The Meg

Big, glossy and daft, Jon Turteltaub's blockbuster B-movie is exactly what you would expect from what could be subtitled "The Stath versus Jurassic Shark". If only it were a little more fun. Bearing little relation to Steve Alten's 1997 airport novel, the film sees Jason Statham's disgraced rescue diver dragged out of retirement to save a submersible disabled in the Pacific Mariana Trench by a giant prehistoric megalodon. If it's tension, teeth and terror you're after, you're looking in the wrong place, because the carnage here amounts to little more than sound effects and suggestion. Statham cuts a fine dash in the ludicrous sea-faring action, though, and there's an epic quality to many of the set pieces. However, it says a lot about the standard of the rest of the adult acting that the best laughs are provided by little Sophia Cai as the only child on the research vessel. With every Jaws trick replicated to little effect, and a poor script packed with laughable dialogue, this is a brainless CGI feeding frenzy that jumps the shark too often to be as fun as it should be.