Director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) strikes an agreeable tone, avoiding both unnecessary heaviness and self-aware camp.

| Mar 4, 2020

Asks little more of you than to strap in, put away your phone and enjoy watching a freakishly huge prehistoric eating machine terrorize some scientists before it turns its appetite to a beach full of frolickers on floaties.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 29, 2018

...exactly what we paid for.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 24, 2018

The one genuine shock is that it takes Statham as long as 44 minutes to remove his shirt and flash his pecs.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 20, 2018

The Meg is one of the summer's most fun, most mindless blockbusters, a shark vs. human movie that doesn't stand up to close scrutiny but is enjoyably dumb.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 17, 2018

If there's any sense of menace in The Meg, it lies in the prospect that many more such films may be on the way. All that said, I hope there are bigger opportunities in store for whoever edited the trailer.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Aug 15, 2018

The biggest problem, however, is the Meg itself. Director Jon Turteltaub sees to have entirely misinterpreted the mechanics of the creature feature.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 14, 2018

The film delivers on that silly-stupid-summer-fun promise, while also exceeding expectations in terms of action and set-pieces

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 14, 2018

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

| Aug 13, 2018

Ultimately, the film can play fast and loose with the laws of deep-water biology all it wants and still be carried by the jaunty charm of its lead actor.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 12, 2018

It would've benefitted by being more dumb.

| Aug 10, 2018

Everything in The Meg looks fake, from the New Zealand-as-coastal-China backdrop to the massive underwater research center to the actors themselves, none of whom have been costumed or photographed with any sharpness.

| Aug 10, 2018

Maybe director John Turteltaub thought the barrage of pathos and yuks would distract from the fact that his star is a very big fish that is not very bright. Still: cool shark, bro.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 10, 2018

I wanted this movie to be wackier, crazier, and over the top, the problem is that it's PG13.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Aug 10, 2018

People are going to see this movie to watch the actor essentially punch a gigantic prehistoric shark in the face and on that front I'm hard-pressed to claim I was ever disappointed.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 10, 2018

It's so bad that it's good, remember? It's bad, but it's funny! You're laughing! Right? The truth, unfortunately, is that the novelty of Statham's self-mocking performance and deadpan antics fades away... It is so bad that it's bad.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 10, 2018

To call the film "derivative" isn't pejorative; it's kind of the point.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 10, 2018

The Meg is oddly charming, more pulp than cheese, like the sci-fi pumped out in the 1950s.

| Aug 10, 2018

The makers of The Meg may have gone to school on Spielberg, but the big-budget deep-sea thriller is nothing but bloodless summer filler.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 10, 2018

Jason Statham takes on a giant shark in "The Meg," a fun-dumb splash of summer popcorn entertainment that manages to be more fun than dumb.

| Original Score: B- | Aug 10, 2018