Meg 2: The Trench

Starring: Jason Statham, Jing Wu, Cliff Curtis, Shuya Shophia Cai, Page Kennedy, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Skyler Samuels, Melissanthi Mahut, Whoopie Van Raam, Kiran Sonia Sawar, Felix Mayr, Sienna Guillory
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Horror
2023

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A small group of scientists and divers travel to the ocean's depth to investigate a mysterious mining operation, set amidst a school of megalodons.

Review:

Tim: The Meg was clearly a second-tier shark movie- a film with a great concept, but lacking in execution. It made an impressive amount at the domestic box office ($145 million), so they greenlit a sequel. It was interesting- I went into Meg 2: The Trench knowing exactly what to expect. That's the power of a sequel. My expectations were automatically lowered because of the quality of the original. In that mindset, I found this film to be perfectly decent. It might not be quite as good as the original, but it feels awfully close. It's not a good movie, it's never a good movie. But, it goes through its motions, delivering a series of ridiculous but decently entertaining sequences. There's okay banter between the cast. We get a few big set pieces- none of which make logical sense, but we're talking about humans battling giant megalodons (and perhaps, some other deep-sea creatures). It's all absurd, but kind of fun. I had a decent time watching this movie and while I never need to see it again, I appreciated it for what it was.

The cast was one of the highlights of the first film and it's true again here. Jason Statham still feels so unlikely to be leading this movie, but I like him in the role. It's definitely a sillier film of his, but he brings his action hero bona fides to every scene. I had fun watching Statham in this role and I enjoyed the interactions he had with the rest of the cast. This movie doesn't really help Statham's career much, but he certainly makes the movie better than it would have been without him. He brings credibility to the whole thing. Shuya Sophia Cai gets a bigger role this time and she was decent. It was nice to see the continuity with her character and her growth as an actress. She acted well opposite the rest of the cast. Cliff Curtis always makes movies better and he gives another solid effort here. I thought Page Kennedy really improved. I was lukewarm on his performance last time, but he leans into the character more here and provided great comedic relief. I was surprised how much better he seemed the second time around. Jing Wu was a great addition to the cast and I thoroughly enjoyed his performance. He fit seamlessly with everyone else. I really like Skyler Samuels and I think she should have a bigger career than she does. This was a smaller role, so unlikely to help her career much, but I thought she was solid in it. The rest of the cast is fine, but fewer standouts than I would have liked. I had a hard time remembering if many of the other supporting cast members were in the original, but in the end, it doesn't really matter.

That's actually a pretty good summary of much of this film. Want me to tell you more about the story? Actually, it doesn't really matter that much. There's megalodons, some bad guys doing vaguely sinister things. There's an increased number of other deadly undersea creatures, which make it past the ocean thermocline (which is a cool word I'm glad I learned from this film). Does any of it really matter? No. It's all a bit generic and just serves to set up the next time the megalodons hunt our heroes does. It's all illogical, but decently entertaining. I'm not dismissing all this. Meg 2: The Trench is definitely a film you want to watch with half your brain off, which is a big reason why I don't consider it a good movie. On the other hand, I wasn't really bored while watching it. I give director Ben Wheatley some amount of credit here. When you have a director like Jon Turteltaub direct the original and then not come back for the sequel, you expect a major drop in quality from whomever they bring in. Wheatley might not be a great director (I've only seen his Free Fire, which I enjoyed far more than most), but he manages to deliver a sequel that stays close to the already-lowered bar. That might not be a resounding success, but it's more rare to deliver an equally-as-good sequel than one that drops in quality. Not bad, Wheatley (but not exactly good, either).

The visual effects are decent throughout the film. Nothing ever really looks believable, but visual effects aren't bad to the point of distracting from the film. They work, create tension in the story and hold our attention. That's pretty solid for a lower scale film like this. It's not exactly a beautiful film, but the visuals help more than they hold it back. The action scenes are all fairly decent. There might be solid moments sprinkled throughout the film, but no real standout moments. And no, Jason Statham fighting megalodons on a jet ski does not count as a "standout" moment. It's decent at best, like everything else in this film. Just know there will be multiple eye-rolling moments throughout the story.

This feels like the kind of film that will only attract fans of the original and while they might not like it as much, it at least offers more of the same. You know what to expect coming in and you mostly get that. This film's domestic box office dropped quite a bit- only $82 million, which feels more in line with the quality of the movie. It made a lot more overseas, but it also represented a steep drop, so this might be the end of this budding franchise. I won't exactly miss it, although both films provided decent amounts of entertainment.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
The Meg, Jaws, Deep Blue Sea, The Shallows, 47 Meters Down, The Black Demon