Meg 2: The Trench (2023)
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
Premise: A sequel to the 2018 film. Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) leads an expedition into a deep-sea trench inhabited by megalodon sharks. Jonas discovers an illegal undersea mining operation and the sharks escape from their habitat.
What Works: In its last half hour Meg 2 becomes a wonderfully shlocky monster movie. Various creatures from the deep-sea habitat converge on a resort where they attack human beings and each other. Meg 2 is often silly but the filmmakers are in on the joke and the final portion is highly entertaining in the manner of classic Godzilla movies. There is a fair amount of humor throughout the picture which helps considerably. Jason Statham leads the cast and he recognizes what kind of movie he’s in; Statham does not wink to the camara but there is a wry sense of humor to his performance. Meg 2 also has some unique visuals such as placing the camera inside the shark’s mouth as it swallows vacationers. These images distinguish the movie from the average sharksploitation adventure and support the campy tone.
What Doesn’t: The last half hour of Meg 2 is delightful but the ninety-minutes before that much less so. The movie suffers from a number of problems but the underlying flaw is the diverted focus. Meg 2 consists of a few different story ideas competing for attention. It begins as a disaster and escape film such as The Abyss and The Poseidon Adventure and then it becomes an undersea Die Hard action film before finally transitioning into a monster movie. The first two parts are not done very well and are very predictable. Too much of Meg 2 plays as a generic Jason Statham action picture. For a movie that is ostensibly a killer shark picture there is a lack of shark action. Meg 2 also suffers from incredulity. The sharks are so outrageously large that they cease to be credible and some of the digital effects don’t look convincing. A lot of Meg 2 simply doesn’t make any sense. Statham’s character and his team are trapped at crush depth but Statham survives a swim with no protective gear by inhaling water into his sinuses, ignoring the fact that he has air in his lungs. Once the creatures escape the trench they all converge on the same island resort with no explanation how they all arrived at the same time.
Bottom Line: Meg 2 has parts that are funny and exciting shlock but so much more of the movie is a slog. There is a fun ninety-minute monster movie buried here somewhere but it’s bogged down by excess.
Episode: #961 (August 20, 2023)