Review of The Meg (2018) by Gerardistheway — 16 Aug 2018

The Meg is a dumb movie. I'll happily point that out right here and now. It's outlandishly silly in concept and execution and threatens to buckle under the weight of any outside logic applied. But this is precisely part of what makes the film so fun - it's not trying to be the next Citizen Kane, but rather one that is as knowingly ridiculous as it is brainless, a movie that you can simply pop over to for some decent scares as well as laughs and action (courtesy of Jon Turtletaub, director of the equally ludicrous "National Treasure" films). The cast - including Rainn Wilson, Li Bingbing, Ruby Rose, and Page Kennedy as the typical assortment of stereotypes that come along within this sort of movie - is likable, and leading man Jason Statham channels both his typical stone-faced action hero schtick as well as some of the same comedic timing and wit that made him so surprisingly funny in Melissa McCarthy's "Spy" to give us one of his best performances in recent memories.

True, fun as it may be, the film is riddled with cliches, many of the side-stories are underbaked, and the movie doesn't quite go as far off the deep end as you may hope, but it's almost exactly the best that one could ever hope for from a film that's like a big-budget Syfy Original movie with better writing, directing, acting, special effects and, well...basically everything. For me, that's more than enough - I'll take this over "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" any day.