The Meg Review: 4 Ups & 5 Downs

Downs...

5. The Totally Boring First Act

There's no getting around it: the first 30-40 minutes of this movie are pretty damn rough.

Rather than hit the ground running with insane shark shenanigans, The Meg's first act mostly focuses on a dull, uninteresting rescue mission which culminates with the belated introduction of the titular prehistoric shark.

This opening portion wastes far too much time on expository dialogue, introducing the forgettable characters and, strangely enough, keeping Jason Statham off-screen for a surprising amount of time.

Ultimately, the awkward first reel just feels like needless padding, when a more streamlined introduction to the scenario would've made much more sense. After all, did this movie really need to be almost two hours long?

Things thankfully pick up significantly for the final hour-plus of the film, but getting there is honestly a bit of a slog.