Review: Shark thriller ‘The Meg’ goes deep, stays shallow
Olittle trouble, he goes from boozing in Thailand to easily piloting a vessel straight down to the seafloor. Statham, sometimes a one-man show, here has a fairly large ensemble around him, one assembled to appeal to moviegoers both East and West. Chinese actress Li Bingbing stars as the divorced single-mother daughter of Dr. Zhang, and Taylor’s love interest. Also in the mix as crew members are Ruby Rose (“Orange is the New Black”) and Page Kennedy.
But the main draw in “The Meg” is obviously the giant shark which, after years stuck at the bottom of the sea, is awfully hungry. There are the expected close scrapes, surprisingly good production design, PG-13 rated chompings and fluctuating levels of even giant-shark-movie plausibility. What is it about sharks that inspires such absurdity in plots? Much of “The Meg” aims for a familiar popcorn mix of frights and ridiculousness that may well do the trick for cheap August thrills, or those who pine for, say, “Deep Blue Sea.”
“The Meg” is best when it acknowledges its derivativeness, just one more silly shark movie in an ocean full of them. Its finest moment is when Statham, having willingly jumped into the water near the Megalodon, channels Dory and murmurs to himself: “Just keep swimming.”
“The Meg,” a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for action/peril, bloody images and some language. Running time: 113 minutes. Two stars out of four. Across
1 Capital of Morocco 6 Unruly children
11 Blue
14 Musical production 15 Ropes
16 Pressure unit
17 Indian pole
18 Eight
19 America
20 North American Indian 22 City in Yemen
23 Central processing unit
26 Wagon puller
27 Male offspring
29 British thanks 30 Rooster’s mate
31 Ne
34 Scriptural your 35 Reverse
37 Popular American stadium
39 Western Athletic Conferences
43 Disfigure
44 Centiliter
45 Air gun pellet
46 Lotion ingredient 47 Supplication
48 Candy brand 50 Possessive form of ‘you’
51 Basketball association 53 Afresh
56 Bullfight cheer 57 Possibly
59 Cocktail drink 60 Appliance brand 61 Former president of U.S.
62 World organization 64 Swoping sound 68 Compass point
69 Santa __ (Columbus’ ship)
71 Cebu City barangay 75 School group
76 Notify
77 Thrill
78 Sticky black substance 79 Fork prongs 80 Sing
Down
1 Molder
2 Negros island 3 Gamblers placement 4 Location
5 Cotton plug
6 Alignment
7 Affluent
8 Wager
9 Ball holder
10 Concord e.g.
11 Potato
12 Resources
13 Goddess
21 Cutting tool
22 Anyhow
23 Fool
24 Punitive
25 Inordinate
27 Jab
28 Ohio (abbr.)
32 National capital
33 New Hampshire (abbr.)
36 Cebu island
38 Black
40 Indifferent
41 Might
42 Withered
44 Measure for fresh herrings
49 Scale note after sol 52 Two
54 Self-esteem
55 Founder of Methodism 57 Awkward
58 Softdrink brand 63 Shred
64 Small bird
65 Employ
66 Cereal plant
67 Angel’s head ring 69 Tangle
70 Boxer Muhammad 72 Held
73 Southwestern
Indian
74 Harden
n the tail of “The Shallows,” ?47 Meters Down,” ?Dark Tide” and, of course, the seminal “Sharknado,” comes “The Meg,” the latest in a growing school of shark movies, all of which, to varying degrees, use our fond memories of “Jaws” as bait to reel us back in the water again. The hook on this one? Bigger shark.