DVD review: The Meg

DVD: The Meg

Reviewed by: Samantha Keogh

Review made possible by: Empire Entertainment

Previously thought to be extinct, a massive creature attacks a deep-sea submersible, leaving it disabled and trapping the crew at the bottom of the Pacific.

With time running out, a visionary oceanographer recruits rescue diver Jonas Taylor to save the crew and the sea itself from an unimaginable threat — a 75-foot-long (23m) prehistoric shark known as the Megalodon.

However, Taylor has seen this particular critter before when it ended his career years before.

In his previous encounter with the shark, Taylor was called to save the crew of another sunken nuclear submarine bit when he saw the hull of the submarine being damaged by an unknown creature he took the decision to leave two crew members behind to save those he had already extracted from the vessel.

On his return to the surface, Taylor’s claim is that a giant sea creature caused the disaster.

He is dismissed by his teammate Dr Heller, who believes Taylor was affected with pressure-induced psychosis and blames him for the loss of their friends.

Five years later, Taylor is called to help extract the crew of another ambushed submersible when Dr Minway Zhang, who runs the underwater research facility “Mana One”, with his daughter, Suyin, an oceanographer, is supervising a mission to explore what may be a deeper section of the Mariana trench.

When the team, which includes Taylor’s ex-wife, are hit by a very large sea creature, they lose contact with the research station and Taylor is pursued to help.

Back at Mana One, the crew discovers that the shark is a Megalodon, the largest shark ever known, believed to be extinct for millions of years.

Meanwhile, Suyin’s daughter, Meiying, goes to the large glass leading to a beautiful underwater view of the ocean, and sees the Megalodon through the glass, and is petrified.

When Suyin respond to Meiying’s screams they realise that they are going to have to take action to prevent everyone in the research station from dying.

As with all shark movies – instead of swimming in the opposite direction to secure their safety, the teams go looking for the meg in an attempt to kill it before it kills anyone else.

Of course, all is not well and some of them will have to die for the “greater good”.

While, I hope, the premise is extremely far-fetched, I thoroughly enjoyed this film and would gladly recommend it for lovers of thrillers and horrors.

There are a few tense moments, and the odd jump, to be had and even if you don’t jump, watching your friends jump will make your day.

One critic described it as “ridiculous but just the shark movie you want to see” and while it may seem unbelievable, as shark movies go, this one is a pretty fun watch – provided you aren’t The Meg’s next meal.