The Meg: 7 Reasons It's The Best Dumb Movie Of 2018
It's less Jaws, and more Deep Blue Sea.
With the summer movie season officially drawing to a close, there's just about time for one last blockbuster to serve up a monster-sized slice of action, laughs, and fun popcorn entertainment.
This year, that honour belongs to Jon Turteltaub's The Meg, which swam into theatres this past weekend and stars Jason "How Americans See British People" Statham, as he faces off against an enormous megalodon shark that was thought to have been extinct for millions of years.
The Meg is the sort of shamelessly enjoyable movie that's perfect for the mid-August cinematic slump, when all the major franchises have had their time and the end of the summer holidays is looming. It's a fun movie that won't ask you to think too much, and predictably - for a shark movie with the tagline "opening wide" - it's also really, really silly, but in an entertaining way that almost makes the dumbness excusable.
Simply put, if you've seen any of the trailers, you know exactly what you're going to get. The Meg is a lot of fun, but it's also an unapologetically dumb movie, and in that regard, it might just win the year...
7. It Happily Waves The Middle Finger At Basic Science
Nobody expected The Meg to be the most scientifically-accurate movie on the planet (and if you did, then... why?) so it's no surprise to learn that it treats its science like Homer Simpson treats his figure: with complete and utter neglect.
Of course, megalodon sharks are no longer around, but The Meg commits numerous other scientific crimes too, crimes that were identified by Hans Sues - a paleobiologist and prehistoric creature expert - in a chat with Science magazine.
In the movie, Meggy is found living below what humans thought was the ocean's deepest point, but as Sues points out, this would be impossible. Megalodons just aren't equipped for life at those depths, and the cold water, lack of food and immense water pressure would firmly rule out the chances of any of these creatures surviving. The environment posited in the movie - a warmer ecosystem under the cold - is also unsupported by real-life evidence.
When asked to give the movie a scientific accuracy rating, Sues replied with a "one out of 10. Maybe two out of 10 if I’m feeling generous."
Still, waving the middle finger at science only props up that dumb B-movie appeal The Meg is shooting for. And as long as we get a giant shark eating stuff, who cares?