A surprise hit from summer 2018, The Meg takes us to Mana One, an underwater research facility near the coast of China. One of its submersibles gets attacked by a mysterious force and becomes stranded.

To rescue the crew, the Mana One staff calls in Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), a professional diver with a troubled past. As he attempts to save the day, he becomes aware of an enormous shark called a Megalodon, a beast that threatens everyone it nears.

Going into Meg, I assumed it’d be awful. Let’s face it: killer shark movies don’t have a great history, as most of the ones we’ve seen in the 51 years since Jaws have been mediocre to bad.

Nothing about the previews for Meg led me to believe it’d break that trend. The promos made the film look campy and absurd, more Sharknado than Jaws.

As it happens, Meg walks the line between the two disciplines. While not as dramatic as Jaws, it comes across as less goofy and silly than the Sharknado efforts.

If forced to pick Meg’s most accurate forebear, I’d select 1999’s Deep Blue Sea. Both films show obvious connections – mainly connected to the presence of research facilities – and both also give us fairly similar tones, as they flirt with the line between drama and camp.

I’ve given up the hope that any shark attack movie will ever remotely approach the quality of Jaws. It remains the ne plus ultra of killer fish flicks, and it remains the definitive entry of its genre in a way that doesn’t happen in other domains.

For instance, The Godfather may offer the most highly-regarded gangster movie of all-time, but other classics in the genre exist. And Star Wars acts as the biggest “space opera” out there, but plenty of other notable entries can be found as well.

One can’t find another “deadly fish” movie with anywhere close to the quality and success of Jaws, though, and Meg does nothing to challenge its spot at the top of the hill. While far from the worst of the genre, Meg offers a pretty mediocre experience.

Part of that comes from its running time. Jaws got away with its two-hour length because it wasn’t really about the shark. Instead, it was a character drama gussied up with action/horror elements.

While Meg clearly fancies itself as more than a piece of aquatic terror, it fancies wrong. Despite a slew of character elements intended to flesh out the roles and add depth/drama, Meg exists to deliver outrageous action. Any other stabs fall flat.

And that’s where its 113-minute running time becomes a liability. Rather than invest mainly in violent action, Meg spends a lot of real estate with its characters and their relationships.

These moments go precisely nowhere, especially when Meg subjects us to the predictable romantic connection between Jonas and Suyin (Li Bingbing), the supervisor of the research facility. Their relationship exists as a perfunctory measure and it never goes anywhere in a convincing manner.

It doesn’t help that most of the cast members add little to their roles. While she looks gorgeous, Bingbing seems wooden as Suyin, and she displays zero chemistry with Statham.

As for Statham himself, he operates on cruise control. He’s played roughly 1000 similar hard-edged roles like Jonas, and nothing about the part forces him to stretch his muscles.

As billionaire investor Jack Morris, Rainn Wilson essentially exists as comic relief, and he does fairly well in that domain. Despite its occasional flirtation with campiness, Meg often takes itself very seriously, so a little lightness helps move along the story, and Wilson adds mirth to the proceedings.

I probably wouldn’t care about the movie’s excessive running time and its dull characters if it delivered vivid action, but Meg falls short in that area as well. The film contrives a slew of circumstances to put people in danger, but none of these ever become tense or exciting.

We just don’t care about the main characters, the secondary roles or the slew of innocent bystanders who end up in the shark's path. Without any form of investment, the action sputters, as the escalating body count means nothing due to our detachment from the participants.

A shorter, looser Meg might’ve delivered decent thrills, but as it stands, the movie goes too long and meanders too much. It’s a mediocre shark film without a lot to make it compelling.

The Meg appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie looked very good.

Sharpness worked fine, with only minor softness on display. This meant the majority of the film was accurate and well-defined.

I saw no signs of jaggies or moiré effects, and the film lacked edge haloes or print flaws.

If you suspected Meg would come with a mainly teal palette, you’ll get what you expected. We got occasional splashes of reds and other hues as well, but teal dominated. I’d like to see action flicks dispense with that conceit, but given their restraints, the colors looked appropriate here.

Blacks came across nicely, as dark tones were deep and rich, without any muddiness or problems. In addition, low-light shots gave us smooth, clear visuals. All in all, this became a pleasing presentation.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos audio made good use of its sonic possibilities. A tale of a killer shark comes with plenty of room for action, and the mix took us on a lively journey.

During underwater scenes, the track managed a great sense of environment, and various action sequences brought out vivid material as well. The soundscape opened up in a vivid, immersive way that added punch to the proceedings.

Audio quality satisfied. Music was lively and full, while speech appeared natural and concise, without edginess or other issues.

Effects became the most dominant aspect of the mix, and those components excelled. These elements appeared accurate and dynamic, with crisp highs and deep lows. I felt very satisfied with this engaging soundtrack.

The picture and audio comments above address the 2D version. How did the package’s 3D presentation compare?

Overall picture quality seemed similar. Some underwater shots appeared a bit murkier but I still thought the 2D and 3D looked a lot alike.

The 3D film also lacked the 2D’s Atmos soundtrack and replaced it with DTS-HD MA 5.1 instead. While still a strong mix, the absence of Atmos disappointed.

As for the quality of the 3D effects, the film comes with good use of depth – especially when underwater - and occasional pop-out elements. Despite the softness, I like the 3D presentation and find it the better way to watch the film, even without the Atmos audio.

In addition, The Meg exists as a 4K UHD version. How did I compare it to the 3D?

The 4K UHD offered superior definition and colors compared to the 3D – and 2D – discs. However, it also jacked up brightness too much.

That occurred not infrequently with fairly early HDR releases, but it felt like a distraction for Meg. Even with the improved colors and delineation – and the same Atmos as the 2D Blu-ray - I preferred the 3D presentation.

Despite the movie’s success, only a few extras appear here, all on the 2D disc. We start with Chomp On This, a 12-minute, nine-second featurette with notes from director Jon Turteltaub, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, stunt coordinator Allan Poppleton, executive producer Barrie M. Osborne, and actors Sophia Cai, Rainn Wilson, Page Kennedy, Ruby Rose, and Li Bingbing.

“Chomp” looks at cast, characters and performances, stunts and action, shooting on the water, and related areas. Though a bit unfocused, “Chomp” still offers some useful notes

With Creating the Beast, we get a 10-minute, 25-second piece with Turteltaub, Di Bonaventura, concept artist Sue Dorrington, visual effects supervisor Adrian De Wet,

As implied by the title, the program looks at the design and execution of the Megalodon. It’s a moderately informative reel.

Finally, New Zealand Film Commission goes for one minute, 53 seconds and features Wilson, Rose, Osborne, Turteltaub, Kennedy, dive coordinator Dave Morrell, producer Belle Avery, production designer Grant Major, SFX assistant supervisor Scott Harens and actor Cliff Curtis.

They give us a few notes about the shoot but mainly promote New Zealand as a movie location. Yawn.

The 2D disc opens with ads for Shazam and Aquaman. No trailer for Meg appears here.

A moderate box office success, The Meg attempts to update the killer shark movie for the 21st century. Unfortunately, it gives us a slow, lackluster tale without the figurative bite it needs. The Blu-ray brings very good picture and audio along with a few minor supplements. Meg brings us a fairly forgettable effort, although the 3D version delivers a more fun variant.