A creature feature with a budget estimated to be pushing $180 million isn’t going to be an awards season contender, but that doesn’t mean there was any justifiable reason for The Meg to be a disappointment.
Sure, the PG-13 rating didn’t do it any favors when it came to making the most of its ridiculous concept, but let’s not forget that modern horror classics A Quiet Place and Drag Me to Hell were awarded the same rating by the MPAA. Not quite scary enough but nowhere near cheesy enough, either, the giant shark thriller failed to make use of the tools that were within its disposal.
That being said, it was a suitably monster-sized hit at the box office after earning $530 million globally, with sequel The Trench due to hit theaters next summer. That doesn’t mean we can’t feel a tinge of regret over a project sold entirely on the basis of “Jason Statham vs. Prehistoric Shark” landing a frustratingly mediocre Rotten Tomatoes score of just 46 percent.
The Meg still delivers enough big, dumb, loud, and exceedingly stupid fun if you’ve got a couple of hours to kill, though, something Netflix subscribers have been discovering for themselves. Per FlixPatrol, the B-tier movie with an A-list budget has smelled blood in the water to chomp on the platform’s global charts, and it’s even making a splash on Prime Video and Google Play Movies in certain markets, too.
Not quite the sum of its parts, then, but having Ben Wheatley directing the second installment should guarantee a sophomore adventure.