The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

As a child, your imagination can have you believe implausible notions like the existence of singing candle sticks or a flying elephant but, as a grown up, you’re more skeptical about what to believe. Two things about The Meg are completely beyond belief; first the whole plot line of the one man killing prehistoric giant sharks, and secondly how absolutely charismatic that man, Jason Statham, is while doing it.

The Meg starts as a crew of marine scientists dive to a newly discovered depth in the Pacific Ocean and get trapped there after an attack by a mysterious creature. After expert/lunatic Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) comes to the rescue, the group realises that the creature has followed them up into shallower waters and is out for blood.

Seems cool enough and it is. It is, however, absolutely ridiculous.

We can stretch our imagination to the whole hidden compartment in the ocean and the existence of a vicious prehistoric shark bit, but the film takes it too far. The scenes where Taylor basically pokes the giant shark with a pointy stick, or when they have a swimming race where Taylor not only wins, but also does so completely unscratched are completely bonkers. There are also a couple of scenes where, right when the shark is almost about to eat someone, it stops for a completely cinematic, artificial, and implausible reason.

Another ridiculous aspect of the film is the series of stupid plans initiated by the group; from having one of the members placed inside a cage under water in an attempt to shoot the shark, to calling out the shark to the submarine pod with Taylor inside it, though he has run out of weapons.

But most ridiculous of all, there is the film’s script with cheesy cliché lines like “There’s something out there”, “its about who you save”, and “lets ask it out to dinner”. The lines completely butcher the acting chops of the film’s all-star cast.

As for the acting, Jason Statham excels in any action feature, with his strong suit and his courageous action hero performance making this movie watchable. This also includes his teasing comments, followed by that irresistible smirk and his jaw dropping physique but, still great acting chops. The two obstacles to his performance were the horrible lines he was given and his lack of chemistry with Bingbing Li, who plays his love interest.

Seeing a giant shark coming at you on an IMAX screen is worth a watch, and seeing Jason Statham on there is worth it too, but if you are looking for a convincing and clever plot, go fish.