I saw a Thursday preview of this summer's obligatory shark movie, The Meg, with a large and rowdy crowd and, surprisingly, I thought it was pretty good. Jason Statham plays Jonas Taylor, a rescue diver who once abandoned a submarine when he saw a giant shark attacking it and is now in disgrace eking out a living in Thailand because no one believed him. Off the coast of China five years later, a marine research station, financed by billionaire Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson), has sent a submersible below the Mariana Trench where it is attacked by a giant shark which they identify as a megalodon thought to be extinct. The researchers convince Taylor to rescue the submersible because his ex-wife is on board which leads to a bit of vindication for Taylor (and a possible romance with one of the oceanographers played by Li Bingbing). However, the rescue of the submersible has freed the megalodon from the Mariana Trench and it now threatens one of the most densely populated beaches in Asia. Led by Taylor, our team of expendable researchers must try to kill it in some gravity-defying maneuvers. The script is very derivative, some of the acting is stilted, much of the dialogue is cringe-worthy, and the CGI is messy at times but somehow this movie is still awesome! Once it gets going, it is absolutely relentless and some of the action sequences are incredibly suspenseful. The crowd at my screening gasped out loud during several tense moments. If you are a fan of these action thrillers, I suspect you will like The Meg and I recommend seeing it on the biggest screen possible with as many people as possible.
Note: Pippin steals the show!
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