Film Review: 'The Meg'

Directed by: Jon Turtletaub (National Treasure) Starring: Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson (The Office) Runtime: 113 minutes Rotten Tomatoes: 48%; Metacritic: 46

A schlock B-movie with a 178 million dollar budget starring Jason Statham and a pre-historic shark? Well if that doesn't hook you in then sadly your life is utterly devoid of fun.

"THE MEG" is a cheeseball-action movie starring Jason Statham as wisecracking Brit, Jonas Taylor. When a mission from the past goes wrong, Taylor is haunted by his endeavor to the deep sea. However, when the pre-historic Megalodon resurfaces from a botched scientific discovery, it's up to Jonas and a bunch of cannon fodders to fight and kill it for the sake of Chinese people.

-----------------------------------------------------------

This is a movie where you know what you're gonna get: a very fun, very breezy summer movie, filled to the brim with nigh-on stupidity and forgettable characters. "THE MEG" is that, only worse.

----------------------------------------------------------

Firstly, the positives: - Jason Statham: By this point in his career, it's amazing that Statham still brings this much quiet charisma to such a bland character, billed as "white hero with a romantic interest". What could have been a phoned-in, quick-buck performance turns out to be the easy highlight of the film, with Statham selling his character with self-awaring one-liners and a tangible presence during the action scenes.

- The visual effects: It honestly looks good; once you're in the water, you feel the lived-in environment. Furthermore, The Megalodon looks great in the 15 minutes he's on screen. He's terrifying and believable to a fault.

- The fun: All shortcomings aside, this is still a fun movie; you can go in, shove popcorn in your mouth, turn your brain off and enjoy some laughs.

-----------------------------------------------------------

The negatives:

- The script: The script is just a reason to string together the action scenes; so lacking in tension and stakes that it becomes laughable when it tries to put Jason Statham in peril; we all know he's going to survive.

- The characters: Bland, inoffensive fodders at best, grating and stupid at worst. The worst offender is Li Bingbing's character: she constantly places herself in situations which DO NOT require her presence; I really thought we were over the "damsel-in-distress" storyline.

- Li Bingbing: I know, she is only there to draw in Chinese audiences, but couldn't the casting director find another capable Chinese actress for the role? Li is utterly horrendous. She can't sell her character even if her life depended on it, her attempts at comedy are cringeworthy and her interactions with Jason Statham are hampered by her stilted acting.

Overall: D+ Just a tad better than Sharknado.