{"id":29614,"date":"2018-11-19T00:09:22","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T05:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=29614"},"modified":"2018-11-17T20:42:45","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T01:42:45","slug":"the-meg-2018-blu-ray-dvd-digital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/19\/the-meg-2018-blu-ray-dvd-digital\/","title":{"rendered":"The Meg (2018) [Blu-Ray\/DVD\/Digital]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>John Turtletaub\u2019s adaptation of \u201cThe Meg\u201d may not have been everyone\u2019s cup of tea in 2018, but for me it was a damn good time with an eye on being about as novel as possible. While it does pander to the ever important Asian movie going audience, \u201cThe Meg\u201d is a weird and wild action movie that feels like an eccentric amalgam of Peter Benchley, Renny Harlin, and Paul WS Anderson. It\u2019s a comedy, a science fiction film, an action movie, a romance, a man vs. nature picture, and a tale of redemption all rolled in to one. It even squeezes in a bang up cast of character actors like Cliff Curtis, Li Bingbing, and Rainn Wilson as an eccentric billionaire thrust in to the extraordinary confrontation with a giant megalodon.<\/p>\n

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Jason Statham plays Jonas Taylor, an expert deep sea diver who became a pariah after experiencing an attack by a Megalodon. Though he insisted he experienced a confrontation with the beast, he was let go by his team and cited as insane. Now with an international undersea observation program going deep in the fathoms to explore new sea life, they\u2019re observed by a billionaire and financier who want to learn about the program. But things go awry when an underwater vessel unleash the mythical megalodon and is attacked, stranding them underwater. Now with a chance to redeem himself, Jonas agrees to go under and rescue them. What the crew fails to realize they\u2019ve opened the door the megalodon to follow, and have unleashed an unstoppable force of nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Meg\u201d is a movie that goes everywhere it can within its two hour run time and it amounted to something of an eccentric but fun action movie that covers all the bases in what audiences might expect from something of this ilk. Even the casting of Jason Statham is somewhat outside the box, and Statham rises to the occasion as a fun and sleek underwater hero who always seems to be working by the skin of his teeth. \u201cThe Meg\u201d never has time to settle, running back and forth through various plot threads. It\u2019s almost like the script has been rewritten a thousand times with new sub-plots introduced. When the movie almost seems to settle down, there\u2019s a brand new setting established. And yes, there\u2019s even a giant attack in a public beach set in China, meant for the international audiences.<\/p>\n

But it ends up becoming so offbeat and unusual, I couldn\u2019t help but soak it all in and have a laugh. It wants sorely to be \u201cJaws,\u201d \u201cDeep Blue Sea,\u201d \u201cDeep Rising,\u201d and \u201cJurassic Park: The Lost World\u201d rolled in to one, and on rare occasions it almost pulls off the feat. Statham, Li Bingbing, and Rainn Wilson come out the best in \u201cThe Meg,\u201d playing some interesting heroes that do battle with the Meg on their own terms. Wilson is great as the modern wunderkind billionaire who can do nothing but stand back and watch, and inevitably become his own worst enemy. Li Bingbing is very good as the heroine Suyin working hard to prove something to her father (Winston Chao), while also trying to maintain the relationship with her gradually alienated young daughter.<\/p>\n

For what it promises, \u201cThe Meg\u201d fulfills a lot of its promises with some great shark rampages, a lot of close calls, and some top notch action scenes with Statham doing what Statham does best. There\u2019s even a cute dog put in to a massive amount of jeopardy for the sake of a classic Boomer \u201cIndependence Day\u201d moment. An R rating and a few F bombs could have improved on the film\u2019s urgency, as well as much less superfluous comedic relief, which literally feels tacked on, including a gag about a crew member\u2019s inability to swim. I also would have loved a lot more peeks behind the psychology of Jonas\u2019 back story, and whether he\u2019s still tortured by the failed mission that made him who he is when we meet him. That said \u201cThe Meg\u201d is a fun, briskly paced monster picture, and while it suffers from uneven tone, it\u2019s a worthwhile popcorn movie.<\/p>\n

Featured on the release from Warner is \u201cChomp on This,\u201d a twelve minute look at the creation of the movie, while \u201cDesigning the Beast\u201d is a ten minute look at the creation of the monster and how the design team sought to make the monster look unique. Finally, there\u2019s a short commercial for the New Zealand Film Commission.<\/p>\n