Movie Review: The Meg

 
Out of the big blockbuster films of 2018, one of the films I’ve most looked forward to seeing was The Meg. I’m a sucker for sharks and even have a few Megladon teeth in my collection. So, when The Meg arrived on Blu-ray this week I was psyched to finally get my hands on a copy. I had high hopes for the movie from the first time I learned that it was coming and I was not disappointed.
 
The film opens with action star Jason Statham on a mission to rescue sailors from a sub. Unfortunately, he had to leave a few men behind t save the life of those already on the rescue vessel. Just as the rescue sub pulls away something big hits the wrecked sub and blows it up.
 
Blamed by his co-workers for the lost lives of the men he left behind Statham’s character Jonas trades in his life for a life of intoxication. His permanent vacation is interrupted when two men from his past seek him out with hopes he will rescue a three-member team of scientists stuck at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. When Jonas learns his ex-wife is one of the scientists he jumps into action. During his descent, he sees it, a beast-like the one that destroyed the sub in the accident that sent his life into a downward spiral. As the movie unfolds we see Statham’s character transform from a bitter man to a man on a mission for redemption.
 
The Meg reinforces what I already knew, Statham is the epitome of what an action star should be, strong, brave, and completely badass. Time and time again he goes head to head with the ultimate predator and it’s impressive as hell.
 
Bingbing Li, Jonas’ love interested, plays the role of Suyin, a scientist and the daughter of the man (Winston Chao) who runs the science facility, whose goal is to learn if what we thought was the bottom of the trench is actually gas, with a never before seen creature rich environment below. Suyin is not only one of the facility’s main scientists, but also the mother of Meiying (Shuya Sophia Cai) who is key to the story.
 
Rainn Wilson stars as Morris, the billionaire who is funding the study. First seeing the discovery of the Meg as a windfall, Morris quickly changes his mind as he watches the beast kill his staff one after another. Wilson played his rich, but caring character well.
 
Oh, yeah, there’s A LOT of death, gore, and blood in the movie, but that tends to happen when you have a hungry 65-foot eating machine on the loose. It’s exactly what I was hoping for. Director Jon Turteltaub created a fantastically fun movie, based on Steve Alten’s novel “Meg”.
 
The special effects are on point in this flick. Everything looked so great from the beginning to the end from the aquatic life, the facility, the Meg, the kills, everything.
 
The Megladon is amazing, big, beautiful, and deadly, just like I imagine the real ones were 2.6 million years ago. I was pleased that the size of the beast wasn’t overly exaggerated like they usually are in movies. The largest Megladon fossils ever found are that of a 58.7 feet long behemoth, but it’s a bit smaller than the one in the film. Odds are, larger specimens probably existed in real life and there’s no way of telling how big they actually got. I’m a huge fan of accuracy and it seems that Turteltaub and screenwriters Dean Georgaris and Jon Hoeber are too. That makes me very happy.
 
I loved The Meg. It is a fun, action-packed, blood-filled flick that I will watch again and again. To be honest, I even found myself awake in bed the night I watched it contemplating what if the Megladon is still out there lurking in the depths of the ocean, after all, humans have only explored 5% of the ocean. We know more about Mars than the oceans on our own planet. That’s insane, isn’t it?
 
I fell for The Meg hook, line, and sinker and I’m giving it a perfect score of 5/5! It is now out on Blu-ray and DVD so go sink your teeth into one of the best films of the year.