Jonas Taylor, rescue diver, had a traumatic experience with something unknown crushing a nuclear submarine and forcing him to leave his best friends behind in order to save others. Five years later, the underwater research facility Mana One discovers an even deeper section of the Mariana Trench. The crew of the small craft is attacked and stranded due to the damage. Drunken Jonas is pulled from his island retreat to save them only to face the gigantic creature of his nightmares.
The Meg is yet another killer shark film except this particular shark is a Megalodon, a giant species from millions of years ago. The stakes are higher because of the extend of the devastation it could cause. Like most of these types of movies, the shark seems to actively go after individual people it has a grudge against and after large groups of people to eat. The shark looks awesome. Its ability to jump in the air and move at breakneck speed makes it daunting as hell. The size of it is crazy, but it isn't really believable that the people had any chance at all to beat it.
Most of the human characters have a sense of community and meaningful relationships to each other. Even the very first character to die (who had very little screen time) made me a little emotional. The research team felt like a family who truly cared for each other. Suyin and Jonas had an adorable romance where Jonas didn't just go around saving her. Suyin's daughter Meiying is the cutest kid. The writing for her is a little too precocious for a kid her age, but it didn't annoy me. Her interaction with Jonas gave him a little softness to his stereotypically gruff action hero facade. Jack, the billionaire funding the program, had no consistency to his character at all. First he was comic relief, then he was the greedy boss, and finally settled on the villainous big game hunter.
The Meg is a ridiculous movie, but it was fun and over the top just like I wanted. The emotional stakes with the well built relationships and warm fuzzies with Jonas, Suyin, and Meiying are unexpected and very welcome in this type of movie. The big flaws for me are the inconsistency in Rainn Wilson's character and the entirely too long run time of the movie. It should have been at least a half hour shorter to keep up the momentum. The Meg isn't Jaws, but it's not trying to be. Don't go in expecting logic or realism and you'll be fine.
My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins
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