Review: The Meg May Be 2018's Most Enjoyable Film
- Aug 22, 2018
- 2 min read
There is a phrase that is often overused and misinformed. That something is good, simply because it is aware of what it is. Well, The Meg knows exactly what it is, leading to raw, unadulterated entertainment and the best mindless blockbuster in a long time.
During a daring rescue at the deepest point in the ocean, an until now undiscovered canyon hidden below a layer of freezing, well, stuff, Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) finds himself face to face with a long extinct super predator, the megalodon. A 30 metre shark capable of sinking boats with a single bite, it has remained hidden from the world until now. With the killer fish on the loose, and the body count rising, Jonas must work with what he has to that the fight to the megalodon itself.
I am not ashamed to say that I enjoy dumb movies. Pacific Rim? Yes please. Independence Day? Gimme some of that. Transformers, at least the first one? I'm there. The Meg is no exception. It is, to put it simply, fun. Just aware enough so as to not come off as a serious film, but serious enough that it feels like an attempt was made to be a good movie. There's no real emotion, the bare minimum of character development, and the one time it tries to create any kind of message, that maybe humanity is the real monster, it's tossed aside with a "yeah, whatever", both in the mind of the viewer, and in the film itself.
Director Jon Turteltaub knows that the audience wants to see a colossal shark munch its way through as much stuff as possible, and he shows it off as best he can. In an interview with Bloody Disgusting he said that they had a long line of graphic, violent deaths prepared, none of which made it to the film in the studio's attempt to open it up to a larger market. This is perhaps its only flaw, at least as far as entertainment value goes, if only to satiate my desire to see a bloody path left behind by a shark that, at one point, literally bites a whale in half.
If you desire to see Jason Statham go mano-a-mano with a shark the size of a school bus, The Meg is for you. If you want an engaging plot, enthralling characters and a sympathetic villain, The Meg doesn't even want your ticket. It wants to entertain on the most base level possible, and at this, it excels.
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