While basic, The Meg is still a lot more fun and entertaining than the reviews led me to believe. Perhaps not the exact movie we were all hoping for from the concept or trailers (the shark is not big enough to eat a cruise ship sadly) but as far as the Jason Stathan vs. A Big Damn Shark genre goes, it’s a fine start. I don’t mean fine as in “fine wine” I mean it fine as in “meh, it’s fine“. Like a 5/10 fish finger sandwich. This is also shot by Eastwood’s regular DOP Tom Stern, and it has a certain washed out, flat and un-dynamic digital look I find really ugly (see also 15:17 to Paris, or not because that movie is really bad). He did much better work with celluloid. I wish this was shot on 70mm in the actual sea with a practical shark and given a roadshow release is what I’m trying to say.

A few things worth mentioning:
– The Fin title card was a fucking masterstroke of gag placement.
– If you’re a dog called Pippin and find yourself in a shark movie, GTFO.
– I really hope this was a smash hit in China because they were clearly trying really hard!
– I was going to make a Life Aquatic with Jason Statham gag but somebody already did it.