From the title and the premise, I was under no illusion that The Meg was going to be a classic. It was clearly B-movie material, but sometimes B-movie material knows what it is and can be very entertaining and downright ‘brain-removed’ fun. Unfortunately for me The Meg failed on all fronts.
Even with Jason Statham who has never taken himself seriously but is always charismatic and interesting with his iron-filings tinged jaw The Meg slumps. Bogged down by cliché and plum-duff stodgy dialogue the enormous villain of the piece hardly leaves the sandy bottom of the sea.
All things shark on the silver screen now start with Jaws and nearly all end with Jaws. The Meg is the son of the endeavour that is never talked about and sent far away due to his embarrassment to the family.
For instance, even with experienced and good actors in the major roles the cardboard cut-out characters never stay beyond that two dimensioned flatness and then put words in their mouths that belonged in the first draft of the script and you submersible cannot blow it’s ballast tanks to get near to the surface.
Bingbing Li, in particular, delivers her lines with no conviction and is as if she was shoehorned into this film on the whim of the producers – surely not? She’s clearly a beautiful experienced actor so goodness knows what on with this film and role. Even good old Jason has lost fifty percent of his shine and cannot lift the film or story beyond the m’eh level.
Rain Wilson, another good actor starts well in his ‘big bad is a extremely rich (again)’ role but my oh my what did he think if he looked further and further into his script as ‘Morris’ gets more and more predictable until he ends up exactly as you think he is going to. In fact, predictable is the one-word review of this film. You know what is going to happen and when the only fun is guessing how is going to end up as chow and who is swimming home and even that is easy.
The special effects are effects, the story is dull and been seen so many times before and so better that it strains credibility ten minutes in. The dullest part is all those references to Jaws that just make you think you are watching Jaws.
All in all The Meg could have been a great story and even if a bit cheesy it could have been fun but some ham-fisted decisions, derisory script and simplistic and cliché story writing harpooned it before it left the ocean floor.
The Meg is great if your eight-years-old or younger, and if you are you shouldn’t be watching it, but for the rest us it is not even funny in a ‘not funny’ way. Watch Jaws instead.
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2019-07-16T20:00:23Z
From the title and the premise, I was under no illusion that The Meg was going to be a classic. It was clearly B-movie material, but sometimes B-movie material knows what it is and can be very entertaining and downright ‘brain-removed’ fun. Unfortunately for me The Meg failed on all fronts.
Even with Jason Statham who has never taken himself seriously but is always charismatic and interesting with his iron-filings tinged jaw The Meg slumps. Bogged down by cliché and plum-duff stodgy dialogue the enormous villain of the piece hardly leaves the sandy bottom of the sea.
All things shark on the silver screen now start with Jaws and nearly all end with Jaws. The Meg is the son of the endeavour that is never talked about and sent far away due to his embarrassment to the family.
For instance, even with experienced and good actors in the major roles the cardboard cut-out characters never stay beyond that two dimensioned flatness and then put words in their mouths that belonged in the first draft of the script and you submersible cannot blow it’s ballast tanks to get near to the surface.
Bingbing Li, in particular, delivers her lines with no conviction and is as if she was shoehorned into this film on the whim of the producers – surely not? She’s clearly a beautiful experienced actor so goodness knows what on with this film and role. Even good old Jason has lost fifty percent of his shine and cannot lift the film or story beyond the m’eh level.
Rain Wilson, another good actor starts well in his ‘big bad is a extremely rich (again)’ role but my oh my what did he think if he looked further and further into his script as ‘Morris’ gets more and more predictable until he ends up exactly as you think he is going to. In fact, predictable is the one-word review of this film. You know what is going to happen and when the only fun is guessing how is going to end up as chow and who is swimming home and even that is easy.
The special effects are effects, the story is dull and been seen so many times before and so better that it strains credibility ten minutes in. The dullest part is all those references to Jaws that just make you think you are watching Jaws.
All in all The Meg could have been a great story and even if a bit cheesy it could have been fun but some ham-fisted decisions, derisory script and simplistic and cliché story writing harpooned it before it left the ocean floor.
The Meg is great if your eight-years-old or younger, and if you are you shouldn’t be watching it, but for the rest us it is not even funny in a ‘not funny’ way. Watch Jaws instead.