know that you're getting into exactly what you think when you see this, there is nothing you won't expect. 

Conclusion

The Meg is a typical shark movie and doesn't bring anything new to the already busy table. But it is so damn ridiculous and stupid that it feels hard to say in any way that it was bad. It has enough entertaining action, a likeable star and some neat Jaws references which do make up for the needlessly serious moments, noticeable CGI and lack of surprises. So if you want to see a film that does something clever or subverts your expectations then you won't get much out of this. But if you're looking for a film this summer where you can just switch off and have some nonsensical fun, The Meg is probably going to pass the time pleasantly for you. 

I'm going to give The Meg a D