The Meg
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Writer: Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber
Based on: Steve Alten‘s novel Meg
Cast: Jason Statham, Bingbing Li, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Winston Chao, Shuya Sophia Cai, Ruby Rose, Page Kennedy, Robert Taylor, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Jessica McNamee, Masi Oka
Seen on: 24.8.2018

Plot:
Five years ago, deep sea captain Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) lost his job, his wife Lori (Jessica McNamee), his reputation after a mission that ended in failure and death – and his explanation that it was all caused by a Megalodon – a long extinct mega shark. Now his expertise as a rescue diver is needed as a submarine was stranded at the bottom of the Mariana trench – a submarine that happens to carry Lori and two other scientists. Called in by oceanographers Zhang (Winston Chao) and Suyin (Bingbing Li) to help, Jonas soon discovers that he faces the same threat he faced back then.

I was looking forward to The Meg so much. I assumed it was going to be the perfect film to get drunk to and enjoy its badness. Imagine my surprise when it turned out that I honestly, unironically, wonderfully just loved the film.

Look, I’m not saying that The Meg isn’t preposterous or that it is entirely logical and it definitely has all the hallmarks of a so-bad-it’s-good film. But somehow it has the same magic like Clash of the Titans: it’s all of those things, but it’s also absolutely fantastic in a way.

A big part of the charm comes from the characters: they were just loveable and made sense to me. And I will openly admit that Jason Statham and Bingbing Li made my bi ovaries dance. I mean, Statham usually manages that on his own, but here he gets to play a character who has more warmth than he usually gets to show, which makes things even worse/better. Add Bingbing Li to that and damn, I’m in heaven.

But I didn’t just enjoy the movie with my ovaries. I was honestly entertained during every single second of the film. It made me laugh, the shark is awesome and the entire film has an energy about it that had me bouncing in my seat, wanting to clap like a little child.

In short, The Meg is perfect popcorn cinema that knows its own strengths and weaknesses and plays its cards in the optimal way. It never pretends to be more than it is, it’s entirely comfortable in its skin – and that in turn made me comfortable with it.

Summarizing: it’s not good, but I LOVED it.