The Meg.
An international underwater marine biology lab, off the coast of Shanghai, is researching the lowest undersea poiint of the Earth and find that ithey can penetrate even further down. In so doing, however, they disturb a relict megalodon - a prehistoric gargantuan shark - which traps one of their submarines. They then have to call in a Megalodon expert called Jonas (sic) (Jason Statham) who is the only man to have encountered one before.
They didn't believe him then.
This time they're going to have to.*
Jonas rescues the submarine members but the Meg - meanwhile (and for reasons that are not really apparent) leaves its abode and goes on the rampage. So the team members have to hunt it down. This will take them to a coastal resort of China where the Meg could have a feeding frenzy....
Shark attack scenarious have become a B-movie cliche now, and they're usually tongue in cheek with ropey CGI effects. This one stands out for its good production values (I think they use a model for the most part) decent acting and reasonably credible plot, which is not so predictable either.
The film, though, couldn't be more cheesy if it tried, with every cliche in the book being rattled through: the selfless heroism, the matey merry banter, the sexual tension between the two main actors, the cute but clued up kid, the cool black guy who act as the voice of reason, the dedicated scientist...and so on.
The film has some Chinese input, in the form of Chinese actors and dialogue - which is refreshing, if increasingly common.
Statham is not my kind of actor - too old school action-hero for me - but here is more likeable as the dragon slayer whou would, given a choice, run away from the dragon.
I would like to have bean treated to more scientific exposition - after all the premise is quite a credible one. Allso I would have prefered a more eco-friendly ending (the story seems to promise one).
8/10: Ideal summer movie (which I saw on my UK break!). It is not the creature feature Jaws reboot I was expecting, more of an undersea adventure yarn, but there's a naive goodnaturedness about it which is impossible to dislike.
* That's my line not theirs, but they can have it - with commission!