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Jason Statham has definitely starred in his share of action movies. He certainly knows his way around a shootout…or a car chase…or even a good fist fight. But in The Meg, he takes on a completely new challenge: a gigantic prehistoric shark.
The Meg stars Statham as Jonas Taylor, a former naval captain who lost his career, his marriage, and his respect five years ago, after a rescue mission ended in tragedy. No one believed his claim that the ship was attacked by a giant beast. But when a team of scientists—including his ex-wife—is trapped at the bottom of the ocean, he’s called in to help rescue the team from the 70-foot shark that’s circling nearby. And he soon finds that the rescue mission has set the terrifying beast free in the ocean.
With its mix of sea monsters, underwater action, and occasionally awkward melodrama, The Meg is exactly what you’d expect from an August thriller: it’s wild and crazy and often ridiculously over-the-top, like a SyFy remake of Jaws. Really, if it weren’t for Jason Statham and his action movie cred, this one most likely would have ended up as a cable TV guilty pleasure. But, thanks to the film’s gritty, growling star, you can head to your favorite neighborhood theater to see it in all of its wacky, prehistoric 3D glory.
Statham may seem like an unlikely pick for a monster movie hero, but he somehow pulls it off, donning his wetsuit and racing off in his submersible as if it were a classic muscle car. And, really, the entire cast is pretty random, with a motley team of underwater engineers who all seem to have wandered in from the set of a completely different film and Rainn Wilson playing the billionaire who controls the purse strings (which is every bit as bizarre as it sounds). Yet it’s all so ridiculous and extreme that it’s strangely entertaining.
Unfortunately, though, the runtime is too long, the story dragging on from one life-threatening scenario to another, taunting viewers with a string of endings that aren’t really the end. And, after a while, it becomes less amusing and more exhausting.
The Meg isn’t the kind of big-budget, high-profile adventure that makes its way to theaters on a busy weekend in July. It’s a silly underwater monster movie with a cool action star and plenty of laughs (both intentional and unintentional). It may not be a thrilling summer blockbuster—or even necessarily horrifying enough to keep you out of the water at your favorite beach—but it’s an entertaining way to escape the August heat.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
