Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Meg Blu-ray Movie Review

Fish Story

Reviewed by Michael Reuben November 14, 2018

Any movie with a giant shark for a villain has the impossible task of filling the big fins of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, which is probably why The Meg kicked around Hollywood for decades. Writers and directors came and went, and the project migrated from Disney to New Line to Warner Brothers. The film eventually released to theaters in August 2018 was utterly ridiculous—and that may have been the key to its surprise success. Under the direction of Jon Turtletaub, who succeeded in making goofy entertainment out of improbable nonsense in the National Treasure series, The Meg is mindless, formulaic fun, shamelessly stealing from—and even directly quoting—a wide array of predecessors from Deep Blue Sea to The Abyss to Jaws itself. The film never pretends to be anything more than the PG-13 nonsense it is, and by not asking itself or us to take it more seriously, it manages to create two hours of effective popcorn diversion.

It helps that the film stars Jason Statham, whose appealing presence has effectively anchored improbable franchises like The Transporter and Crank series. (No wonder the Fast & Furious crew latched onto him as their latest frenemy.) With Statham at the head of an oversized international cast, The Meg gleefully runs through every trope you've ever seen in a deep sea creature feature going all the way back to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It doesn't add anything new, but it does find enough variations to hold your interest, and Turtletaub keeps things hurtling forward fast enough that the tale's screaming inconsistencies retreat into the background. It's more a theme-park ride than a movie, but at least the ride is a good one.

The "Meg" of the title refers to the megalodon, a prehistoric species believed to be the largest shark of all time. Thought to be extinct for 23 million years, the meg is inadvertently discovered in the heretofore unknown lower depths of the Marianas Trench by a research team led by Dr. Minway Zhang (Winston Chao) and his daughter, Suyin (Li Bingbing). Dr. Zhang and his team have spent years constructing a unique underwater facility named "Mana One". The project has been funded by billionaire Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson), who is either indulging his fantasies or looking for some new motherlode of business opportunity (it's never clear which, and it really doesn't matter). When an exploratory submersible commanded by Lori (Jessica McNamee) is attacked by the meg and disabled, Dr. Zhang calls in the only available diver who has ever attempted a rescue at such extreme depths: Jonas Taylor (Statham).

But Jonas takes some persuading, because five years ago, his last deep-ocean rescue resulted in the death of two of his crew, and he's been drinking himself into a stupor ever since. The mission's medical officer, Dr. Heller (Robert Taylor, a long way from Longmire), blamed Jonas, but Jonas claims that he had no choice but to sacrifice the men after their rescue mission was attacked by a giant unseen creature that he believed to be a megalodon. He and Heller haven't spoken since, which makes it awkward that Heller just happens to be Mana One's resident physician.

Now pay close attention, because there's a plot point in the previous paragraph that is emblematic of The Meg's utter disregard for logic. The megalodon has supposedly remained hidden for 23 million years, and no one even knew about it until the crew from Mana One penetrated the "thermocline cloud" obscuring the true depth of the Marianas Trench. Then The Meg's scientific experts carefully explain how the exploration’s penetration of the thermocline cloud and the subsequent rescue are what allowed the superfish to escape into "our" ocean and become a menace. So . . . how could Jonas have encountered a megalodon five years before the Mana One expedition first descended below that cloud? Did the big fish just pop up for a quick look around before deciding to go back home? (But it can't do that unless human activity breaches the cloud, which then seals itself.) Look beneath the foggy layer of pseudo-scientific jargon, and you quickly discover a gaping plot hole. These multiply faster than guppies in The Meg, and eventually you just have to sit back and giggle as the absurdities swim by.

It's obvious from the get-go that Jonas is going to strap his flippers back on, because (a) he's the hero, (b) it's a classic movie cliche, and (c) Lori turns out to be his ex-wife and she needs rescuing. Once Jonas arrives at Mana One, he gives up alcohol as effortlessly as the meg adapts to the brighter light and reduced pressure of the ocean's surface. Endless calamities, destruction of property and fish feedings ensue, with multiple strategies improvised to destroy the beast, with varying degrees of success and cast members being munched on a regular basis. They're joined in the meg's stomach by a fair number of extras when the beast reaches China's Sanya Bay, where the crowd makes Amity Island's holiday weekend population look sparse. Jonas saves the day, but not before grabbing the opportunity to reconcile with some old adversaries and fall in love with Suyin, whose adorable eight-year-old daughter, Meiying (Sophia Cai), heartily approves of the match. Meiying supplies The Meg's requisite cuteness factor, and Statham wisely lets the precocious tot steal all of their scenes together. (She was great in the trailer, too.)

One of The Meg's unexpected pleasures is counting up all the references to other films (usually better ones, but not always) that have been worked into the proceedings by Turtletaub, an array of screenwriters (three are credited) and the production team. They range from echoes of a familiar music cue to a key character's apparent death-by-drowning (sorry, but that's just too predictable to be a spoiler) to the little boy on the beach whose mother is reluctant to let him go in the water. You remember what happened to that kid in Jaws, don't you?

The Meg Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

In recent UHD reviews, I coined the term "Stupid Disc Authoring" to describe Warner's mastering of soundtracks. Well, SDA™ is alive and well on The Meg's sound options (more on that below), but it has also spilled over into its video mastering as well. The film was captured on Alexa by cinematographer Tom Stern, taking another of his occasional breaks from shooting films for Clint Eastwood (starting with Blood Work in 2002). The film is full of brightly lit locations on seagoing vessels, in control rooms filled with TV and computer screens, and in the submerged transparent circular rings of Mana One. Even the dark underwater scenes are typically pierced by bright lights of various undersea vessels—it's the light that catches the megalodon's attention, although you would think that a creature who has spent millions of years in darkness would be repelled rather than attracted. And of course the climactic sequence at Sanya Bay is a glittering holiday paradise.

All of this bright lighting, matched with equally bright production design, should make for a fantastic Blu-ray, and in fairness the image on Warner' 1080p, AVC-encoded standard version of The Meg looks pretty good, especially in closeups and medium shots, where the detail is well-rendered and the sharpness and blacks are superior. But get into longer shots (e.g., the panoramas of cheerful swimmers and beach jockeys at Sanya Bay), and the detail grows fuzzy. Even more troubling is the faint layer of video noise that is a frequent visitor, especially in darker areas without the benefit of cold blue illumination (the opening rescue sequence has a lot of it). The noise is fine enough and sufficiently brief that it may go unnoticed, especially on smaller screens, but it's there all the same—and it shouldn't be. (It isn't on the UHD.)

The culprit is almost certainly a variation of SDA™ for which Warner became famous in the early days of Blu-ray, when it was also supporting the competing HD-DVD format, with its discs of lesser capacity and its more limited bandwidth. Warner would typically create a single disc image for both formats, thereby failing to take full advantage of Blu-ray's capabilities, and the studio was roundly criticized for it. After HD-DVD died off in 2008—killed by Warner itself, when it discontinued support—this particular application of SDA™ continued like a bad hangover, as Warner stubbornly insisted on squishing films onto BD-25s with low bitrates that routinely resulted in weaker video images.

In recent years, Warner's theatrical department appeared to be getting away from this practice, perhaps inspired by the example of the Warner Archive Collection, which routinely uses generous bitrates to maximize picture quality. But SDA™ comes roaring back with The Meg, which has a measly average bitrate of 19.02 Mbps, with peaks that rarely reach above 25 Mbps. Compressionists have gained enough experience to work around these limitations without generating the kinds of obvious errors that marred some of Warner's early efforts, but there's only so low you can go, even with a digitally originated project, which usually compresses more readily, before the image begins to deteriorate. The Meg, with its many frantic action scenes and busy frames, is a case in point (although the water in the underwater scenes hides a multitude of sins).

But here's the real crime: Warner has given The Meg this treatment despite placing the film on a BD-50 and leaving over 20 GBs of empty space on the disc. That's about 40% of the digital real estate simply wasted (if you calculate in binary). It defies all rational explanation that Warner continues to give some of its biggest box office successes the worst mastering, while lavishing generous bitrates on lesser properties (if not outright bombs) like Collateral Beauty, Life of the Party, 12 Strong and Geostorm. Even minor successes like Tag and Game Night get better treatment. The Meg looks fine on Blu-ray, but it could (and should) have looked great. My guess is that someone decided to save a little money by slapping the film's streaming version onto disc without reauthoring the uncompressed master for Blu-ray's more expansive capabilities. It's the return of the same "lowest common denominator" mentality that gave us equivalent versions for Blu-ray and HD-DVD—a classic example of Warner's SDA™ at its finest.

The Meg Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Warner's SDA™ strikes again! (That's "Stupid Disc Authoring", for those who haven't read the Video section.) The Meg has a wonderfully entertaining and immersive Dolby Atmos soundtrack, but it isn't the Blu-ray's default. Instead, the disc defaults to a redundant and unnecessary DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. Be sure to select the Atmos track before hitting "play". Even if your equipment isn't Atmos-enabled, any system that can handle DTS's lossless format should be able to handle the Dolby TrueHD to which Atmos automatically falls back. Warner remains the only studio to routinely include a useless DTS Master Audio track as an Atmos alternative, and some have speculated that it's the product of a contractual obligation. If so, the contract must exempt catalog titles, because neither The Matrix Trilogy nor Superman features anything in DTS. (They default to Dolby Digital, which is just a different implementation of SDA™.)

SDA™ aside, once you've got the Atmos playing, you'll be treated to a neatly organized and expansive cacophony of water, wind, voices hollering from all sides (live and on speakers), the occasional explosion and, of course, the whomping impact of the prehistoric shark ramming various objects, from submersibles to boats to the Mana One research facility. The dynamic range is broad, and the bass extension is deep, but not so deep that it overwhelms the rest of the chaos. Tiny effects like the toy that little Meiying rolls ominously through the facility's observation deck—you just know something bad is about to happen—are precisely localized and reproduced at just the right volume to create the necessary effect. The dialogue is clearly rendered, and the action/adventure score by Harry Gregson-Williams (The Martian, among many others) is neatly folded into the mix. Gregson-Williams finds ways to hint at John Williams' famous Jaws theme without calling attention to the moment. It's a welcome touch of subtlety in a film that otherwise doesn't know much in the way of "subtle".

The Meg Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Chomp on This: The Making of The Meg (1080p; 1.78:1; 12:09): In a standard- issue studio EPK, director Jon Turtletaub, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and various cast and crew members recount their experiences on the film.



• Creating the Beast (1080p; 1.78:1; 10:25): The director and the effects team talk about the film's use of artist renderings and CG effects to create a creature about which science knows relatively little.



• New Zealand Film Commission (1080p; 2.40:1; 1:53): A promotional clip with The Meg's cast and crew.



• Introductory Trailers: As usual with Warner features, the film's trailer is not included (which is too bad, because its use of "Beyond the Sea" was hilarious). At startup, the disc plays trailers for Aquaman and Shazam!, plus the current Warner promo for UHD discs, mostly of superhero films.

The Meg Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the reasons why Jaws has never been equaled (or even approached) is that Spielberg understood then, and still does, the importance of creating three-dimensional characters, even in the most buttery of popcorn entertainments. Where would Jaws be without Sheriff Brody's dinner table scene with his kids or the long conversation among Brody, Hooper and Quint that builds to the tale of the Indianapolis? Those are the kinds of character moments that create genuine stakes when the action kicks in, and they're tough to achieve, because the writing has to be good, the acting first-class, and the director has to know how to shoot routine human interaction in a way that sustains visual interest. It's a tricky formula, and most films don't even attempt it. The Meg certainly doesn't, but at least it's honest about being nothing more than dumb entertainment, and that in itself is a refreshing change. Jason Statham centers the film with his ability to remain serious in even the most ridiculous of situations, and Turtletaub keeps things moving fast enough that The Meg skates over its many plot holes. Successful on its own terms and recommended for what it is, but if you have the requisite hardware, get the UHD version, which doesn't suffer as much from Warner's Stupid Disc Authoring (SDA™).