The mighty Jason Statham battles a shark in The Meg
CERT 12A, 113 MINUTES, IN CINEMAS 10 AUGUST
Starring: Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Winston Chao Director: Jon Turteltaub
THE PLOT After being attacked by a massive creature, a deep-sea immersible containing an international marine science team lies disabled on the bed of the Pacific Ocean. With time running out, former deepsea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Statham) is called into action by oceanographer Dr Zhang (Chao) – but Zhang’s daughter Suyin (Li) reckons she can rescue the crew on her own. Joining forces, the pair discovers that the attacking creature is a 75-foot-long prehistoric shark called the Megalodon – believed to have become extinct about two million years ago. In fact, Jonas had encountered this gianttoothed aquatic beast five years before, but no one had believed him. WHAT’S RIGHT/WRONG WITH IT? Reviews of The Meg were embargoed until after heat’s publication date – backers Warners presumably calculating that the promise of “Jason Statham + giant shark” was already enough to get us amply excited, and the film can only struggle to live up to the version playing inside our head. Still, our enthusiasm remains undiminished. VERDICT Although The Stath has appeared over recent years in instalments of Fast & Furious and The Expendables, as well as alongside Melissa Mccarthy in Spy, it’s been a while since he’s made a big splash in a film tailored to his unique qualities. We hope this is it!