Saturday night I used one of my weekly A-List movie passes to go see the silly summer movie The Meg and I was not disappointed.

The Meg has a very straightforward storyline. Deep-sea research exploring a newly discovered area of the ocean, deeper than the Marianas Trench, finds an unknown ecosystem and accidentally allows a Megalodon to escape. The movie stars Jason Statham, a former specialist in deep sea rescue now drinking away his troubles on the beaches of Thailand, an outcast because of his insistence that something lurks at the bottom of the ocean and responsible for a rescue that went badly. When the deep-sea research station Mana One finds them with a submersible trapped on the ocean floor, Jason is called out of his drunken retirement to save the crew. He does, the Megalodon follows them to the surface and adventure ensues.

Despite the inherent impossibility of the premise The Megturned out to be a fun Saturday night movie.  Unlike my movie of Thursday night, Juarssic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Meg never took itself seriously; never insistent on a real world messaging that undercut the sense of fun, and stayed within its lane of adventure and excitement.  Avoiding the ‘tried to hard’ camp of movies like the Sharknado franchise this movie’s tone is much more akin to 1999’s The Mummy reboot. Park your brain outside, luxuriate in the air conditioning, and enjoy the spectacle.

One interesting side effect the film prompted in me was considering what it might have to say about the moment in global history. Not from the story, as I said it strenuously avoided having a message, but rather thinking about its international production.  The Meg is co-produced by a Chinese film studio and that is evident not only in the setting, with the nation’s mentions being China, Thailand, and Australia, but when there is talk about calling in the military to deal with the massive shark it is the Chinese navy that is mentioned and not the U.S.N. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was just one small data point in the curve of the US being replaced as the premier global power. It is a lot to read into a summer thriller and yet the thought will not leave my mind.