That Horrible Pen

  Note that this piece contains full spoilers for the film in the title.   Although I’m someone who has a fear of the ocean and the things that might live in it, I don’t remember The Meg ever tapping into those feelings as well in the actual movie as it does in its posters, like this one, which are, to be fair, kind of indistinguishable from the most baseline of imagery you can find on Google by searching for “thalassophobia.” I didn’t go into The Meg expecting it to be particularly scary and so wasn’t too disappointed about how little it tickled that exact part of my brain, but this could be said to be another potential failing of the film.   Just like there are actually two “megs” (megalodon sharks) in The Meg , with one somewhat larger than the other one, so too are there almost two different movies operating at once, and while the two sharks are more or less aligned in their goals (eat people and animals) up until one devours the defeated carcass of the other, The M...