The Meg - Movie Review (2.5/5 Stars)

By Hamza Shafique (Instagram / Facebook)

I will be honest,  my biggest fear that keeps me away from my otherwise favorite activities like snorkeling and scuba diving is to encounter sharks. So just like Skyscraper played with my fear of heights this one touched my shark fear, in The Meg-A way possible.

For a moment lets leave everything aside, I just want to know who approves such scripts in the first place. I really want to know who thought it's a great idea to show our protagonist take her 8 year old daughter along to hunt a prehistoric enormous killer shark, when this 75 feet shark can easily topple boats and even ships. The key job of film makers is to present these unbelievable stories in a believable sane relatable way and I don’t think Meg delivers in that perspective but otherwise if you love killer sharks than this can be a fun scary experience.

For such films, two things are important in the narrative, the key logic behind creating the situation our protagonist gets in and the events that are involved in getting out of it. So The Meg gets the logic right, we believe how a prehistoric shark survives all these years and manages to surface but then after that it doesn’t makes sense. I mean my mind doesn’t accept why a billionaire who can afford to be on the helicopter chooses to be on a tiny boat when he knows very well there is a monster in sea or in the beginning why a team of scientists along with their resident doctor gets on a boat to hunt the giant shark in the first place when they clearly have no qualification or experience. 

In such movies we understand if they get stuck in a situation, like if the whole facility goes under water and then they are being hunted but here they voluntarily go after the monster when they clearly are not the right person for the job and this takes the believability factor out of the screenplay. From the positive perspective, screenplay does contain moments of surprise, suspense and horror, but the characters like submarine design engineer, resident doctor and the billionaire sponsor going out voluntarily, when clearly in their capacity they were not qualified neither required for the job, takes the whole impact away.

The cliché characters with out any layers also impact the overall experience. Every attempt of adding depth to them, like an estranged father daughter relationship is abrupt and is not woven well into the plot, so has no impact. This also affects the performances by the cast including Statham. He lacks over all screen presence required to carry such a brainless summer popcorn flick, something we usually get from actors like Dwayne Rock Johnson.

Megalodon parts are good and entertaining, graphics are neat and the way whole thing is presented creates interesting experience, I am sure IMAX and 3d would make for a unique experience. Graphics are good and we do get to see a full on crazy giant shark in killer mode in best visual manner possible. Let's be honest everyone who wants to go for this film, only wants to see a giant shark going crazy which you get in most entertaining way, so for me, in that sense, The Meg is a clear winner.

Overall it's an average summer popcorn flick and if shark week is your favorite show then you are in for a treat. For me it was not boring cringe fest yet it had nothing remarkable or exciting to offer also, I go with 2.5 stars.