Dont listen to most of these reviews. The Meg is a steaming pile of hot garbage.
First I want to address the Chinese influence in the room. If you like sub-par, nonsensical movies where China and Chinese things are shoehorned in as hard and as often as possible for no real reason, then this just might be the movie for you! If you want to watch several Chinese "actors" who cant act (Bingbing Li and Shuya Cai... God if you got used to seeing good child actors like those in Stranger Things are you in for a treat seeing this kid "act") in an unimpressive "spectacle flick" then this movie might be for you! If you're a teen or sub-teen who thinks flicks like Paranormal Activity are good, then check this bad boy out! If you're all of China, well you've probably already watched this.
For real though, if you have a pulse and are not in a medically induced coma, dont waste precious brain cells on this!
The Meg is an extraordinarily predictable, laughably bad (but not so bad its good) effects driven garbage movie with a pointless plot. It is the typical "Chinese funding movie" where you can clearly see the influence the investors had in regards to the movie. There really isnt a plot, which would have been fine if there was some character development but there is no character development either. Even the special effects were VERY meh and 2008 video game cut-scene feeling. The "best" thing about this movie was Jason Statham, but he had little to work with and even his acting felt... disappointed. I wouldnt say hes phoning it in, but he DEFINITELY is not giving his all. All of the other actors, including Rainn Wilson, were pretty awful. Unfortunately there are several long shot attempts for us to empathize or care about characters but when their acting is worse than a 1st grade play its hard to take seriously.
And Bingbing Li... we get it, you're a pretty face who probably did a LOT to get into the position you are now but you're not a good Chinese actor and you're a tremendously terrible actor in every western film that your bf paid for you to star as. Surprisingly Shuya Cai was even worse than Bingbing, but she at least has the excuse of age on her side.
There is really only one thing going on in this film: Who is the Meg gonna kill? These kills are telegraphed that these people are going to die a mile away with crappy lines that are supposed to be foreshadowing but are HORRIBLE.
Then comes the main star of the show, the Meg. It acts completely unrealistically as a natural predator. You know they just wanted it to act like a movie murderer, but they have it do so many stupid things that are out of character for an apex predator of the seas. It ignores abundant food sources, stays at or near the top of the ocean, and instead of going deep into the ocean and away from shore, somehow this super shark just KNOWS that there is a nearby Chinese beach brimming, and I mean BRIMMING, with swimmers several miles away. While that sounds like a good place for a super shark to go have a nom, there are vastly better, more plentiful fish in the sea than Chinese people on a beach. How and why it makes a bee line to that beach is a mystery of bad writing.
The way they 'take care' of the Meg at the end of the flick is probably one of the dumbest, lamest, so unlikely of a scenario that I let out a huge laugh. This has got to be the worst ending in a mainstream movie I've seen since I cant remember when!
The whole thing was over China-fied that it almost felt like one long advertisement for China. That wouldnt have mattered if they made it part of the script for some reason but no, its Chinese for the sake of being Chinese so Chinese audiences can go OOOO CHINESE!
3/10 for Statham and... well I couldnt really think of anything else. I was going to drop it to a 2 but I guess the effects bring it to a 3. However bad you might think it is, trust me its MUCH worse than that!
IF!!!! you want a super dumb turn off your brain and watch pretty colors on the screen, then see if you can get through this sludge. Everyone else STAY AWAY!!!!!
The worst part is that if the Chinese investors actually let filmmakers do their thing, I' sure someone could have made this unique or interesting... but its just not.