The Meg (2018)

The Meg is a movie about Jason Statham fighting a prehistoric shark, and somehow it’s afraid of looking silly. The first hour is control rooms, monitors and scientists explaining the ocean floor, with a dead-serious rescue plot that keeps the big fish offscreen. When it finally surfaces, the movie can’t decide if it’s a creature feature or a family outing, so the chomping stays awfully polite. Statham is perfect casting anyway. He plays Jonas like a man who has unfinished business with the Pacific, and he keeps swimming straight at the problem like that’s a strategy. Rainn Wilson’s billionaire is fun. The crowded beach sequence, with a tiny dog paddling in the water and a huge shadow sliding underneath, is the one stretch that fully works. It made $529.3 million worldwide on a reported $130 to $178 million. A 4.3 because the premise promised way more fun than the movie had the nerve to deliver. $952 says you cheer louder for the tiny dog than for any human in the cast.

What works: Jason Statham sells every ridiculous moment with a straight face, and the beach sequence finally delivers the big, goofy thrills the premise promised.

What doesn’t: The first hour is sluggish science talk, and the PG-13 restraint makes a giant-shark movie feel strangely timid.

Who it’s for: Anyone who wants a big, dumb summer shark movie and doesn’t mind waiting a while for the shark.