Official
Australian release date: 16/8/18. Viewed: 11/8/18.
Director: Jon
Turteltaub
Actors: Jason
Statham, Bingbing Li, Cliff Curtis, Rainn Wilson
Genre:
Action
Rating:
M
From the director of ‘Cool Runnings’, ‘Phenomenon’
and ‘Last Vegas’ (diverse filmography, Turteltaub!) comes ‘The Meg’, a film
about a really big shark. So big (25m!), in fact, that it’s a prehistoric Megalodon.
It’s pretty much the same premise as ‘Piranha’ – which begs the question – why did
this film require three writers?!? Needless to say, there’s not much plot,
other than Jonas (Statham) trying to save people from sunken submersibles, that
keep getting attacked by the “Meg”.
Now, for such a ridiculous idea, it’s
played quite earnestly throughout, especially with romantic interest Suyin (Li),
her Dad (Chao), Jonas’ friend Mac (Curtis), and to a lesser degree, Morris
(Wilson), the billionaire who’s bankrolling the
oilrig-turned-marine-science-lab. Definitely could’ve done with more
tongue-in-cheek-ness – although Suyin’s daughter Meiying (Cai) steals all her scenes.
Ruby Rose, Jessica McNamee and Page Kennedy are mostly wasted.
Main gripe – needed more deaths! If you’re
watching a film about a giant shark (which doesn’t appear for first 30min), you
want to see 20+ people getting eaten. Not sure it even cracks 10… All that being
said, there’s a few jumps, some laughs and it definitely doesn’t overstay it’s
welcome. Not as kitchy as it could’ve been, but certainly no ‘Jaws’ or ‘Deep
Blue Sea’.
Overall: Average Statham-saves-the-day
film, with shark.
Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.
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