The Meg
Directed by Jon Turteltaub
Screenplay by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber
Starring Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, Cliff Curtis, Shuya Sophia Kai
Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date: August 10, 2018

The Meg was fine. It’s not awful in anyway. But it’s also not spectacular in any way. That is the real issue with the latest summer blockbuster shark movie. Any shark movie is going to inevitably compared to Jaws and that is not fair. Jaws was perfect, a classic of unparalleled status. Most of the immediate post-Jaws shark movies were rip-offs. Some have towed the line and were homages. Since Shark Week and the advent of cable TV, specifically the SYFY channel, shark movies essentially take two forms: thrillers that aim to provoke reactions of fear a la The Shallows (2016) and The Reef (2010), and the much more common go for absurdity and silliness like Deep Blue Sea (1999) or the any of the thousands of “shark movies” on cable such as the Sharknado franchise and Sharktopus. The Meg falls in the one place you don’t want to be… the middle.