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 43 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 4K UHD Disc. The movie looked very good, though it came with one drawback.

That issue related to the use of HDR in terms of whites, as the 4K UHD bolstered those elements to “11”. This became a liability for daytime exteriors, as skies looked too bright – they lost the blue portions and just appeared white.

The jacked-up whites also damaged some definition, as they threatened to overwhelm faces. Interiors suffered from none of these problems, but daytime exteriors were too bright.

Otherwise, this became a top-notch image. Sharpness worked fine, with virtually no 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. The 4K UHD’s HDR capabilities added punch to the hues and made them more vivid.

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. Without the elevated whites, this would be an excellent presentation, but the unbalanced contrast created distractions.

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.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? Audio remained identical, as both discs provided the same Dolby Atmos track.

Though the 4K offered an upconverted version of the 2K master, it nonetheless showed improvements. Definition looked tighter, while colors were more dynamic.

However, the 4K showed elevated white levels during the daytime exteriors I mentioned. I compared to the Blu-ray and thought whites seemed more balanced there.

In terms of preference, I found it tough to choose. On one hand, the 4K UHD offered clearly superior delineation, but man, those jacked-up white levels created a distraction. I’d still probably opt for the 4K but it’s not a slam-dunk.

No extras appear on the 4K UHD itself, but the included Blu-ray disc throws in some components, and we start with Chomp On This, a 12-minute, nine-second featurette. It offers 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 disc opens with ads for Aquaman and Shazam. 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 to pack a punch. The 4K UHD gives us terrific audio along with a few minor supplements and generally excellent visuals marred solely by elevated white levels. Meg ends up as a fairly forgettable effort.

To rate this film, visit the prior review of THE MEG